Arts
Discover American author John Edward Williams, who wrote Stoner , critically described as the "perfect novel." Yet, both Williams and this book remain largely obscure to American readers. On this episode, we interview renowned literary biographer Charles J. Shields. Shield's book , The Perfect Novel: John Williams, Stoner, and the Writing Life published by The University of Texas Press is a detailed account of John William's life and explores how William's seminal novel Stoner remains largely unknown in the United States, while finding a wide, popular audience in Europe. Quote from book The subject of a biography should be the person's search for identity. Answering the question "Who am I?" is the great work of life, and all of a person's efforts are, in some way, responses to that unvoiced question, which begins to be heard in childhood as soon as children perceive themselves as different and apart from everyone else. . . John William's discovery at age nine that he was someone else-