Angle of Repose (1972 Pulitzer Prize) [B0582]

2000 PB (or later) reprint of the 1971 original with a 2000 Introduction by Jackson J. Benton, in nice clean condition with minor cover wear. An American masterpiece and iconic novel of the West by National Book Award and Pulitzer Prize winner Wallace Stegner-a deeply moving narrative of one family and the traditions of our national past.

Lyman Ward is a retired professor of history, recently confined to a wheelchair by a crippling bone disease and dependent on others for his every need. Amid the chaos of 1970s counterculture he retreats to his ancestral home of Grass Valley, California, to write the biography of his grandmother: an elegant and headstrong artist and pioneer who, together with her engineer husband, made her own journey through the hardscrabble West nearly a hundred years before. In discovering her story he excavates his own, probing the shadows of his experience and the America that has come of age around him.

From recent Amazon/GoodReads reviews: "What a treasure it was to stumble across this book! I initially considered this a 'western' novel because that is the majority of the setting, as well as the majority of the conflict in as much as existing in the untamed west is basically surviving one disaster after another. However, the narrator states towards the middle that “this is not a western,” and by the end I would have to completely agree. This is a novel about relationships and finding that spot in the relationship where you can finally be at ease and let go of the past. I’ve read other reviews about the slow plot. It is a fair critique, but I would counter that this is more of a character study than an adventure novel. I’d recommend this to everyone, and I would caution them that the slow burns are often the most rewarding.";

"Surprisingly great book about the lives of a married couple in various mining camps across the old West. Very few major events but the story still pulls you along throughout."; "Wonderful. The language is mesmerizing. A beautiful, sad love story of two people mismatched but very much in love. But life gets in the way, disappointment, an erosion of trust, false courage & enormous energy spent on getting through each day";

"Written in 1971, this book is about a man researching his grandmother, who came west in the 1870s. The descriptions of the West at that time paint a picture of early life in that region-its hardships and wonders. You get a peek at the mining operations of the era and a little about canal building for irrigation. At its heart, it is about a woman struggling for purpose and meaning in her life after leaving the comforts of the East behind. The Pulitzer for fiction in 1972 is well deserved."