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I've read such an excessive amount of books, you might imagine I stumble upon treasures like Stoner every day. Ha! That's hilarious.

I read every day, and I discover through that process many good books and many average books, but rarely do I find a life-altering gem such as this.

Stoner is one of those quiet, slow-paced novels that stabs you right in the heart with its painful, accurate knowledge about life and how most people live it. Yes, it's sad but true; the average person will have a less than stellar childhood, a complicated partnership and end up with a career or a job rather than a youthful dream fulfilled.

Yes, too many people live rather unremarkable lives, and far too many of them suffer, too.

Yet. . . sometimes the snow falls quietly over your little corner of the world, and you feel completely blanketed by its peace. . . and, sometimes a tree in autumn spontaneously drops its leaves just upon you and you look up at the sky in unparalleled wonder. . . and, sometimes a small child reaches out to touch your arm in trust and comfort and you realize the awe of your responsibility, that someone so precious and pure loves you, exactly as you are.

And, that is how this book is. You can't rush it. You need to embrace the moments where you gasp a bit or your eyes fill up with tears, or you feel filled with a hot rage over the injustices that fill this everyman's life.

If you loved Edith Wharton's Ethan Frome or Kent Haruf's Eventide, or Graham Greene's The End of the Affair, then you probably have the heart and the literary taste for this type of slow-moving, deeply-penetrating novel.