I bought this book from a local store. The woman at the counter told me it had been an exceptionally popular seller lately. She asked if I knew why.

I didn't know why, and it made me reflect on why I was buying the book, which I couldn't remember either. Where did I hear about this? Why did I want to read it?

I remember now. I read Osamu Dasai's No Longer Human during a chaotic period of grief last year, so I was sensitive to the aesthetics of what you could call loser fiction, which I resolved to read more. No Longer Human is great, although it's also intemperate, lurid, miserable.

Stoner is not really the same kind of text. The title character isn't especially maladjusted or socially marginal. His life is, in aggregate, fairly mediocre.

Born to humble farmers, Stoner is given the privilege of attending school thanks to his well-intentioned parents and the astonishing accident of history that was the 20th century. He ultimately excels there and decides to stay on for grad school: auspicious beginnings. Eventually, he discovers the cost of this kind of social climbing as his parents fade painfully from his life.

Although he becomes a respected professor, he's unambitious and suffers for his principles under ruinous workplace politics. His wife is a malevolent presence in his life. His great joy of being a girl dad is stymied by her meddling.

The book presents estrangements, disappointments, injustices, moral failures, but it's never unremitting. John William's voice is hardly indulgent or desperate or even pessimistic. He's a great prose stylist and his characterization is incredibly strong, honest, and balanced.

I found myself really immersed in Stoner's story. And, maybe most critically for loser fiction, I really believed I understood him.

Stoner as a whole is great. A watermark addition to the loser canon.