Angle of Repose by Wallace StegnerMy review
rating: 4 of 5 stars
This book is beautifully written and thought provoking... as I have come to expect from Stegner. Lyman Ward is writting a biography of his grandmother, specifically of her marriage. His grandparents' marriage parallels his own. And he is searching for the meaning of the phrase "angle of repose". However, Lyman Wards future is yet unwritten and his grandparents have long since passed on. We observe Lyman trying to learn more about himself, through his study of the past.
One major theme in the book is that history must be presented as it was and then seperately judged for ourselves. The theme is stated plainly several times thorughout the novel. In the meantime, Stegner presents the Story of Susan Burling Ward. He presents her with both her strengths and weaknesses. In the beginning I didn't relate to her... I found her snobbery insufferable. But as the novel pregressed and her character developed, I saw her as a survivor on the western fronteir, and I couldn't help but wish the best for her, ans I began to understand her circumstances better. While she committed many greavences in the book, her story teaches the reader about compassion and understnading. If I had judged her solely on the first 35 pages of the book, would my assesment have been fair? This is an interesting commentary on life, and raises and important question. Is it ever fair to judge another human being?
There were many thought provoking themes but what rang most clearly with me was the question of judgement. Lyman Ward loved his grandparents, how then should he react to their circumstances, and more importantly his own.
It is emotionally difficult to read about people who are ignoring life's warning signs, like the girl in the horror movie who goes into the basement alone. It is easy to echo the frustration of Lyman Ward... no matter how much we shout Susan cannot hear us. We are only left with the chance to learn from her situation.
I probably would have given it five stars except that I already read Stegners "Crossing to Safety"... so the intial awe in his writing style has warn off a bit. And I just can't bring myself to give five stars to a "fall from grace". I would write much more but my son is defacing my copy of Oscar Wildes' "Picture of Dorian Gray".
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