Uptight Is All Right: 3 Books For Finicky Folks

This book is not about a man who smokes too much marijuana. It's about William Stoner, who grows up on a hardscrabble Midwestern farm and whose life is transformed when he discovers literature at the University of Missouri. While he originally intends to study agronomy, Stoner becomes a professor of English. It's downhill after that — a miserable marriage, an alienated daughter, an unspectacular academic career. He has fleeting periods of contentment and love, but he never seizes them before they slip away. Williams doesn't offer easy answers to the mystery of Stoner's stoic, somewhat passive temperament. And yet, once you sink into his story, a kind of joy takes over as you travel through this beautifully observed life. It's a quiet novel but a very powerful one — a testament to the magic that can happen when a writer pays careful attention to the inner lives of his characters.

Stevens is a perfect English butler living in post-World War II England and struggling with a changing world. Unlike William Stoner, he is not at all interested in the life of the mind. His primary interest is that of perfect service, both to the current American owner of Darlington Hall, Mr. Farraday, and before that to Lord Darlington, who, it is slowly revealed, was something of a Nazi sympathizer. Like William Stoner, Stevens misses his chance for a happier life. Unlike Stoner, who is aware of his predicament but feels powerless to change it, Stevens is not even aware of the ways in which he has deceived himself.

This remarkable first novel is set in post-Sept. 11 New York City. Julius, the protagonist, is a walker and, like William Stoner, a thinker. He walks the streets of New York City, where he is a psychiatry resident, from Washington Heights to the Battery, sharing with the reader a rich, incredibly detailed and wide-ranging inner monologue. Julius is not so much uptight or overcontrolled as he is solitary and almost entirely internal. He encounters others at every turn, but his engagement with them is always a little distant, a little cold. A climactic revelation gives the reader some insight into his distance, but even so, not everything is understood. He remains, essentially, a fascinating mystery, and Teju Cole, the man who created him, is a writer to watch.