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Angle of Repose

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Angle of Repose

By: Wallace Stegner
Narrated by: Mark Bramhall
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About this listen

Winner of the Pulitzer Prize when it was first published in 1971, Angle of Repose has also been selected by the editorial board of the Modern Library as one of the hundred best novels of the 20th century.

Wallace Stegner's uniquely American classic centers on Lyman Ward, a noted historian who relates a fictionalized biography of his pioneer grandparents at a time when he has become estranged from his own family. Through a combination of research, memory, and exaggeration, Ward voices ideas concerning the relationship between history and the present, art and life, parents and children, and husbands and wives. Like other great quests in literature, Lyman Ward's investigation leads him deep into the dark shadows of his own life. The result is a deeply moving novel that, through the prism of one family, illuminates the American present against the fascinating background of its past.

Set in many parts of the West, Angle of Repose is a story of discovery - personal, historical, and geographical - that endures as Wallace Stegner's masterwork: an illumination of yesterday's reality that speaks to today's.

©1971 Wallace Stegner (P)2009 Blackstone Audio, Inc. Classics Fiction Genre Fiction Historical Fiction Literary Fiction Marriage

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Critic reviews

"Brilliant....Two stories, past and present, merge to produce what important fiction must: a sense of the enhancement of life." ( Los Angeles Times)
"Masterful...Reading it is an experience to be treasured." ( Boston Globe)
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The 19th century story is framed by a 20th century tale. The person telling his grandparents ‘ history is a miserable man, not particularly likeable but perhaps through reflecting on the past lives, he changes for the better. I enjoyed the descriptive passages about the western life of the 19th century. The story is very sad but has relevance to how we might live today

Beautiful prose, and a thoughtful story

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Ive been going back through the catalogue of American Classics. The novel is haunting,beautifully written and 5he narrator does it full justice. Highly recommended.

Beautiful novel beautifully read.

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Wallace Stegner should surely be more well known than he is. Beautifully written and perfectly narrated, this is well worth a listen.

A Real Classic

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A novel of love, loss and redemption cast across the unforgiving backdrop of a bright Western sky Paul Bowles would immediately recognise. Stegner is a too faintly hearlded giant, and his prose is a pleasure from first to last, winding us through a family history that feels personal to the reader as only well drawn and intimately understood characters allow. From hope to heartbreak to despair and back to hope, the courage, strength, joys and disappointments of the characters give us a perspective on the lives of the pioneers of the late 19th century West, and the echoes of their struggles in their late 20th century progeny. Hard to overstate how magnificently Stegner shares his historical vision and psychological insights. Brilliant and for readers of great American fiction, simply unmissable.

Achingly, painfully beautiful: a masterpiece.

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Very insightful. There are two plotlines, one a wonderful story of living on the american frontier in the 1900s. The other is set in the 1970s but isn't as engrossing and the main protagonist isn't very likeable.

Entralling read

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This was a sad, wee tale of a man and wife in the 1870s. The wife always feels she has married beneath herself and no matter what the husband does, it always seems to be the wrong thing. As a result, they are often left with large absences in their marriage as the husband lives far off to earn a decent wage.

It was difficult who to feel sympathy for as the wife was often openly ashamed of her husband's lower status and the husband always seemed to be getting involved in schemes that lost money. Personally, I felt sorry for the husband, he knew how the wife felt and could do not right, despite working terribly hard. Sad, but a good listen.

Pioneer Priorities

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What a masterpiece. Excellent narration. This is now on my list of top 10 favourite books.

Masterpiece!

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Stunningly well written and perfectly narrated.
Thoughtful and at times exuberant and sad. A definite must read.

Wonderful

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An insight into the lives of settlers of the west in the late 1800s with all the hardships, disappointments and uncertainties as well as the hopes and dreams that sustained them. Lyrical writing and I liked the device of Lynham uncovering and commenting on his ggrandmother's story.
The Mesa section was rather long and became quite depressing - though I appreciate that was exactly what they were experiencing.
The final chapter was strange - as though Stegner was at a loss as to how to conclude the story.

A fascinating and gripping saga.

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The narrator and main character is a miserable old git, so hard to sympathise with. It carries along in a kind of drone and I had to stop reading as it was quite depressing.

Depressing

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