Angle of Repose

A retired, ailing history professor, Lyman Ward, has been deserted by his wife. To distract himself from pain, both physical and emotional, he embarks on the project of editing the private papers of his grandmother, an artist and writer married to a geologist. Ward recounts the story of his grandparents' life juxtaposed with his own--specifically, the betrayals of his grandmother and his own wife. Stegner masterfully evokes the Western landscape as well as the complex tensions between art and life. Stegner's magisterial tale, an American classic, was voted the best Western novel of the 20th century in a poll taken by the San Francisco Chronicle.