Stegner drew from real characters, echoing their real worlds, although none so completely as Foote’s in Angle of Repose. That in-between area cost Yates relationships but was integral to his fiction. Richard Yates famously wrote his initial drafts using the real life names that inspired his characters, only to change the names slightly upon publication. Writers often use real life narratives and personages to build fiction. Then there’s the controversy about Stegner’s use of Mary Hallock Foote, an author and illustrator best known for portraying the mining communities of the turn of the century American West. (After the novel won the Pulitzer in 1972, it was mentioned by the New York Times, but they managed to get Wallace’s name wrong, calling him William.) The novel is a meditation on marriage (what it takes, and what it takes out of you), time, the pioneer American West, home, and nature.Īngle of Repose was famously not reviewed by the New York Times, fomenting West Coast resentment against the East Coast Establishment’s obvious bias. Stegner winds multiple plot lines spanning centuries, using them to illuminate each other. Lyman is a retired amputee historian with a bone disease who becomes consumed with piecing together his grandmother’s life while bitterly protecting his lonely independence. I did, and I love this book.Īngle of Repose follows Susan Burling Ward during the 19th century, but the essence is the evolving consciousness of Susan’s grandson and the novel’s narrator, Lyman Ward.

A fellow writer suggested I read Angle of Repose by Wallace Stegner. I’ve been thinking about how to write fictionally about real events, people, and history.

Stegner angle of repose review