André LR’s Reviews > Stoner > Status Update

He found himself wondering if his life were worth the living; if it had ever been. It was a question, he suspected, that came to all men at one time or another; he wondered if it came to them with such impersonal force as it came to him. The question brought with it a sadness, but it was a general sadness which (he thought) had little to do with himself

Stoner leaves the farm without drama, exchanging inherited duty for work that asks nothing of him. By chapter two his course is fixed quietly, shaped by recognition, distance and a loyalty he will rarely name.