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3.87 AVERAGE
3.87 AVERAGE
3.5 stars
Trying to not feel too guilty for rating this book only average - the truth is, it was a slog to get through. Lots of n-word (which even used ironically or whatever, you know what, it's a lot to the modern eye); and nested parentheses, which is not a thing that should need to exist. Yes, it's well crafted language, not some brainless teenager's stump, but goddamn did I pick up and put this down a lot.
That said, the payoff with the twists is...hahaha holy shit should've, but didn't, see it coming. Stream of consciousness, not saying much directly right off, does do wonders there.
But I do like 'As I lay Dying' more.
Trying to not feel too guilty for rating this book only average - the truth is, it was a slog to get through. Lots of n-word (which even used ironically or whatever, you know what, it's a lot to the modern eye); and nested parentheses, which is not a thing that should need to exist. Yes, it's well crafted language, not some brainless teenager's stump, but goddamn did I pick up and put this down a lot.
That said, the payoff with the twists is...hahaha holy shit should've, but didn't, see it coming. Stream of consciousness, not saying much directly right off, does do wonders there.
But I do like 'As I lay Dying' more.
4.5 stars for sure. Classic for a reason. Beautiful fucking prose, truly insane family romance story. It made me think about so much--like the house being both a womb and a tomb. So much about reproduction and anxieties about race, lineage, and familial lines. Maybe it's because I'm in full dissertation mode but I was like "god damn I could write about this."
It took me 5ever to read. I haven't read Faulkner since high school though I've been wanting to for years and years. I had a dream that one of my undergrad English professors appeared to me and told me to read this book. That was like 4 years ago and I just wasn't in the right mindset for such a challenge then. Glad I finally managed it now!
I'm not going to lie, I had to read the sparknotes after I finished some chapters because it's so purposefully unclear and confusing. That said it became more clear as the book went on, but still retained the kind of awe I had in the beginning.
Also, fuck Shreve, what a tool.
It took me 5ever to read. I haven't read Faulkner since high school though I've been wanting to for years and years. I had a dream that one of my undergrad English professors appeared to me and told me to read this book. That was like 4 years ago and I just wasn't in the right mindset for such a challenge then. Glad I finally managed it now!
I'm not going to lie, I had to read the sparknotes after I finished some chapters because it's so purposefully unclear and confusing. That said it became more clear as the book went on, but still retained the kind of awe I had in the beginning.
Also, fuck Shreve, what a tool.
challenging
dark
emotional
mysterious
reflective
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
“And now,” Shreve said, “we’re going to talk about love.” (253)
I found it hard to stay interested at first, but the book really hits its stride in the second half. I love the framing of two college roommates—(or one, as they both are taken back and sit atop that horse (an Arab (the horse, not the rider)) and see through his (“The Demon’s”, Shreve interjects) eyes that dew-crowned morning at Gettysburg)—in their dorm on a frosty Massachusetts night litigating and speculating and unweaving the tale of a portentous and proscribed Southern patriarch. The dialogue felt David Foster Wallace-esque at times (a positive). I wonder how much this book is supposed to be connected to The Sound And The Fury; this story certainly has deeper significance in light of that one (and even a pretty big plot spoiler for that book, not that youd necessarily read it for the plot). Fun fact: apparently this book at one point held the Guinness world record for the longest sentence—1,288 words.
In some ways, this book is a hot mess. I really struggled in that I get caught up in how beautiful and perfect Faulkner's writing is. Subsequently, I get lost from the story.
Faulkner's style is unique. it was work to read this, but worth it. I may want to tackle as i Lay Dying in the near future. I was reading this with the Amherst Jones Library Classic book group. We had to stop due to the Pandemic.
Bummer...
Bummer...
Anyone who wants to get married on a plantation should be forced to read this book first.
challenging
dark
mysterious
sad
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
Complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
What?
As always, Faulkner delivers a wonderfully gothic work of half-truths and full lies that is drowning in long sentences and paragraphs of prosaic genius. Never have I enjoyed a description of someone being called a naive country boy more than in this novel.
Friends of mine will know that I make no attempt to hide my enthusiasm for William Faulkner, which is strange considering the fact that I am not white and I am not from the South.
And yet, I think that degree of separation makes reading Faulkner so enjoyable for me because the way he writes about race, heritage, and collective history is exactly why he is worth reading for anyone who enjoys literature.
But even ignoring the matters of race and the South that Faulkner cares so much about (which would be a grave mistake for anyone analysing Faulkner), there is still much to take away. When reading Faulkner, the most important thing to consider is the way he approaches time, linearity, and truth in his novels. Or rather, the ways in which he ignores and outright refuses them. Faulkner's greatest virtue, in my opinion, is that while there are some moral virtues he will take for certain, there are a few ontological matters he seems to regularly reject. In the (now) four Faulkner novels that I've read, Faulkner regularly will jump through time, ignore linearity, and reject certain matters of objectivity.
Without giving much about this particular novel away, I think that Absalom, Absalom! is the best example that I've read thus far when it comes to how Faulkner treats these three facets of traditional storytelling. In this novel, time is of the utmost importance when considering the gaps in time in the narrative, as well as the periods of time over which many pivotal events occur. This ties into Faulkner's preference for nonlinear storytelling, of course, but what is most interesting about this novel is how Faulkner unveils the truth.
For the full effect, just read the book. But the ways that Faulkner delivers the truth to the reader are so well done, from the ways in which Quentin, his father, and Shreve are removed from the events of the story, and even to the ways in which one can question the facts are so brilliantly done that I just ask that the reader of this review take the time needed to work through this novel. But more importantly, I think what's impressive is that in some ways the truth doesn't matter: all the events of the timeline are crucial, but there is this lurking element of helplessness, of an existential doom that even borders on a sort of amor fati that is truly hard to describe.
And that, I think, is Faulkner's argument: past a certain point in your life, the circumstances just don't matter so much as moving forward does. Of course, this is partially what Faulkner means to tell the South, to that specific breed of Southern-born child that romanticises a past they can never understand, experience, or return to, and one they never should in the first place not because it is long dead and defeated, but because it was damned from the beginning with a depraved past that it should never be romanticised.
Attempts at writing like Faulkner aside, Absalom, Absalom! delivers a wonderful story with some of Faulkner's best characters that reminds the reader that while the past is dead, and it haunts the present, the future is still yet to be made, hopefully better.
As always, Faulkner delivers a wonderfully gothic work of half-truths and full lies that is drowning in long sentences and paragraphs of prosaic genius. Never have I enjoyed a description of someone being called a naive country boy more than in this novel.
Friends of mine will know that I make no attempt to hide my enthusiasm for William Faulkner, which is strange considering the fact that I am not white and I am not from the South.
And yet, I think that degree of separation makes reading Faulkner so enjoyable for me because the way he writes about race, heritage, and collective history is exactly why he is worth reading for anyone who enjoys literature.
But even ignoring the matters of race and the South that Faulkner cares so much about (which would be a grave mistake for anyone analysing Faulkner), there is still much to take away. When reading Faulkner, the most important thing to consider is the way he approaches time, linearity, and truth in his novels. Or rather, the ways in which he ignores and outright refuses them. Faulkner's greatest virtue, in my opinion, is that while there are some moral virtues he will take for certain, there are a few ontological matters he seems to regularly reject. In the (now) four Faulkner novels that I've read, Faulkner regularly will jump through time, ignore linearity, and reject certain matters of objectivity.
Without giving much about this particular novel away, I think that Absalom, Absalom! is the best example that I've read thus far when it comes to how Faulkner treats these three facets of traditional storytelling. In this novel, time is of the utmost importance when considering the gaps in time in the narrative, as well as the periods of time over which many pivotal events occur. This ties into Faulkner's preference for nonlinear storytelling, of course, but what is most interesting about this novel is how Faulkner unveils the truth.
For the full effect, just read the book. But the ways that Faulkner delivers the truth to the reader are so well done, from the ways in which Quentin, his father, and Shreve are removed from the events of the story, and even to the ways in which one can question the facts are so brilliantly done that I just ask that the reader of this review take the time needed to work through this novel. But more importantly, I think what's impressive is that in some ways the truth doesn't matter: all the events of the timeline are crucial, but there is this lurking element of helplessness, of an existential doom that even borders on a sort of amor fati that is truly hard to describe.
And that, I think, is Faulkner's argument: past a certain point in your life, the circumstances just don't matter so much as moving forward does. Of course, this is partially what Faulkner means to tell the South, to that specific breed of Southern-born child that romanticises a past they can never understand, experience, or return to, and one they never should in the first place not because it is long dead and defeated, but because it was damned from the beginning with a depraved past that it should never be romanticised.
Attempts at writing like Faulkner aside, Absalom, Absalom! delivers a wonderful story with some of Faulkner's best characters that reminds the reader that while the past is dead, and it haunts the present, the future is still yet to be made, hopefully better.
challenging
dark
emotional
mysterious
reflective
sad
tense
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
once again im gagged dumbfounded and incredulous over how this mf wrote this
a crazy slow burn but once the wheel turns it really punches you in the gut and heart. both an admonishment and a historically aligned account of the American South’s self-destruction in the tragic story of this man who like the rest of the Southern plantation owners (maybe to a larger extent any power-hungry person like ever) wanted to become God but failed under the failed realization of life’s unpredictability and the sad reality of a system that was already bound to self-destruct in its incarnation.
its crazy how bro wrote this and showed the folly and sadness of the south yet still supported segregation i mean idk maybe hes like quentin in his inability to fully repudiate the south because of his own family’s history, showing how if he hates the South he knowingly hates the very essence of himself. honestly a perfrct accompaniment to “the brutalist.”
a crazy slow burn but once the wheel turns it really punches you in the gut and heart. both an admonishment and a historically aligned account of the American South’s self-destruction in the tragic story of this man who like the rest of the Southern plantation owners (maybe to a larger extent any power-hungry person like ever) wanted to become God but failed under the failed realization of life’s unpredictability and the sad reality of a system that was already bound to self-destruct in its incarnation.
its crazy how bro wrote this and showed the folly and sadness of the south yet still supported segregation i mean idk maybe hes like quentin in his inability to fully repudiate the south because of his own family’s history, showing how if he hates the South he knowingly hates the very essence of himself. honestly a perfrct accompaniment to “the brutalist.”
Read for my American Novels Since 1900 class.
One of the greatest American novels of all time, in my option. William Faulkner is not only one of the greatest American authors of all time, but arguably the greatest Southern writer of all time as well. His portrayals of the South are brutally honest and without mercy and still have the power to ring true today to all of those people (like me) who grew up within it's boarders.
One of the greatest American novels of all time, in my option. William Faulkner is not only one of the greatest American authors of all time, but arguably the greatest Southern writer of all time as well. His portrayals of the South are brutally honest and without mercy and still have the power to ring true today to all of those people (like me) who grew up within it's boarders.
dark
emotional
mysterious
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes