Angle of Repose by Wallace Stegner

The Narrator is an older gentleman confined to a wheelchair and appears to be an embarrassment to his family. His son believes he should just check himself into assisted living instead of insisting on moving out to the farm, which the son wants to sell for personal financial gain. The narrator has moved to the farm in hopes of writing a book about his grandparents through their letters and papers scattered throughout the house. Intermingled between the mundane routines of the man's day the story comes to life. It is an interesting comparison between the narrator, whose unpretentious life has become very simple and painful from aging, to the grandparents in their prime. Lyman Ward is an amusing narrator, he plays the part of a crotchety old man, who says funny things like "thanks for your help, which I suppose I will recover from" and picks on a friend's lisp. It includes very simple and humbling entertainment. Lyman starts reading his grandmother's letters and is embarrassed by the content, he realizes he is prying into her heart. After learning his grandmother was a lesbian, he realizes she probably never felt this great love for his grandfather like he had assumed. It is confusing if the pieces between reading the letters and his daily activities are all speculation or if the reader is to believe it is a flashback to his grandparent's day. The story is about life in the mine and the grandfather keeps losing his job, forcing the grandmother to keep moving back in with her parents. At the end Lyman realises how similar he has made his grandparent's life to his. Although a good book, it was not really something I would read for entertainment, you should have an agenda in picking this piece. It comes alive in the last 100 pages.