History Literature / AngleOfRepose

* SweaterGirl: Shelly, Ada's sexy daughter, who spends the summer helping Lyman type up his research. Lyman notes repeatedly that she wears tight sweaters without a bra; he is frustrated by the fact that he feels sexual desire for her but he's a cripple in a wheelchair who can't do anything about it.
-->Her breasts were very live under her thin pullover, her erect nipples made dents and dimples, appeared and disappeared again as flesh met cloth.

* DeterminedHomesteadersWife: Susan's an Eastern girl who's used to the finer things, she's even received post-secondary education, but she finds herself with little money in a hostile environment. She makes the best of it, writes of her adventures for magazines back at home and keeps up with her art.

It's a novel about life in West. It takes place in two different time frames. The first time frame occurs in late '60s Bay Area California, and consists of a wheelchair-bound historian, Lyman Ward, who is researching and writing a biography of his grandmother, Susan Burling Ward. Susan's story takes place beginning in the latter-half of the 19th century. She's a cultivated Eastern artist and writer who marries on a whim to escape a love affair gone wrong. Oliver, her husband, is a dutiful husband and father, and an expert mine engineer who lacks the benefit of a college degree. He's very principled, which results in some lost advancement opportunities and jobs. Even despite the hardships she faces in the West – which, Stegner wishes to show us, was never as "wild" as in the American pop-cultural imagination – she stays loyal to her increasingly emotionally distant, physically absent and world-weary husband, and also to her own creative principles. Susan's story is, to a very great extent, based on the letters of [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mary_Hallock_Foote Mary Hallock Foote]], which Stegner was researching at the time.

* FramingDevice: Lyman Ward, telling the story of his grandmother Susan.

* LoveTriangle: One develops in Susan's youth between herself, her friend Augusta, and Thomas Hudson the magazine editor. But it's a confused one, as Augusta, the one who eventually marries Thomas, seems to be more attracted to Susan.

[[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wallace_Stegner Wallace Stegner's]] novel about life in West, published in 1972. It takes place in two different time frames. The first time frame occurs in late '60s Bay Area California, and consists of a wheelchair-bound historian, Lyman Ward, who is researching and writing a biography of his grandmother, Susan Burling Ward. Susan's story takes place beginning in the latter-half of the 19th century. She's a cultivated Eastern artist and writer who marries on a whim to escape a love affair gone wrong. Oliver, her husband, is a dutiful husband and father, and an expert mine engineer who lacks the benefit of a college degree. He's very principled, which results in some lost advancement opportunities and jobs. Even despite the hardships she faces in the West – which, Stegner wishes to show us, was never as "wild" as in the American pop-cultural imagination – she stays loyal to her increasingly emotionally distant, physically absent and world-weary husband, and also to her own creative principles. Susan's story is, to a very great extent, based on the letters of [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mary_Hallock_Foote Mary Hallock Foote]], which Stegner was researching at the time.

* GenerationGap: One of the themes, as Lyman is a cranky old man who has nothing but contempt for the spirit of the 1960s, hippies and free love and such. His caretaker's daughter Shelley irritates him with her use of phrases like "having sex" (instead of "making love"), and her ridicule of old-timey Victorian values.

* ATrueStoryInMyUniverse: The in-universe historian is researching his grandmother's letters ostensibly to write a book on them.

* TwilightOfTheOldWest: Arguably, the central thrust of the book. How did we come from Big Men mining stuff and Big Women writing stuff at the edge of the continent to a bunch of hippy-pansy speed freaks protesting just to get cred with all the activist chicks in Berkeley?

* ATrueStoryInMyUniverse: The historian is researching his grandmother's letters ostensibly to write a book on them.

* ATrueStoryInMyUniverse

* DeterminedHomesteadersWife

* ReclusiveArtist

* Prospector: While Oliver is an experienced mining engineer who usually works with very large corporations, he does have to do prospecty things, like guarding his claim with guns.

* StoppedCaring: Lyman displays this through his reclusiveness and his disconnect from his son.

[[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wallace_Stegner Wallace Stegner's]] novel about life in West, published in 1972. It takes place in two different time frames. The first time frame occurs in late '60s Bay Area California, and consists of a wheelchair-bound historian, Lyman Ward, who is researching and writing a biography of his grandmother, Susan Burling Ward. Susan's story takes place beginning in the latter-half of the 19th century. She's a cultivated Eastern artist and writer who marries on a whim to escape a love affair gone wrong. Oliver, her husband, is a dutiful husband and father, and an expert mine engineer who lacks the benefit of a college degree. He's very principled, which results in some lost advancement opportunities and jobs. Even despite the hardships she faces in the West – which, Stegner wishes to show us, was never as "wild" as the American cultural imagination paints it out to be – she stays loyal to her increasingly emotionally distant, physically absent and world-weary husband, and also to her own creative principles. Susan's story is, to a very great extent, based on the letters of [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mary_Hallock_Foote Mary Hallock Foote]], which Stegner was researching at the time.

[[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wallace_Stegner Wallace Stegner's]] novel about life in West, published in 1972. It takes place in two different time frames. The first time frame occurs in late '60s Bay Area California, and consists of a wheelchair-bound historian, Lyman Ward, who is researching and writing a biography of his grandmother, Susan Burling Ward. Susan's story takes place beginning in the latter-half of the 19th century. She's a cultivated Eastern artist and writer who marries on a whim to escape a love affair gone wrong. Oliver, her husband, is a dutiful husband and father, and an expert mine engineer who lacks the benefit of a college degree. He's very principled, which results in some lost advancement opportunities and jobs. Even despite the hardships she faces in the West – which, Stegner wishes to show us, was never as "wild" as the American cultural imagination paints it out to be – she stays loyal to her increasingly emotionally distant and world-weary husband, and to her own creative principles. Susan's story is, to a very great extent, based on the letters of [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mary_Hallock_Foote Mary Hallock Foote]], which Stegner was researching at the time.

Wallace Stegner's novel about life in West, published in 1972. It takes place in two different time frames. The first time frame occurs in late '60s Bay Area California, and consists of a wheelchair-bound historian, Lyman Ward, who is writing a biography of his grandmother, Susan Burling Ward, a cultivated Eastern artist and writer who goes west with Oliver, her husband, a dutiful and expert mine engineer who lacks the benefit of a college degree. Even despite the hardships she faces in the West – which, Stegner wishes to show us, was never as "wild" as in other stories – she stays loyal to her increasingly emotionally distant and world-weary husband, and to her own creative principles. The grandmother's story is based on the letters of [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mary_Hallock_Foote Mary Hallock Foote]].

Wallace Stegner's novel about life in West. It takes place in two different time frames. The first time frame occurs in late '60s Bay Area California, and consists of a wheelchair-bound historian, Lyman Ward, who is writing a biography of his grandmother, Susan Burling Ward, a cultivated Eastern artist and writer who goes west with Oliver, her husband, a dutiful and expert mine engineer who lacks the benefit of a college degree. Even despite the hardships she faces in the West – which, Stegner wishes to show us, was never as "wild" as in other stories – she stays loyal to her increasingly emotionally distant and world-weary husband, and to her own creative principles. The novel is based on the letters of [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mary_Hallock_Foote Mary Hallock Foote]].