Angle of Repose

Angle of Repose is a 1971 novel by Wallace Stegner that explores the history of the American West through the eyes of a wheelchair-bound historian named Lyman Ward. Ward is researching the lives of his grandparents, who were pioneers in the late 19th century. The book masterfully weaves past and present together.

Yes, Angle of Repose won the prestigious Pulitzer Prize for Fiction in 1972. The award solidified Wallace Stegner's reputation as a master of Western American literature. The novel is widely considered his greatest masterpiece.

The novel is framed by a first-person narrator named Lyman Ward, a retired historian who is confined to a wheelchair. As he deals with his own physical and emotional struggles in the present, he pieces together the biography of his grandmother. Ward's research allows him to reflect on his own failing marriage.

The title Angle of Repose is an engineering term referring to the maximum angle at which a material, like sand or gravel, remains stable without sliding down. In Wallace Stegner's 1971 novel, it serves as a metaphor for the balance and stability the characters seek in their lives. It questions how much a person can tilt before their life collapses.