Because mental health goes overlooked, Stoner cheats on his wife instead of helping her, and Edith spreads her misery outward into her family. What Stoner doesn't notice is that Edith is suffering from extreme mental anguish, and probably has always had paranoia and depression, but that means that the novel depicts the spread of mental health troubles, when they go untreated. Stoner's wife, Edith, also abuses their only child, abuse which is the product of extreme jealousy. Throughout the book, Stoner suffers a horrible marriage to a bitter, resentful woman who doesn't appreciate the marriage. He realizes that although he used to have a huge crush on Edith, the truth is, she isn't loving whatsoever. Edith is not family to Stoner, he discovers. By the end of their awkward, disconnected, stand-offish relationship, he ends up hating her and falling in love with Katherine Driscoll. He finds that he is lonely for a spouse, and he turns to Edith to solve that problem. But when he meets a professor who shows him that through literature, he can be part of a different family-an academic family built on a shared love for books-he can't resist it.īut, Stoner's family issue is still not solved. When he goes to college, he basically feels like he was pressured into farming by his family, and of course he wants to do well by his family, so he does whatever they tell him he has to do. One of the main issues of this book is Stoner's perception of family. Written by people who wish to remain anonymous

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Stoner by John Williams