[Part I of this reading group is here.] For most readers who have been through a PhD program, it is quite likely that in some sense, Stoner ends on page 165 of the paperback edition (169 in hardcover). “Well,” Rutherford said, walking between Stoner and Holland, “it’s an unpleasant business. No matter how you look at it, it’s an unpleasant business.” “Yes, it is,” Stoner said and turned away from them. It is dialogue that, taken out of context in this way, could be quite unobtrusively spliced into the final pages of a film noir script. Yet it is not Read more