Name: Jeselnik Book Club: "Stoner" Book Review + Q&A
Uploaded: 2026-05-31T16:00:22.000Z
Description: Watch the stand-up comedy video 'Jeselnik Book Club: "Stoner" Book Review + Q&A' from Anthony Jeselnik on Comedy Buff. Published 2026-05-31. Transcript available.

Watch the stand-up comedy video 'Jeselnik Book Club: "Stoner" Book Review + Q&A' from Anthony Jeselnik on Comedy Buff. Published 2026-05-31. Transcript available.

Jeselnik Book Club: "Stoner" Book Review + Q&A

I would love to get hit by a bus.
I would love it.
People just say it's the Great American Novel
because it's really good.
But America's not about fucking wailing, okay?
I'm gonna try not to cry.
Who gives a fuck about that book?
I would never touch you.
Get up here.
Hey, Anthony Jeselnik here
with Jeselnik Book Club's review
of May's Pick Stoner by John Williams.
Again, this is a classic book.
I will explain to you why I love this book.
I will explain to you why I believe
the character of Stoner does have agency,
is not just a passive person
like a lot of you assumed in your questions,
like a lot of people have critiqued the character for.
I will explain why I believe it is
the Great American Novel.
Not the greatest American novel,
but the Great American Novel.
I really enjoyed reading this book for a second time
and it inspired me to be a better Jeselnik Book Club,
to teach you things.
I think a lot of people in the comments
read this a while ago.
I hope you re-read it.
I learned a lot from re-reading it.
If you haven't re-read it,
if you just read it a while ago
and watching the video,
I encourage you to re-read this book.
If you're reading it for the first time,
I hope you felt a sense of accomplishment
finishing the book.
I hope you learned something about yourselves.
I hope you learned something about life.
Again, this is a great book.
I think it can be summed up in one quote from Catherine.
Lust and learning.
That's really all there is, isn't it?
And that really kind of sums up Stoner's life.
I think it sums up a lot of people's lives,
especially in academia.
So let me go through
a kind of a plot synopsis for this book
and kind of hope,
I hope it comes out during this
of why I love this book so much
and why I think it's an important novel.
This book starts actually with a chapter one
with the author telling you
that William Stoner is dead
and that everyone has forgotten him
since he's died.
That no one really talks about him.
He's barely remembered by the faculty
of the University of Missouri,
I believe is the name of the college,
where he spends almost all of his life.
Students don't really talk about him.
It seems like he didn't have much of an impact,
but yet his story is worth telling.
The ordinary life is still worth examining.
In fact, I think an ordinary life
is something people should aspire to.
I don't think his life is a failure by any means
because it is ordinary.
And extraordinary things happen to him
throughout this novel,
and I will get into that now.
So William Stoner, you meet him.
He is a young man working on a farm
with his parents a few hours away
from the university.
He does not know the university exists.
He is a farmer, and farming sucks,
especially back then.
This is like late 1800s, early 1900s.
Where it's just him, his mom, and his dad
working on a farm 24-7, 365.
It's a three-person operation,
and they are barely scraping by.
The land itself is getting worse.
Farming is getting more difficult.
And Stoner doesn't complain at all.
He's fine with his life.
He doesn't know anything else.
He lives a life of solitude.
He works.
And farming on its own as a profession
is a passive profession.
You work as hard as you possibly can.
There is shame in not working as hard
as you possibly can.
And then you just hope.
You hope the weather is good enough
for a profitable crop.
You hope it rains,
but not too much and not too little.
You hope it doesn't get cold too early
or you are fucked.
And there's nothing you can do about it.
You just work as hard as you can.
And that is his life.
It's not a good one,
but he doesn't understand
that it's not a good one.
He's just like,
I don't have any friends.
I'm bored.
I just do this for my mom and dad.
One day, his dad finds out
that there is a new program
at the University of Missouri,
a college of agriculture
or a school of agriculture.
And the dad says to the son,
and they talk so little
that the son is like,
Stoner is like shocked
that his father's even speaking
to him at dinner.
He's like, hey, listen,
I heard that there's this school
of agriculture opening up.
I didn't get to go to school
past like the eighth grade
or something.
I think it would be nice
for you to go to the school,
learn about agriculture,
come back and help us.
And Stoner's first thought
is just for his family.
He loves his family so much.
He's like,
can you guys get by without me
for four years?
And they're like, yeah,
we can, your mom and I can manage.
The mom is listening to this
and is like,
I don't know if we can manage it.
This is going to suck,
but we can do it.
You're going to come back
and help us.
It's going to be better
because we take this four years
to give you this opportunity.
And again, an opportunity
not to make friends,
not to like learn about yourself,
but just to become a better farmer
and help us with this dirt
that is getting worse.
Maybe your science knowledge
can help us out.
He takes the opportunity
only because his mom and dad
are okay with it.
He's going to work
on a different farm
and live on a different farm,
family, friends,
family, relatives
while he is going to college.
He goes to school
for the first year
and he's bored out of his mind.
He's learning about farming.
He doesn't love farming.
He doesn't care about farming.
He just does it
because that's his life.
That's what he was born into.
And he's just kind of
going through the motions.
He's not an exceptional student.
He doesn't,
he's not happy
that he is,
that he's like sitting
behind a desk of learning
as opposed to toiling on a farm.
And every morning
he's feeding pigs.
He's doing farm type stuff anyway.
He's making no friends.
He does not fit in
at the school
with the other students.
He's clearly just like a farm boy.
Goes back,
helps his family
during the summer,
goes back to school
for sophomore year.
Sophomore year,
he is made to take
an electives course
in literature
with a professor
named Arthur Sloan.
He's not doing well
in the class.
He doesn't really
understand literature.
He's just kind of getting by.
And Arthur Sloan
is talking about
one of Shakespeare's sonnets.
No one in the class
knows what the hell it means.
I remember studying
Shakespeare's sonnets
not knowing
what the hell they meant.
But Sloan asks
a stoner.
He's like,
hey,
William Shakespeare
is speaking to you
from 300 years ago.
What do you hear?
What is he saying to you?
And a stoner
can't even answer.
But he knows
in that moment
he kind of falls
in love with literature.
He becomes obsessed
with like,
oh,
this guy's talking
to me from 300 years ago.
Literature has maintained.
In that moment,
he falls in love
with literature.
And Arthur Sloan,
the professor,
recognizes it
and realizes like,
oh,
I've kind of reached
a student.
This guy is doing
something here.
Stoner changes his major
from School of Agriculture
to Literature and Philosophy.
This is a huge step
for a student to take,
especially without
telling your parents.
I don't know
if any of you guys
went to college.
If you did,
like,
I mean,
I was a fight
with my parents
over whether I would
major in literature
or business.
They made me minor
in business
so that I could
do literature.
That like,
parents have a big say
when they're footing
the bill
of what you study.
And parents,
even if they're not
footing the bill,
if you have a scholarship,
they want you
to be taken care of.
They want you
to have a job
after school
and not be wasting
your time.
Anyone who has been
a philosophy major
or a literature major
knows what a fight
it is with your parents.
Your parents look
down on you
for studying something
that will not
give you a job
when you're out.
But Stoner
cannot help himself.
He just falls
in love with this.
Again,
it doesn't lead him
to friendships.
It's not like
he switches majors
for a girl.
He switches majors
because he, like,
is fascinated by it
for the first time
in his life.
He's like,
I'm not talking
about dirt and pigs.
I want to get into literature
and understand this better.
I have this thirst
for knowledge
and understanding
and switches majors.
At the end of four years,
he graduates
with a literature degree,
with a philosophy degree,
whatever.
His parents come
to his graduation ceremony
thinking full goddamn well
that he is graduating
from the School of Agriculture
and coming back
to help them on the farm.
And he has to break
the news to them
that he is not coming
back to the farm,
that he's in love
with literature.
And he knows this
because Arthur Sloan
calls him into the office
before he graduates
and says,
do you want to go back
to farming?
And Stoner says,
no.
And he says,
what are you going to do?
And Stoner says,
I have no idea.
Like, he hasn't planned
out anything.
He's just been following
his passion.
He's been following
his lust
for literature
and for learning.
And Sloan says,
you're going to take
a master's degree here.
I think you should
be a teacher.
And Stoner's like,
why would you think
I should be a teacher?
I'm barely getting by
in this.
I got like B's
in literature.
And he's like,
it's obvious to me
that you were in love
with literature.
You were going
to be a teacher.
And that's his way
out of farming.
So after the graduation
ceremony,
Stoner tells his parents,
I'm not coming back.
He doesn't say,
I don't think I should
come back.
He's like,
I'm not coming back.
I'm going to keep
on studying
and I'm going to
become a teacher.
And Stoner's parents
are amazing.
His dad is amazing.
Probably the best person
in the book
who just says,
well,
you know,
I think that if you
think that's what
you should do,
then that's what
you should do.
Which is a very cool thing.
My dad did something
similar to me
when I decided
to become a comedian.
He was just like,
okay,
like I can't help you
with this,
but if you think
that's what you want
to do,
go ahead.
My dad wanted me
to be a lawyer
and I would have been
the worst,
the worst lawyer.
So I think that was
a beautiful moment
with his dad.
But again,
it is a revolutionary
act to go against
your parents
at this time
in this way
and decide
you're going to
abandon them
on the farm.
The mom can't even
look at him.
The mom just starts
crying when he tells
them this.
And that must have
been insanely hard
for Stoner to do.
These are his only
friends,
his mom and dad,
and he abandons
them to go study
literature.
He gets into
the master's program.
He goes through
the master's program.
He excels.
He does well.
Still has no friends.
Gets into the PhD
program and gets
his first two friends,
a guy named
David Masters
and a guy named
Gordon Finch.
And as this is
happening,
World War I
is kind of starting
to rear its head.
America is not
involved yet,
but it's all
anyone talks about.
Arthur Sloan is
upset seeing the
war coming,
his old teacher.
He can see it
kind of like just
making him a little
bit crazy.
One night,
Masters and Finch
and Stoner go out
to a bar.
They would have
drinks after a
day of studying.
And David Masters
is kind of the
more brilliant of
the friends.
He's like the
most excellent
student.
Finch is kind
of like,
kind of blowhard,
but doing well.
And Stoner is
like the very
serious student.
And Masters
gives them the
speech about what
the school represents.
He's like,
you guys don't
get it.
I understand it.
There's like three
different kinds of
students at the
university.
He's like,
Finch,
you're an idiot.
You don't really
belong here.
You're not good
enough to do the
work,
but you're not
smart enough to
do anything else.
And the university
is the one place
that you can do
good for society.
He tells Stoner,
you're here to
find yourself.
You seem lost
and you feel like
the next book
you pick up
is going to
teach you something
about yourself
and you're able
to find yourself
through your studies.
And then I will
master,
so why are you
here?
And he's like,
I'm here because
this place is an
insane asylum
and it's keeping
me from doing
harm to the
country.
I'm here to
keep myself
contained and
try to do
something good.
He said the
university for him
is like locking
up 