Status
Call number
Genres
Collection
Publication
Description
Stoner author John Williams's first novel is a searing look at a man's relationship with his absent father, and how early trauma manifests throughout one's life John Williams's first novel is a brooding psychological noir. Arthur Maxley is a young man at the end of his emotional rope. Having dropped out of college, he's holed up in a big-city hotel, living off an allowance from his family, feeling nothing but alone and doing nothing but drinking to forget it. What's brought him to this point? Something is troubling him, something is haunting him, something he cannot bring himself either to face or to turn away from. And now his father has come to town, a hail-fellow-well-met kind of guy. They've been estranged for years, and yet Arthur wants to meet--and so he does, reeling away from the encounter for a night of drinking and dancing and a final reckoning with the traumatizing past that readers will not soon forget. Nothing But the Night includes an interview with Nancy Williams, John Williams's widow.… (more)
User reviews
The novel is
This is [[John Williams]]'s first novel. His writing is already confident and succinct, but I felt the dramatic subject matter didn't quite suit his writing style. I still highly recommend reading [Stoner] first. I think it's clearly his best book (I've now read all 4 of his novels), though all of his writing is good and worthwhile.