Dec 25, 2009

Angle of Repose | Social Concerns

In Angle of Repose, Stegner tries to show the value of history through the character Lyman Ward, who narrates the novel. Slowly dying from a crippling disease, Ward has retired to his grandparents' old home in the country. There, he tries to reconstruct their lives, partly because he wants to distract his mind from his disease and partly because he wants to understand himself better. It is his belief that by studying the past he will come to understand the present. He is somewhat nostalgic for the customs of the past. For instance, he complains about his assistant Shelly being...