Writing that's unafraid to be great

I've just finished reading a great novel you've never heard of. It's called “Stoner” and it was written in 1965 by the late John Williams. It has gone out of print twice but has made a remarkable comeback and currently tops best seller lists all over Europe. It is a “quiet” novel about an English professor in a midwest college. The plot is slow by current slam-bang trends but those who love literature, language and the mystery of the mind and heart will cherish it. My daughter is a book curator for a magnificent store in Tampa called the Oxford Exchange. She tells me that over 300,000 titles are published every year, mostly an inventory of junk including the dubious best sellers. Even Stephen King despairs of James Patterson's poor writing. There is a new film called “Words and Pictures” about an English teacher in a high school. He meets the girl, loses the girl etc. etc. and in the last scene they are kissing and hugging. That's the arc of the film but life writes the arc in “Stoner”, not Hollywood. I ask people what their favorite book is. Some say they don't read books, or they read so many they don't remember a favorite or they only read when there's nothing on TV. To me that says they have never really tasted literature. I don't care if it's only Black Beauty, it shows that a book meant something to them. In one of his NY Times columns David Brooks says, “If you want to learn to write, the best way to start is by imitating George Orwell.” The thing that Orwell and Williams have in common is clarity and a respect for language. After a troubled marriage, an affair that ends abruptly, a daughter who turns her back on him, Stoner dies unmourned and is quickly forgotten. This illustrates one of Orwell's hard truths that you are forgotten in one generation and in two no one will ever know you existed. Orwell's close friend, Cyril Connolly, had a mantra: “only write masterpieces”. “Stoner” is one of them.