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Stone Lake
It’s 1949 and Allen Post, fresh out of college, is leaving the Twin Cities for his first teaching job in the small town of Stone Lake, Minnesota. Can he convince Stone Lake’s high school kids to love literature? Will the town take hold of him or will he bolt for the Cities at the end of the year? And what about the girl he left behind, the yearning young divorcee and the dangerously tempting senior in his class? Allen is about to learn some of the most important lessons of his life.
245 pages, Kindle Edition
Published May 4, 2016
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Displaying 1 - 11 of 11 reviews
August 7, 2016
Summer serialized novel in the Minneapolis Star Tribune. I kept waiting for plot, character, setting--something, anything--to develop...
July 22, 2016
Sadly, I just didn’t feel the love for this book. Part is due to my expectations being high – it’s serialized in our local daily paper, the “StarTribune.” It’s kind of a slow burn, it never really catches fire. To Mr. Horberg’s credit, the Minnesota Small Town “thing” has been done so well by so many others (Keillor, Landvick, Sullivan, Hassler, Lewis, Malloy . . . just to name a few) so competition is tough – I applaud him for trying. I also liked Mr. Horberg’s writing style, but even the characters aren’t very memorable.
August 11, 2016
Ho hum! Kept waiting for a plot to emerge and it never did. If I hadn't been lured on. A daily basis to keep reading since it was serialized over the summer by my local newspaper, I doubt I would have bothered to finish it. Gotta pick a better read for next summers book!
August 7, 2016
This book is written for book club discussion. It's loaded with product placement, food memory joggers, and literary reminders. Think in terms of Pall Mall cigarettes, Spam, and every great novel you never read. It's all here. High school plays, clothing and dirt roads. We all have memories of these things, and they're abundant in this easy to read novel. First love, teachers barely older than their students, and coffee shop breakfasts. It's predictable yet enjoyable, and might even be good for a mixed gender gathering.
August 12, 2016
I read this in the Star Tribune's serialized version. It's the story of a first-year English teacher from Minneapolis in small-town northern Minnesota. While it was pleasant, easy reading, there was very little plot. The teacher's interest in a female student should have led somewhere, but simply died out. The tension between large-city opportunities and excitement and the isolation of Stone Lake is a central theme that can't be resolved. The story lacked the humor as well as the focus on serious issues that pervaded Jon Hassler's "Staggerford," in spite of its similar setting.
May 24, 2016
This is a charming book about a young man's first year as a teacher back in smalltown 1940s Minnesota. If you like John Hassler's novels, this will appeal. He captures the range of smalltown characters -- from delightful to maddening. This is Horberg's first published novel and he's 89 years old! So, that's pretty cool. It's loosely based on his first year of teaching. He finished his career as a professor of rhetoric at the University of Minnesota. A sweet summer read.
August 8, 2016
Just not a very compelling read. I was glad when it ended.
August 11, 2016
Stone Lake by Richard Horberg was chosen by the StarTribune as its summer serialized novel. Every day from May 29 to August 7 a chapter or part of a chapter appeared in the newspaper. I was intrigued to read a book in the same way that 19th century readers devoured the serialized novels of Dickens and Thackeray. Unfortunately, starting the day with an episode in the life of a novice high school English teacher does not live up to the perils and cliffhangers in the lives of David Copperfield or Oliver Twist.
This novel is set in a small Minnesota town in 1949. Allen Post feels challenged but confident about his new position. He is intrigued by the beauty and order of the small town in contrast to the Twin Cities. He faces the challenges of keeping his students interested in literature, directing high school plays, getting used to the fire and brimstone that permeates the religious culture of the town, and dealing with a rural Minnesota winter. He calls himself a "romantic" and with an annoying superiority, quotes poetry and wisdom to several “girlfriends”. He writes long letters to a nurse who lives in another state. He arranges dates with a college friend during school breaks to the Twin Cities. He becomes friends with, and gives advice to, the mother of one his students. He develops a special friendship with one of his students who seems to be his soulmate.
Allen Post's first year as a certified adult with teaching responsibilities describes the highs and lows of an exciting and frightening time in a person's life. As a former high school English teacher I can attest to that. However, some of the characters and situations do not ring true in my experience as a high school student who went to school in a small Midwestern town in the 1950s. It's doubtful that class discussions alluding to sex, although mild compared to current culture, would have happened in 1949. The author's stereotypes of women are disappointing in general, and his depiction of women teachers does not match the expectations of women in a small community at that time. Nor does it seem plausible that Allen could walk a female student home after basketball games with impunity all winter long . Eyes are everywhere in small towns and rural areas.
This novel is set in a small Minnesota town in 1949. Allen Post feels challenged but confident about his new position. He is intrigued by the beauty and order of the small town in contrast to the Twin Cities. He faces the challenges of keeping his students interested in literature, directing high school plays, getting used to the fire and brimstone that permeates the religious culture of the town, and dealing with a rural Minnesota winter. He calls himself a "romantic" and with an annoying superiority, quotes poetry and wisdom to several “girlfriends”. He writes long letters to a nurse who lives in another state. He arranges dates with a college friend during school breaks to the Twin Cities. He becomes friends with, and gives advice to, the mother of one his students. He develops a special friendship with one of his students who seems to be his soulmate.
Allen Post's first year as a certified adult with teaching responsibilities describes the highs and lows of an exciting and frightening time in a person's life. As a former high school English teacher I can attest to that. However, some of the characters and situations do not ring true in my experience as a high school student who went to school in a small Midwestern town in the 1950s. It's doubtful that class discussions alluding to sex, although mild compared to current culture, would have happened in 1949. The author's stereotypes of women are disappointing in general, and his depiction of women teachers does not match the expectations of women in a small community at that time. Nor does it seem plausible that Allen could walk a female student home after basketball games with impunity all winter long . Eyes are everywhere in small towns and rural areas.
February 19, 2017
Charming Minnesota story that ought to be required of every Minnesotan -- or anyone who wants to more appreciate (and understand) Minnesotans.
August 15, 2016
This was a serialized book in the Minneapolis Star Tribune this summer. I read it and enjoyed the story but there wasn't an overall plot. Just a bunch of daily experiences of a teacher in a small town in Minnesota. It was interesting but I feel now that nothing really happened.
August 8, 2016
Fictional story of the first year of teaching for Allen Post, a HS English teacher in a small town in MN.
Displaying 1 - 11 of 11 reviews