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3.86 AVERAGE
3.86 AVERAGE
Review #2: 6/25/25 (5 stars)
Truly beautiful and sinister in how Faulkner cuts to the hearts of his troubled characters. What Faulkner does better than them all is his intense committment to the pulse of the prose's interbiased, philosophical personality. The "omniscient" narration carries over all of its characters' raging thoughts and presents them as an emotional turmoil of endless paragraphs. You can't help but get swept up in the violence and pain of Faulkner's South because he leaves you no other option, you can't think about your plot safeties when you're getting visually drowned in characters' competing monologues.
On this second reading 8 years later, I was struck by the matter-of-factness in which the characters pivot their ultimatums and decide about how to prove them to each other. I am a little more experienced now in observing how those emotions of "until"'s boil up and over, and I like the intense spirals the narration falls into as the text reckons with what an ultimatum like that would mean after considering what the monologuer has to gain from framing an ultimatum in that way. I love how the prose constantly second guesses / doubts itself, Faulkner is a master at creating oppositional sentences where the antonym isn't immediately obvious and you have to reread a passage or two carefully to figure out why those two things are suddenly presented as grammatically oppositional when the individual words do not make the two items an expected contrast whatsoever. Truly a gift to read any portion of this master wordsmith, and be staggered again and again by how he wisely used those words to burst open and re-arterize the human heart, constantly porous and forcibly grammaticized to the wanton cruelty of the social and physical environments that twists every cord every which way. Absalom, Absalom! benefits from its longform narrative by pushing that poetic miasma into a natural, fully connected whirlwind, and it's brutally efficient in its natural languor cadence.
Review #1: 6/17/17 (3 stars)
A staggering piece of raw emotion from cover to cover, Absalom, Absalom! is a tough read that I had trouble personally connecting with, but is by all means a worthwhile piece of literature. The prose is incredible, as is to be expected from a master architect like Faulkner. Chapters run upwards of 40-50 pages each, which made "just one chapter before bed" quite a Herculean task at times. Unlike The Sound and the Fury, the structure consists of embedded narratives rather than distinct POVs. I found this much harder to swallow for whatever reason, perhaps because it was more difficult to find a character's voice when their thoughts are technically being narrated within Quentin's narration. Biases upon biases, in essence.
To be honest, I subsequently had a very difficult time with the plot. I knew the general outline and the major events, but when I read a plot summary afterwards I was flabbergasted at how much I had missed. This is no beach read, that's for sure. It probably warrants rereadings for the full picture. As a result, I couldn't really connect with the characters. I was observing them making observations about the pitfalls of human nature, but I did not feel for them, which might be why I felt disengaged from the plot.
However, I can say that the passages towards the end streamlined into something quite profound. The interpolation of the central domestic conflict into the grit and silence of the war created a shattering emotional environment that really enhances the final reveals, which explain the bizarre actions of characters as told from others' perspectives. As such, I found the ending to be quite powerful.
While the structure of this novel is essentially a conversation between two extremely eloquent college students, the raw nature of the story of the Sutpens and the unique biases of each character, internal or external to the Sutpen tragedy, make it a worthy read to be sure. I hope to reread it in the future to get a better grasp on what Faulkner has accomplished here.
Truly beautiful and sinister in how Faulkner cuts to the hearts of his troubled characters. What Faulkner does better than them all is his intense committment to the pulse of the prose's interbiased, philosophical personality. The "omniscient" narration carries over all of its characters' raging thoughts and presents them as an emotional turmoil of endless paragraphs. You can't help but get swept up in the violence and pain of Faulkner's South because he leaves you no other option, you can't think about your plot safeties when you're getting visually drowned in characters' competing monologues.
On this second reading 8 years later, I was struck by the matter-of-factness in which the characters pivot their ultimatums and decide about how to prove them to each other. I am a little more experienced now in observing how those emotions of "until"'s boil up and over, and I like the intense spirals the narration falls into as the text reckons with what an ultimatum like that would mean after considering what the monologuer has to gain from framing an ultimatum in that way. I love how the prose constantly second guesses / doubts itself, Faulkner is a master at creating oppositional sentences where the antonym isn't immediately obvious and you have to reread a passage or two carefully to figure out why those two things are suddenly presented as grammatically oppositional when the individual words do not make the two items an expected contrast whatsoever. Truly a gift to read any portion of this master wordsmith, and be staggered again and again by how he wisely used those words to burst open and re-arterize the human heart, constantly porous and forcibly grammaticized to the wanton cruelty of the social and physical environments that twists every cord every which way. Absalom, Absalom! benefits from its longform narrative by pushing that poetic miasma into a natural, fully connected whirlwind, and it's brutally efficient in its natural languor cadence.
Review #1: 6/17/17 (3 stars)
A staggering piece of raw emotion from cover to cover, Absalom, Absalom! is a tough read that I had trouble personally connecting with, but is by all means a worthwhile piece of literature. The prose is incredible, as is to be expected from a master architect like Faulkner. Chapters run upwards of 40-50 pages each, which made "just one chapter before bed" quite a Herculean task at times. Unlike The Sound and the Fury, the structure consists of embedded narratives rather than distinct POVs. I found this much harder to swallow for whatever reason, perhaps because it was more difficult to find a character's voice when their thoughts are technically being narrated within Quentin's narration. Biases upon biases, in essence.
To be honest, I subsequently had a very difficult time with the plot. I knew the general outline and the major events, but when I read a plot summary afterwards I was flabbergasted at how much I had missed. This is no beach read, that's for sure. It probably warrants rereadings for the full picture. As a result, I couldn't really connect with the characters. I was observing them making observations about the pitfalls of human nature, but I did not feel for them, which might be why I felt disengaged from the plot.
However, I can say that the passages towards the end streamlined into something quite profound. The interpolation of the central domestic conflict into the grit and silence of the war created a shattering emotional environment that really enhances the final reveals, which explain the bizarre actions of characters as told from others' perspectives. As such, I found the ending to be quite powerful.
While the structure of this novel is essentially a conversation between two extremely eloquent college students, the raw nature of the story of the Sutpens and the unique biases of each character, internal or external to the Sutpen tragedy, make it a worthy read to be sure. I hope to reread it in the future to get a better grasp on what Faulkner has accomplished here.
challenging
dark
sad
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
Complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
“You get born and you try this and you don't know why only you keep on trying it and you are born at the same time with a lot of other people, all mixed up with them, like trying to, having to, move your arms and legs with string only the same strings are hitched to all the other arms and legs and the others all trying and they don't know why either except that the strings are all in one another's way like five or six people all trying to make a rug on the same loom only each one wants to weave his own pattern into the rug; and it can't matter, you know that, or the Ones that set up the loom would have arranged things a little better, and yet it must matter because you keep on trying and then all of a sudden it's all over and all you have left is a block of stone with scratches on it provided there was someone to remember to have the marble scratched and set up or had time to, and it rains on it and then sun shines on it and after a while they don't even remember the name and what the scratches were trying to tell, and it doesn't matter.”
Staggeringly harrowing and brilliant.
Staggeringly harrowing and brilliant.
challenging
dark
emotional
sad
tense
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
Immense and obscure. I don't know how the printing is in every edition, but it feels like a deliberate choice in my copy of Absalom, Absalom! to have virtually no paragraph breaks whatsoever, in order to further mystify the reader in its shifting perspectives, breathless run-on sentences, and the cruel, stoical South. I was at odds to give the book a five-star rating, because the prose is Faulkner at the height of his powers, but it is a laborious read. I skimmed a sparknotes summary of two chapters I'd read, because I knew I was missing out on so much, and knowing the 'twists' ahead of time allowed me to read without getting too bogged down in troubled confusion over anything and everything.
This book is worth reading, but only to those that know Faulkner well - especially The Sound and the Fury. He has a subtlety unlike any author I've read, save maybe Joyce, with his ability to couch the fascinating meaty 'plot' of his novels in asides and allusions. This wasn't the first book of his to leave me missing crucial details of the story, but since it's his most difficult novel, and since the story, once you're on top of it, is so brilliant, you'll want to give Faulkner your undivided attention as a reader.
As an aside, I will say that one aspect of Faulkner's writing I've always appreciated, if that is the word I may use, relates to his artistic subtlety and in particular his exploration of racism. This isn't To Kill a Mockingbird. Faulkner doesn't wish to grab the reader by their shoulders and scream 'don't be racist!' at them. His South is much more complex and his treatment of the subject more profound. It's difficult for me to articulate my appreciation of his writing without diverting into some thoughtless comments on racism in America now, which I shouldn't claim to understand, not being American, never having been there. Simply put, Faulkner's evocation of America seems in places to be more true to the spirit of the land than the reality of the place itself today, and that speaks to the substantial nature of his work.
This book is worth reading, but only to those that know Faulkner well - especially The Sound and the Fury. He has a subtlety unlike any author I've read, save maybe Joyce, with his ability to couch the fascinating meaty 'plot' of his novels in asides and allusions. This wasn't the first book of his to leave me missing crucial details of the story, but since it's his most difficult novel, and since the story, once you're on top of it, is so brilliant, you'll want to give Faulkner your undivided attention as a reader.
As an aside, I will say that one aspect of Faulkner's writing I've always appreciated, if that is the word I may use, relates to his artistic subtlety and in particular his exploration of racism. This isn't To Kill a Mockingbird. Faulkner doesn't wish to grab the reader by their shoulders and scream 'don't be racist!' at them. His South is much more complex and his treatment of the subject more profound. It's difficult for me to articulate my appreciation of his writing without diverting into some thoughtless comments on racism in America now, which I shouldn't claim to understand, not being American, never having been there. Simply put, Faulkner's evocation of America seems in places to be more true to the spirit of the land than the reality of the place itself today, and that speaks to the substantial nature of his work.
challenging
dark
mysterious
reflective
sad
tense
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
book so bad i spark-noted most it and still didn’t know what was happening
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
Complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
The long, wandering sentenced were exhausting and the narration made the story very confusing. We were not intrigued enough to push through.