Stoner – not finished yet but this one is not what I expected

This has spoilers; I tagged it but just an extra heads up.

You may have come to this expecting glowing words about a book that everybody seems to have only good things to say about, but maybe I’m missing something.

One of the many things that I don’t like about this book but chief among them and which I don’t see people mention is the fact that the author just tells the reader everything and you don’t really see it. A character is reduced to a paragraph that basically tells everything about them. This happens many times in the book.

The character of Edith: She’s super weird. Her behavior and the way the author describes her from Stoner’s first meeting is just completely bizarre. And circling back to my earlier point about how the author tells everything, her strange little speech as Stoner is about to leave her parent’s house, thinking himself rejected, in which she tells him all about herself is one of the prime examples (but not the only one), and it’s bizarre. It’s very offputting. And I’m not saying that I can’t like a book with a weird character, but her characterization and mannerisms were extremely strange. Unless she’s insane, it’s just not believable. I would actually say she kind of reminded me of Rochester‘s first wife in Jane Eyre.

BUT (big point here) this doesn’t justify Stoner raping her…..yep….

Why Edith married him, I don’t know. I’m almost halfway through and not enthusiastically picking the book up at this point.

Watch this get downvoted, but thus far, not finding this engaging or gripping or interesting.

I’ve seen people saying that this is one of the best books they’ve ever read and that Stoner is such a hero. You can certainly think those things.

What exactly drew other readers in to this book? I’m finding the writing deliberate but very dry and the characters wooden. The atmosphere is dry and bleak. I’m aware of the ending, because there’s so much about this book on this subReddit (and others), that I happened across the ending accidentally. That has nothing to do with any of the things I’ve written. If I had an issue with an ending like what comes in this book, I wouldn’t be reading it. It’s just all the rest of the stuff.

I’ve gotten to a part where a new character is introduced and the author once again gives the intro paragraph explaining exactly who this person is, telling it all. This has happened so many times in the book. It’s so obtrusive. As far as the characterization of Edith, if Williams intended for her to be a normal woman, (and I can’t imagine how that could be the case) that is concerning.

I do not like when authors tell rather than show it with action or allowing the reader to discover it. Williams reveals a lot well in advance. An author can do that. I’m not a huge fan of that method. What are other reader’s thoughts? If you loved it, great. So far, I’m not at that point. And also, I can’t find the character of Stoner. He’s just kind of there for this ride he’s on.