“The books we love best begin the life-long conversations we use to explain ourselves to ourselves. Gazing into William Stoner with candor, humility, tenderness, his customary wit and an ocean of compassion, Steve Almond finds there, himself, flawed, flayed, but weirdly whole in spite of everything. Stoner is a theorem that proves art saves lives.”—Pam Houston, author of Deep Creek, Finding Hope In The High Country
“This is a clear-eyed and frankly goddamn beautiful story of one reader’s relationship with one book. Almond clings to Stoner like the merciful lifeboat it is. William Stoner and the Battle for the Inner Life is criticism as literature.”—Peter Orner, author of Am I Alone Here?
“A brilliant, sorrowful, hopeful, hilarious, painfully honest love letter, not just to Stoner but to writing, marriage, teaching, reading, parenting, even death. Which makes this book, like the one it praises, a love letter to life.”—Matthew Zapruder, author of Come On All You Ghosts and Why Poetry
“In an age of vengeance comes a small book about love, masculinity, teaching, fatherhood and failure. Almond recognizes love as a force of profound disequilibrium and allows himself to be humbled by it.”—Michelle Latiolais, author of She and Widow
