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Angle of Repose by Wallace Stegner
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Angle of Repose (original 1971; edition 1971)

by Wallace Stegner

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5,4531821,899 (4.26)577
Fiction. Literature. HTML:

Wallace Stegner's uniquely American classic centers on Lyman Ward, a noted historian who relates a fictionalized biography of his pioneer grandparents at a time when he has become estranged from his own family. Through a combination of research, memory, and exaggeration, Ward voices ideas concerning the relationship between history and the present, art and life, parents and children, husbands and wives. Like other great quests in literature, Lyman Ward's investigation leads him deep into the dark shadows of his own life. The result is a deeply moving novel that, through the prism of one family, illuminates the American present against the fascinating background of its past.

Set in many parts of the West, Angle of Repose is a story of discoveryâ??personal, historical, and geographicalâ??that endures as Wallace Stegner's masterwork: an illumination of yesterday's reality that speaks to today's… (more)

▾Book information
Member:leahmcmillan
Title:Angle of Repose
Authors:Wallace Stegner
Info:Penguin (1971), Edition: Reprint., Paperback
Collections:Your library
Rating:*****
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Angle of Repose by Wallace Stegner (1971)

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  1. 51
    Gilead by Marilynne Robinson (quartzite)
    quartzite: The books both feature an elderly narrator looking back at family dynamics in the past and using those reminiscences to frame their own story. They also share beautiful use of language.
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    A Victorian Gentlewoman in the Far West by Mary Hallock Foote (Cecrow)
    Cecrow: The novel Angle of Repose is based on the life of Mary Hallock Foote.
  4. 10
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    A Sudden Country by Karen Fisher (amelielyle)
    amelielyle: Both are novels of the American West. Both are the story of intelligent women constrained by the role of 19th century wife and mother. Part of the pathos of each story is the dissolution of those marriages. Lyrical and image-provoking writing style.
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1970s (83)
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English (181)  Spanish (1)  All languages (182)
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Showing 1-5 of 181 (next | show all)
I enjoyed this, though I wonder whether like his protagonist, he has to rush the ending. He conveys well the hard life of his 19th century characters trying to make a living in the desserts and mountains of the West and Mexico, as well as the emotional complexities of human relationships. I think I enjoyed The Spectator Bird a little more. ( )
  breathslow | Jan 27, 2024 |
Not a five star but worthy of the Pulitzer. ( )
  everettroberts | Oct 20, 2023 |
An excellent read for most of the book. Stegner has fantastic prose and his use of metaphor is as good as anyone. I really liked the detailed look at late 19th century life in western America. By the end of the main part of the book I was tired of the whining from Susan Berlinger Ward. I appreciate she was creative and worked hard but she was way too self involved. Loved Oliver though. But the ending was just not good. Didn't like the way the ex-wife snuck in. ( )
  JBreedlove | Oct 13, 2023 |
Well-formed characters, with very descriptive language. A friend referred me to this book because of its quality (1972 Pulitzer) and because of its study of mining in the early west, a particular interest of mine.
The book was more of a character study than a mining study, but I did appreciate the information about mining and obtaining water.
As I read the book I learned about its link to a real couple of the period, which I liked.
I found the Introduction, which was quite long, to be "too much too soon". I did not finish the intro, and after reading it as a postlude, I think it fits better there.
I found the narrator's role to be more distracting than helpful, but it was an interesting approach to casting the story. The Introduction helps understand this. ( )
  jjbinkc | Aug 27, 2023 |
The book is 630 pages, and I had to get past 150 before I could see why it is great. Then, I liked it a lot. It is primarily the story of a woman who lived to adulthood, and was an employed illustrator/writer, in the East. She married a man who was going west as an engineer in app. 1870, expecting they would be back in 2 years. She and he were in the west for 60 years. ( )
  RickGeissal | Aug 16, 2023 |
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Showing 1-5 of 181 (next | show all)
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Author nameRoleType of authorWork?Status
Stegner, Wallace—primary authorall editionsconfirmed
Benson, Jackson J.Introductionsecondary authorsome editionsconfirmed
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Canonical title
Angle of Repose
Original title
Alternative titles
Original publication date
1971
People/Characters
Susan Burling Ward
Oliver Ward
Lyman Ward
Important places
Leadville, Colorado, USA
New Almaden, California, USA
Boise, Idaho, USA
Grass Valley, California, USA
Santa Cruz, California, USA
Important events
Related movies
Epigraph
Dedication
For my son, Page
First words
Now I believe they will leave me alone.
Quotations
When frontier historians theorize about the uprooted, the lawless, the purseless, and the socially cut-off who settled the West, they are not talking about people like my grandmother. So much that was cherished and loved, women like her had to give up; and the more they gave it up, the more they carried it helplessly with them. It was a process like ionization: what was subtracted from one pole was added to the other. For that sort of pioneer, the West was not a new country being created, but an old one being reproduced...
...the “angle of repose,” which means the angle at which dirt and pebbles stop rolling.
What interests me in all these papers is not Susan Burling Ward the novelist and illustrator, and not Oliver Ward the engineer, and not the West they spent their lives in. What really interests me is how two such unlike particles clung together, and under what strains, rolling downhill into their future until they reached the angle of repose where I knew them. That’s where the interest is. That's where the meaning will be if I find any.
Remember the one who wanted to know where you learned to handle so casually a technical term like “angle of repose”. I suppose you replied, “By living with an engineer,” but you were too alert to the figurative possibilities of words not to see the phrase as descriptive of human as well as detrital rest. As you said, it was too good for mere dirt; you tried to apply it to your own wandering and uneasy life. ... I wonder if you ever reached it. There was a time up there in Idaho when everything was wrong; your husband's career, your marriage, your sense of yourself, your confidence, all came unglued together. Did you come down out of that into some restful 30 degree angle and live happily ever after? … We shared this house all the years of my childhood, and a good many summers afterward. Was the quiet I always felt in you really repose?
Last words
(Click to show. Warning: May contain spoilers.)
Disambiguation notice
Publisher's editors
Blurbers
Rotondaro, Fred
Burroway, Janet
Culligan, Glendy
Abrahams, William
Original language
Canonical DDC/MDS
Canonical LCC
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▾Book descriptions
Fiction. Literature. HTML:

Wallace Stegner's uniquely American classic centers on Lyman Ward, a noted historian who relates a fictionalized biography of his pioneer grandparents at a time when he has become estranged from his own family. Through a combination of research, memory, and exaggeration, Ward voices ideas concerning the relationship between history and the present, art and life, parents and children, husbands and wives. Like other great quests in literature, Lyman Ward's investigation leads him deep into the dark shadows of his own life. The result is a deeply moving novel that, through the prism of one family, illuminates the American present against the fascinating background of its past.

Set in many parts of the West, Angle of Repose is a story of discoveryâ??personal, historical, and geographicalâ??that endures as Wallace Stegner's masterwork: an illumination of yesterday's reality that speaks to today's

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WorldCat

Genres

Melvil Decimal System (DDC)

813.52Literature › English (North America) › American fiction › 20th Century › 1900-1944

LC Classification

PS3537.T316Language and Literature › American literature › American literature › Individual authors › 1900-1960

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