Angle of Repose-Wallace Stegner

Wallace Stegner’s Angle of Repose reveals the truth about impact from past generations of a single family. Narrated by Lyman Ward, an old man confined to a wheel chair because of an amputated leg, this novel merges the two stories of past and present to offer a sense of the development of life (in the West.) Lyman, intrigued by his Grandparent’s past and left with nothing else to do but investigate the lost generations of their discoveries of the west, rummages through what has been saved to create a story of the past.
His grandparents were pioneers, per say; out to discover and settle the west. Well, his grandfather was. After schooling to be an engineer, his grandfather, Oliver easily finds work out west, but before he leaves he meets Susan, a sophisticated young women growing up wealthy in the east. Oliver is first introduced as a rather mysterious character. Unlike Susan, we don’t know anything about him when we meet him. When they meet in the library their love penetrates through the words on the pages. Both characters, suddenly thrown into these feelings of enchantment decide on moving to the west, displacing both of them and throwing them into an adventure.
The book takes place in multiple locations throughout the west. The novel itself is broken into different sections representing different areas where the couple (and their children) lived. With this fracture in time and in place the novel was focused on the different stories of different areas. Throughout each section there is a constant shift in tone from the present to the past. Lyman, narrating the whole time, also talks about himself and his own present experiences. His son Rodman is simply a distraction, without an appreciation for the past like his father and only a constant worry of Lyman’s handicap, he plays an annoyance to our narrator. Shelly, Lyman’s niece, is hired to assist him in his investigations of the past. Her opinionated comments about the letters and records she reads and re-types annoy Lyman, but also offer good conversation. Shelly, though in a different way than Lyman, seems to appreciate the past.
Susan’s correspondence with her friend Augusta back home keeps reality about the time period in check. It is easy to get lost in the fantasy world of Oliver and Susan and all of their friends in the west, but Susan constantly expresses regret and consent to her friend Augusta. This change in tone, shifting from Lyman to Susan, makes the past seems even more real. I would highly recommend this novel for its complex nature of incorporating the past into the present and making neither seem better than the other, just simply showing a natural progression in life.