Wallace Stegner, Angle of Repose. PMC 2024; 19711
A few years ago I was impressed by Wallace Stegner’s 1987 novel Crossing to Safety; for some reason I didn’t post on it here. It’s a slow-burning account of the relationships between a group of people – not much conventional plot, just perceptive and illuminating insights into what makes them do and think what they do.
Angle of Repose also takes its time (it’s a little under 600 pp. in this PMC paperback edition), but is again essentially a slowly accreting, detailed account of the loves and lives of a married couple (Susan and Oliver) in antebellum America.
He’s a talented mining engineer whose work takes him into the rugged, undeveloped west. His wife, brought up in a cultured New York/New England environment, follows him out west and struggles to adapt to this transplanted pioneer existence, appalled by the vulgarity and roughness of the life there.
Lyman Ward is a retired history professor who narrates their story. His source is a huge cache of letters written by the wife, Susan, to her Sapphic friend Augusta, another super-refined Edith Wharton type. Lyman pieces together the story of Susan and Oliver (his grandparents) by recording this correspondence and his reflections on it on to tape. All this is framed by what’s going on in Lyman’s life as he works on this project: it’s the late sixties, and youth rebellion is rife – much to the disgust of this fastidious, often grumpy academic.
Stegner is adept at conveying the frustration of Susan with what she perceives as her husband’s naivety and fecklessness. He fails again and again as his projects are stymied by the corruption or cupidity of others, and Susan sustains the growing family with income from her magazine stories and illustrations. Oliver refuses to defend himself against the venality of those who ruin him, and Susan increasingly wonders if she made a mistake in uprooting herself to be with him, and possibly ruined her chances of a conventional career as an author and artist.
There are wonderful descriptions of the rugged landscapes and ecosystems in which Oliver works and his family is forced to live. I found myself willing him to succeed, and hoping that Susan’s love for him would outweigh her longing for the refined pleasures of her world back east.
Meanwhile Lyman’s own progress towards some kind of emotional fulfilment also undergoes various trials.
It’s an unusual and engaging novel, debunking the rose-tinted, romanticised depiction more usually given of pioneer life. This is an America based on the mendacity and greed of those who stole the land from its indigenous peoples, then again from the early settlers who lacked the guile to hold on to what resources they’d managed to assemble from that land.
Apparently there was some controversy when Angle of Repose was first published, because Stegner based the 19C narrative on the real-life correspondence of an author and artist, Mary Hallock Foote. Some of her descendants took exception to what they saw as the fictional liberties he took with the source material.
I was really nervous when I saw the subject line on this post. Because I really loved Angle of Repose and was hoping you had liked it as well. I respect your opinion. Too much maybe?
But I second your comments. It’s a very readable book with unforgettable characters and locations.
I loved it too, Paula. Nothing wrong with a slowly moving narrative when it’s so skilfully done.
A courageous book.
Pioneers are sacred in the US, aren’t they?
Courageous is right, Lisa. Oliver’s decency and talent are no match for the rapacity of his fellow pioneers.
Several years ago I read Stegner’s Crossing to Safety, which I liked very much. I always intended to read more of his work, but this good intention ended, as so many of mine do, as a paving stone to that proverbial destination. I was delighted to see your review, as it brought Stegner back to mind! He’s such a good writer, particularly with relationships, and many of his concerns, including the debunking of the U.S.’s pioneer past, seem very much in line with current trends. With all that, I wonder why he isn’t read more these days (I suppose he’s not the first good writer who’s slowly fading away!). If you’re interested, several years ago the NY Times had a great essay on Stegner’s oeuvre (“Wallace Stegner and the Conflicted Soul of the West,” published June 2020).
Thanks for the recommendation – I’ll look into it. If you liked Crossing to Safety I think you’ll like this one.
Fascinating post, Simon. I’ve only heard of the author’s Crossing to Safety (and good things about that) so this title is new to me, and it does sound interesting. Particularly so if it challenges the pioneer myth which still persists about early America. I might have to consider exploring his work!
Well worth a look, Karen. He has the courage to take his time – like many of the great Victorian novelists.
I loved Crossing to Safety and I’ve read two other books by him too.
I’d like to read Angle of Repose and The Big Rock Candy Mountain.
Thanks for your review, I think I’ll like this one as much as his others. He’s a wonderful stylist.
Emma: I’m sure you’ll enjoy this one if you liked Crossing to Safety. The style here is different, in that he uses a lot of the letters written in the 19C, apparently transcribed from the originals that the novel is based on. But there are modern framing sections set in the late 1960s where the narrator comes into frictional contact with the hippie generation.