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3.54 AVERAGE
3.54 AVERAGE
emotional
reflective
sad
tense
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
Great characters. Explicit, biting narrative. Faulkner is a genius.
challenging
dark
mysterious
reflective
tense
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
There's something about modernist writing combined with the often phonetically transcribed southern American dialect that turned my brain to mush
Excited to re read this coz I'll probably appreciate it more when I actually understand what's happening
Excited to re read this coz I'll probably appreciate it more when I actually understand what's happening
This is my third Faulkner book and by far my favorite. I'm really glad to be taking a Faulkner class because it really allowed me to get into this author's literature; that said, the author definitely did have horrible views on race and my goal this year is to read from more diverse voices. Faulkner is not one of those for sure, but I will now talk about what I appreciated in this book:
1) The references to the Christian God. I am a sucker for characters who have strangely indoctrinated-like beliefs and, especially in the scene with the pastor running through the storm and screaming, I could see this book being made into a movie. It would make for an intensely dramatic one.
2) The plot of this book is a group of sons and their father dragging a coffin that one of the sons has made all the way to Jefferson, where the mother was born. It makes for some interesting comments about death and motherhood and the way that men sometimes act like their own gods.
3) The themes of wooden features and sawdust were so fun to follow, trace, and think about. Other than that, Faulkner has interesting, strange imagery (especially in Addie's infamous beyond-the-grave chapter).
I would recommend this book over The Sound and the Fury (though I do love The Sound, too) because this one is simply more accessible. Although, one could argue that with The Sound's interesting narration choices, its craft was accomplished well. This book is from 1930 so again, Faulkner was your average "I think I'm better than you" white man, but Faulkner also does deal a lot with the destructive nature of the south and its repetitiveness. He is the author that made me think more about history and how some people are truly, utterly outside of it; either they feel that way, or they belong to minorities and are not included in mainstream statistics. For example, there are many religions that are lumped into "other" on polls and those people have no representation whatsoever and they might as well "not exist" since they are outside of history. I study Religious Studies, so this is particularly of interest to me. I hate Faulkner, too, for the horrible irony of how he brings these ideas up while excluding an entire, oppressed race.
1) The references to the Christian God. I am a sucker for characters who have strangely indoctrinated-like beliefs and, especially in the scene with the pastor running through the storm and screaming, I could see this book being made into a movie. It would make for an intensely dramatic one.
2) The plot of this book is a group of sons and their father dragging a coffin that one of the sons has made all the way to Jefferson, where the mother was born. It makes for some interesting comments about death and motherhood and the way that men sometimes act like their own gods.
3) The themes of wooden features and sawdust were so fun to follow, trace, and think about. Other than that, Faulkner has interesting, strange imagery (especially in Addie's infamous beyond-the-grave chapter).
I would recommend this book over The Sound and the Fury (though I do love The Sound, too) because this one is simply more accessible. Although, one could argue that with The Sound's interesting narration choices, its craft was accomplished well. This book is from 1930 so again, Faulkner was your average "I think I'm better than you" white man, but Faulkner also does deal a lot with the destructive nature of the south and its repetitiveness. He is the author that made me think more about history and how some people are truly, utterly outside of it; either they feel that way, or they belong to minorities and are not included in mainstream statistics. For example, there are many religions that are lumped into "other" on polls and those people have no representation whatsoever and they might as well "not exist" since they are outside of history. I study Religious Studies, so this is particularly of interest to me. I hate Faulkner, too, for the horrible irony of how he brings these ideas up while excluding an entire, oppressed race.
reflective
sad
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
challenging
dark
sad
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
challenging
dark
mysterious
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
Again: I understand analyzing Faulkner, but I think he was a bad person, I don't enjoy his books, and I honestly think that sometimes his stream-of-consciousness style is used as an excuse for places where the writing is sloppy
challenging
dark
emotional
funny
mysterious
reflective
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes