Reviews

The Mountain Lion by Jean Stafford

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khilleke's review

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dark reflective slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character

3.25

jwmcoaching's review against another edition

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3.0

Harsh, unforgiving, strange, touching. All of these apply to The Mountain Lion, which kind of reminded me of Camus' The Stranger, but in a completely different setting. Think Mersault crossed with Cormac McCarthy. Stafford is a realist in her prose and almost comes off as existential in her sensibilities. This is deceptively "coming of age," in that it doesn't conform to the standards of that genre, even though you might think that's where it's headed in the beginning.

maryagnes's review

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adventurous challenging dark emotional funny mysterious reflective sad tense slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.75

an_enthusiastic_reader's review against another edition

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5.0

The Mountain Lion is a slim novel, bouncing back and forth between the two main characters, a brother and sister who are bonded together and seem throughout to be united in their contempt for other people, especially their mother and older sisters. The portrait of these characters is not to elicit sympathy, but to draw on the deep well of loneliness and a dawning realization of what growing up can mean. Most of the book takes place in the Colorado mountains during the 1930s; the children take dirty trains to visit their uncle there and are surrounded by people far removed from their mother's pristine, prissy sitting room and the fawning next-door minister who comments on their behavior incessantly. Stafford builds a world that contains the brutal practices of hunting and farming; peril lurks around every corner, but nothing in the outside world can rival the peril of the children's private thoughts. That's as much as I want to say about the book without giving up its mysteries. If you want to read it, go in as blindly as possible. Save any introductions for later, when you're ready.

shalms's review

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5.0

One of the best books I have read in a very long time. Reminded me of Wallace Stegner's novels, To Kill a Mockingbird, and southern writers like Flannery O'Connor and Eudora Welty. Beautiful prose; deadly sharp depictions of arrogant and clueless characters. I highly recommend this book to women in particular and to anyone who enjoys a literary gem of a book. Be forewarned, it is a book of its time and contains some racist language and quite a few stereotypes.