3.68 AVERAGE


A novel unlike Faulkner's others in that it takes place in many locations across America. Not as gripping as some of his other works.
challenging dark reflective sad 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: Complicated
challenging dark reflective 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

Stellar prose dressing up some depressingly misogynistic and adolescent themes. This is the story of a number of different characters all haunted and horrified by responsibility. Man as the eternal existential hero and woman as the inexorable biological quagmire. The sexual politics are troubling, though certainly symptomatic of the times, and the Old Man narrative is absolutely stunning in its depiction of the river in all its destructive and instructive glory.

Genius in writing two separate stories that are not at surface level related, but beneath are intricately so. On their own neither is spectacular - they both just miss the mark - , but together their is an achievement. Had a depressing Les Miz feel throughout the whole thing.

Between grief and nothing, I'll take grief ....

I really loved the stories in this book. It was really neat how the two stories alternated, giving us the same themes, without ever connecting. That format made it a quick and interesting read. However, I felt that the characters lacked some dimension, I was never really invested in what happened to them, although maybe that was the point. I was turned off by the repeated racism and misogyny, while it is expected from a southern writer of the time, I'm not sure it has a place on my modern bookshelf.
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merixien's review

4.0

“Acıyla yokluk arasında acıyı seçiyorum ben." 

Çılgın Palmiyeler benim William Faulkner’dan okuduğum ilk kitap oldu. Açıkcası oldukça zorlanacağıma o kadar emindim ki ilk bölümü okuduktan sonra bir afalladım, zira oldukça rahat akan bir girişti. Ancak ikinci bölüm ile hikayenin benim sandığım kadar kolay olmayacağı gerçeği ile yüzleştim.

Kitap aslında iki ayrı öykünün birbiri ardına bölüm bölüm aktarımıyla ilerliyor. Belli bir yere kadar bu iki öykünün birleşmesini bekliyorsunuz. Ancak her ikisi de beş bölüme ayrılmış ve birbiri ardına serpiştirilmiş bu hikayelerin ilk bakışta hiçbir ortak noktaları bulunmuyor. Ortak karakterleri yok, çapraz olay örgüsü içinde değiller hatta zamanları dahi ortak değil. Yazarın kendisi de bu kitabın bir tür “kontrpuan” olduğunu ifade etmiş. Paralel akan bu iki hikaye farklı anlatı tarzları, zaman sıçramaları, sapmalar ve varoluşun iki temel noktası doğum ve ölüm ile besleniyor. Öyküler ise belirgin bir şekilde özgürlük, özgürlüğün kaybı ve insanın özgürlük algısının karşılaştırılması noktasında kesişiyor. İki erkek, iki kadın ve zıt açılarla oluşturulmuş, ayrık görünen bu iki hikaye aslında hem biçim hem de içerik olarak birbirine bağlanıyor.

Çok rahat bir okuma olmadı ancak bilinç akışı ile kahramanların hikayesi o kadar güzel bir araya getirilmiş ki o zorluğun karşılığını alıyorsunuz. Yazarın kitaplarını okumaya başlamayı planlıyorsanız ideal bir seçim olur.

4,5 ⭐️

Faulkner just isn't my cup of tea. I love books and I mostly enjoy when writers experiment with written language. But a Faulkner novel is more work than enjoyment in my opinion. I have to work so hard to follow the language that I often lose track of comprehension and am not always confident that I know what is going on.

Of the two parallel stories, I enjoyed Wild Palms more.

My mother asked me what I thought of it, and mentioned that she thought it sounded kind of "steamy" from the GoodReads summary, so this started out as a comment on her comment and then turned into a general commentary/review so I thought it would make more sense to just make my official comment lol.

I thought it was excellent. there's not really a lot of explicit sex in it, so i wouldn't call it steamy so much as "shocking" in the context of the times. there's a mention of using a douche, there's two abortions (not graphic, nothing like Cider House Rules, thank God), but the purpose of the sex is not for its own sake but to contribute to the realism of the book. the whole point is that there are two stories interpolated with each other, and they have absolutely NOTHING to do with each other. there's no crossover of characters, or even types of characters, time, place, etc. there are, however, various themes which are common to both. The name of one story is Wild Palms, and the other is Old Man. I remember my professor telling us what the deal was with the title being "If I Forget Thee, Jerusalem", but I don't remember what it was.… In any case, the Wild Palms story is where the sex takes place, and the realism of the relationship portrayed there is infinitely enhanced by the unequivocal, unapologetic, *unromantic* presence of their sexual acts.

My new favorite Faulkner. Highly recommended.