Angle of Repose (Penguin Modern Classics) by Stegner

A classic from a master of both history and liturature. So interesting and moving on so many levels. Growing up in the West, I was dragged to many of the places he writes about during family treks, and I have seen them now again with Mr. Stegner's novelist eyes and feel completely different about them. After all, the novelist's job is to allow us to see ourselves and our world in new ways. I just wish I'd read it years ago.

Intriguing novel based on a woman who left behind letters on her life as wife of a mining engineer who struggled with making a living in several regions of the west during the period of 1870-1890. One really gets to know the main characters and feel their heartbreak over the misfortunes they lived through

Angle of Repose, by Wallace Stegner is a modern classic. Stegner introduces Lyman Ward who is a crippled older man trying to write an account of his beloved grandmother, Susan Ward. Lyman tells how Susan, a talented artist and writer in New York, marries Oliver Ward, a mining engineer. Susan finds beauty and adventure following her husband from California, to Colorado, to Mexico, to Idaho and back to California, but she is conflicted by her desire for a literary and artistic life and the reality of living with an engineer. Lyman's own story of his struggles to live with his infirmities while writing about his grandparents is quite compelling, and Stegner's ability to describe people and landscapes is amazing and makes the book a great experience to read.

Fascinating story within a story. Stegner bends time by having a handicapped grandson tell the story of his Victorian-era grandmother's life in the American West. Personally, i found Stegner's "Crossing to Safety" a more moving and masterful story, but "Angle of Repose" runs a close second.

Two stories actually. It is set in Northern California, New York's Hudson River Valley, Leadville Colorado, Central Mexico, and Central Idaho during the later half of the 19th Century and 1969. The portrait of the American West Stegner portrays is realistic yet breaks all stereotypes. The portrait of 1969 is classic.

In the frame story, a disabled, distinguished professor emeritus of history lives in Northern California in a cabin built by his grandfather in the last years of the Nineteenth Century. He is surrounded by his paternal grandmother's letters, documents and pictures. He is in the midst of organizing this material and using his research to write a book about his grandparent's marriage. The frame story is told in chapter's placed at different intervals within the main story

The grandparent's marriage is an unlikely one. Grandmother, a child of well-off parents, develops into an accomplished writer and literary artist. She meets and becomes a part of elite literary society of the latter half of the 1800's. Her best friends are Thomas and Augustus Hudson. These characters are based on American Poet and Editor Richard Watson Gilder and his wife, Helena deKay. The letters between grandmother and Augusta are a principle device to tell grandmother's story. Grandfather is a mining engineer of modest background.

The marriage is an unlikely one, but sucessful. Grandfather moves from engineering project to project. Grandmother follows when the local living conditions allow. She returns, with her children, to her parent's home during transition periods. As she moves from place to place she writes short stories and sketches which she submits to Thomas' prestigious literary magazine. She also provides sketches for books authored by the most notable writers of the second half of the 19th Century. Thier marriage is the focus the main story. While there is love, this is not a conventional romance. It is the saga of three lives, the gandparent's and narrator's. Their lives encompass experiences on both sides of conventional marriage vows.

The frame story takes up about a third of the novel. About halfway through I began to notice that the aspects of the narrator's life that he was disclosing paralleled the fortunes of his grandparent's lives. As the stories continued, metafictional devices began to appear to weave the stories closer and closer together. Finally, in the last section, Stegner masterfully uses a kaleidoscope of metafiction to bring great stylistic pressure to bear and smash both stories together with great drama and suspense. The result? A new story of one sentence that dissapears into period at the end. Magnificent!

Highly recommend as is the excellent Audiobook.

A beautifully descriptive and emotional survey of a marriage. It’s not often one encounters language as beautifully pronounced as Mr. Stegner whites. This is writing at its finest. American writing.

Stegner takes us on a journey within a journey in 'Angle of Repose'. Without being a spoiler, it's a book about a man writing a book, and we get both stories. He's as descriptive as John Steinbeck and as curmudgeonly as Kurt Vonnegut. I recommend it highly for anyone who enjoys early western history and especially those of us in our late 50s/early 60s who can relate to the "writer's" aches and pains.

Clearly a well written book with an interesting story; though the story does not seem as fresh at it probably did when the book was published. The excerpts from Ms. Foote's letters though integral to the story do not flow as well as Mr. Stegner's prose. In the end the lesson seems to be - don't marry someone with the expectations that they will change to conform to your world view, even if both parties try very hard to make that happen.

this was an interesting book about different personalities and how they cope with the problems that they are faced with, each in his own way. Sometimes it is difficult to tell who has the more serious problems - the supposed author or the characters in the story, but it usually becomes clear before long. I enjoyed this book..

A beautiful realistic account of how relationships sour even when both parties are loving, good people who have common goals, but are unable to work together to reach them. It could be the story of many marriages. Stegner is a fabulous writer who knows the flaws, subtle and otherwise, of men and women. His language, descriptions, insights are unmatched by most modern writers. This is a wonderful, tragic tale.

this was an interesting book about different personalities and how they cope with the problems that they are faced with, each in his own way. Sometimes it is difficult to tell who has the more serious problems - the supposed author or the characters in the story, but it usually becomes clear before long. I enjoyed this book..

A beautiful realistic account of how relationships sour even when both parties are loving, good people who have common goals, but are unable to work together to reach them. It could be the story of many marriages. Stegner is a fabulous writer who knows the flaws, subtle and otherwise, of men and women. His language, descriptions, insights are unmatched by most modern writers. This is a wonderful, tragic tale.

Beautiful prose. Wonderful, complex story, of four generations from the East moving West in the late 1800's. Explores the complexities of marriage at that time or even now. Wonderful how the story can move so smoothly back and forth from generation to generation and from coast to coast.

Stegner writes beautifully. He creates interesting, believable and heartbreaking characters. I did have a bit of a slow go in starting this book and am so grateful that I continued into it. Wonderful read.

Wallace Stegner provides not just a novel but a sumptuous feast of words and sentence structures that are so beautiful that you can't skim or read for speed. It is for pure pleasure that you read and digest his work.

Beautifully written, this insightful and sometimes painful examination of marriage then (late 19th century) and now (1960's-70's) is a joy to read. Wonderful descriptions of the west when it was being developed, brilliant character development. A true masterpiece.