Four Years of Hungering

Publishers Weekly

Set during the 1940s, Stephenson's sparse novella documents how a young man named Dal navigates his new life as a student at Baxter College in the South. Attending Baxter on a scholarship gained via the recommendation of a local preacher, Dal—the last of nine children born to farming parents—soon finds himself in the company of various young men and women, as well as a succession of roommates, most of whom remain peripheral throughout the book. Stephenson's highly anecdotal approach, which features little reflection or character development, does manage to create an abundance of nostalgic warmth, with Dal alternating between campus, work, family visits, dates, and a brief hospitalization for chronic appendicitis. However, during Dal's four years at Baxter, potentially salient moments, including the production of a minstrel show in the segregated South, the end of WWII, and his own marriage, are all but glossed over. At the novella's end, Dal emerges as a good-natured witness to his own life, rather than a memorable figure going through profound changes. In this mild account of incidental encounters, Dal declares, "So much satisfaction had been gained in my four years of hungering for knowledge..." However, the book and its characters lack the complexity requisite for such a statement.