** spoiler alert ** 
 Although it is a quiet story and many of the characters are unhappy (the phrase "lives of quiet desperation" could have been invented for this book), it was interesting to me. The acceptance of sadness, desperation, apathy, loneliness, nothingness, etc. is fascinating to me and harkens back to The Heart is a Lonely Hunter, Of Human Bondage, and other books that I've read in recent years. This is beyond embracing the challenges of life - it is the stoic acceptance of the mundane, the sameness, the drudgery that seems both alien and familiar to me. 
 In this book, Stoner's parents, wife, daughter and (to some extent) Stoner himself accept disappointments rather than working for something more positive or inspirational. Stoner's parents are simple farmers who step out of the box to send their son to college - and, aside from a couple of visits, he doesn't come back. His wife is an odd woman - perhaps mentally ill, perhaps abused by her father - she alternates between being cold, angry, hysterical and remote. The scene in which she destroys the gifts given to her by her father is chilling. She uses her daughter as a weapon against Stoner. The daughter is a quiet, intelligent child who could have had a chance had circumstances been different, but ends up settling for a fairly empty life. Stoner is generally a passive person, who has flashes of energy or even rebellion. These characters remind me of people I knew growing up - I didn't really understand them and, in some ways, still don't. 
 Katherine, a student/instructor with whom he has an affair, is one of the few who seems both driven and positive! Of course, she is also quite shy and withdrawn at times. Colleagues Finch and Lomax are ambitious, but with a certain toxic element (especially the latter). Seeing both Stoner's work and his personal life under attack was so very sad - like someone kicking a puppy. But in addition to protective feelings, I sometimes wanted to shake him to make him more responsive. 
 What I enjoyed about this book is that it is not a "feel good" book - it's fairly depressing, even though Stoner does experience contentment at various points in the story. It reminds me that not everyone is happy, even when they appear to be, and sometimes those who may seem to have little in their lives are actually quite or at least somewhat contented. Not everyone aspires to the same thing. 
 Stoner is the character to which I related. He's shy and quiet, feels that people either won't like him or will find him boring/odd/etc., and does not really plan out his life - he is content to let things play out. He just wants a little space to call his own - the description of him creating his study is one of my favorite sections of the book. He's not sure what he thought his life would be and he seems both contented and disappointed. 
 It is a story about people who are complex yet straightforward, contented yet unhappy, seeking companionship yet pulling away from people.