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Angle of Repose (Penguin Classics)

by Wallace Stegner

Angle of Repose (Penguin Classics) Cover

ISBN13: 9780141185477
ISBN10: 0141185473
Condition: Standard
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Synopses & Reviews

Publisher Comments:

Angle of Repose tells the story of Lyman Ward, a retired professor of history and author of books about the Western frontier, who returns to his ancestral home of Grass Valley, California, in the Sierra Nevada. Wheelchair-bound with a crippling bone disease and dependent on others for his every need, Ward is nonetheless embarking on a search of monumental proportions — to rediscover his grandmother, now long dead, who made her own journey to Grass Valley nearly a hundred years earlier. Like other great quests in literature, Lyman Ward's investigation leads him deep into the dark shadows of his own life.

Review:

"Brilliant....Two stories, past and present, merge to produce what important fiction must: a sense of the enhancement of life." Los Angeles Times

Review:

"Masterful....Reading it is an experience to be treasured." The Boston Globe

Review:

"Cause for celebration....A superb novel with an amplitude of scale and richenss of detail altogether uncommon in contemporary fiction." The Atlantic Monthly

Review:

"A fine novel, engrossing and mature...for when all is said individual lives are very much like bits of detritus, rolling down from the high places of stress and emotion until they reach that place where the tumpling and falling stops and they find their angle of repose. To chronicle this movement as well as this novel does is high art — and first-rate writing." San Francisco Examiner & Chronicle

Synopsis:

Confined to a wheelchair, retired historian Lyman Ward sets out to write his grandparents' remarkable story, chronicling their days spent carving civilization into the surface of America's western frontier. Through the prism of one family, this Pulitzer Prize-winning novel illuminates the American present against the fascinating background of its past.

About the Author

Wallace Stegner (1903 – 1993) was the author of many books of fiction and non-fiction, including the National Book Award-winning The Spectator Bird (1976) and Crossing to Safety. Angle of Repose won the Pulitzer Prize in 1971.

Table of Contents

Introduction by Jackson J. Benson

Introduction
Suggestions for Further Reading
Part I: Grass Valley
Part II: New Almaden
Part III: Santa Cruz
Part IV: Leadville
Part V: Michoacán
Part VI: On the Bough
Part VII: The Canyon
Part VIII: The Mesa
Part IX: The Zodiac Cottage

What Our Readers Are Saying

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Average customer rating based on 2 comments:

caboodle, January 2, 2010 (view all comments by caboodle)
It steps on your heart, mixing the old with the new,
until your heart wants to explode, then last but
not least, a spark of human hope?
Was this comment helpful? | Yes | No
Wendy Robards, April 20, 2008 (view all comments by Wendy Robards)
Lyman Ward, a retired history professor and writer, returns to his grandparent’s home in Grass Valley, California - wheelchair bound and facing a progressive, crippling bone disease. His intent is to research his grandmother’s life through the news clippings and letters of her past. To write her story, Ward must fill in gaps, imagine conversations, and uncover the truths which lie hidden in Susan Burling Ward’s history. During this one hot, dry summer in a quest to know his grandmother, he will discover the meaning beneath the shadows of his own life.

Wallace Stegner penned Angle of Repose in 1971 for which he won the prestigious Pulitzer Prize. The novel - said to be his masterpiece - connects two points in American history…that of the late nineteenth century West with that of the turbulent, sometimes self-indulgent Vietnam era. Stegner creates complex and intriguing characters. Susan Burling (based on the historical figure of Mary Hallock Foote - a nineteenth century writer and illustrator) becomes an unlikely pioneer when she marries the quiet and ambitious dreamer Oliver Ward. Their adventures in mining camps and the vast wilderness of Mexico, Colorado, Idaho, and California create a backdrop of unbelievable beauty and isolation from which their lives unfold.

'She guided her horse through willows and alders and runted birches, leaned and weaved until the brush ended and she broke into the open. She was at the edge of a meadow miles long, not a tree in it except for the wriggling line that marked the course of the Lake Fork. Stirrup-high grass flowed and flawed in the wind, and its motion revealed and hid and revealed again streaks and splashes of flowers-rust of paintbrush, blue of pentstemon, yellow of buttercups, scarlet of gilia, blue-tinged white of columbines. All around, rimming the valley, bare peaks patched with snow looked down from above the scalloped curve of timberline.' -From Angle of Repose, page 237-

Angle of Repose is not simply an historical novel. It explores the idea of identity and how the past often intersects the present. When Lyman Ward explores his grandmother’s story, he is really seeking to find understanding in his own life.

'Fooling around in the papers my grandparents, especially my grandmother, left behind, I get glimpses of lives close to mine, related to mine in ways I recognize but don’t completely comprehend.' - From Angle of Repose, page 5-

Stegner’s prose is alluring, filled with gorgeous descriptions which engage the reader’s senses. His characters are bigger than life, but carry real flaws which allow the reader to identify with them; to nod in understanding; to empathize with their torments and cheer for their successes. I can understand why Angle of Repose is lauded, why it captured the Pulitzer and why readers are quick to recommend it. I found myself completely immersed in the lives of Susan, Oliver and Lyman Ward and I was sad to turn the last page of this sprawling and satisfying novel.

Highly recommended; a must read; rated 5/5.
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Product Details

ISBN:
9780141185477
Author:
Stegner, Wallace
Publisher:
Penguin Books
Introduction by:
Benson, Jackson J.
Introduction:
Benson, Jackson J.
Author:
Stegner, Wallace Earle
Author:
Benson, Jackson J.
Location:
New York
Subject:
California
Subject:
Classics
Subject:
Grandparents
Subject:
Aged
Subject:
Adultery
Subject:
Married people
Subject:
Physically handicapped
Subject:
Historians
Subject:
Domestic fiction
Subject:
People with disabilities
Subject:
Older people
Subject:
Literature-A to Z
Copyright:
Edition Description:
Trade Paper
Series:
Penguin Classics
Series Volume:
no. AU-ARI-92-8
Publication Date:
20001231
Binding:
TRADE PAPER
Grade Level:
from 12
Language:
English
Pages:
592
Dimensions:
7.81x5.11x1.09 in. .93 lbs.
Age Level:
from 18

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Angle of Repose (Penguin Classics) Used Trade Paper
0 stars - 0 reviews
$9.95 In Stock
Product details 592 pages Penguin Books - English 9780141185477 Reviews:
"Review" by , "Brilliant....Two stories, past and present, merge to produce what important fiction must: a sense of the enhancement of life."
"Review" by , "Masterful....Reading it is an experience to be treasured."
"Review" by , "Cause for celebration....A superb novel with an amplitude of scale and richenss of detail altogether uncommon in contemporary fiction."
"Review" by , "A fine novel, engrossing and mature...for when all is said individual lives are very much like bits of detritus, rolling down from the high places of stress and emotion until they reach that place where the tumpling and falling stops and they find their angle of repose. To chronicle this movement as well as this novel does is high art — and first-rate writing."
"Synopsis" by , Confined to a wheelchair, retired historian Lyman Ward sets out to write his grandparents' remarkable story, chronicling their days spent carving civilization into the surface of America's western frontier. Through the prism of one family, this Pulitzer Prize-winning novel illuminates the American present against the fascinating background of its past.
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