Sometimes you need some distance to appreciate a classic.
That was certainly the case for John Williams’ novel Stoner. When it was originally published in 1965, the only publication to mention the book at all was The New Yorker, in its “Briefly Noted” column. The novel received admiring reviews over the years, but sold just 2,000 copies and was almost immediately forgotten.
Fast forward to today and the book is experiencing a renaissance of sorts. It is a best-seller across much of Europe, including the Netherlands, where it has been the best-selling novel for the past two months. But it
Article source: http://www.npr.org/2013/05/19/184770657/decade-later-and-across-an-ocean-a-novel-gets-its-due