Take a photo of a barcode or cover
3.86 AVERAGE
3.86 AVERAGE
I really didn't know what was going on most of the time (made worse by my choice to read the first half via audiobook) and in the end I'm not sure the book was saying anything at all. I will give Faulkner credit for his hypnotic prose style. It's a nice change of pace to read something slow and plodding (but not long just for the sake of it) in this hypercapitalist fast-paced world we live in.
tense
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
dark
mysterious
slow-paced
challenging
medium-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
didn't actually finish this, 100 pages left, but it didn't seem worth it to torture myself any longer. i understand, but i didn't enjoy.
dark
reflective
sad
slow-paced
Took me 20 hours to read what is a 12:31 audiobook. And I’m exhausted thinking about it. I found it difficult to read because of the style. Paragraphs run several pages, make several and turns, many vague and all needs to be clearly connected. But it kept my interest. So there’s that. And the plot isn't hard to follow (in my edition a two-page chronology at the end is a sufficient plot synopsis, but a major spoiler if read before the end.)
This was an extremely difficult book to understand. I almost constantly felt that there were pieces of meaning and story that I was missing. That being said, it was beautiful and interesting.
challenging
dark
emotional
reflective
sad
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
challenging
dark
emotional
sad
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
Complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
109th book of 2022.
4/5. I've bumped many modernist books up after bouts of reflection (Woolf, Joyce, etc.), I think that's the way with the movement: it takes time to bury itself into you. This is often considered Faulkner's masterpiece by some, others hail it as The Sound and the Fury. For now, I'm sticking with the latter for pick, but this is still so fresh in my mind, I can hardly say as of yet. I knew just two things about this novel before opening it: that Quentin Compson is a character and it famously (infamously?) has a 1,288 word sentence.
Faulkner can be hard work, I think on a sentence level (notwithstanding the length of some of them) this one isn't too hard, it's the fact that the entire novel and focus of the novel is held at arm's length. We, as readers, are hearing everything removed from the actual happening. One of the most important chapters, for example, that reveals the most about some of our characters, we read about fourth-hand. Characters telling characters telling characters. Absalom Absalom! is like the literary version of Chinese whispers. The control Faulkner has over his narrative is unbelievable, as expected. He is one of America's great writers, perhaps one of the world's. I am continually astonished by his power. The structure of this novel is always circling, coming back around, taking several steps forwards and then back again; and because of this, it is a difficult one to get into. For the first 100 pages, I was concerned. I wasn't loving it as much as The Sound and the Fury or As I Lay Dying. Once it gains its momentum, it's difficult to stop. The final paragraph is easily worth 5-stars alone, chilling, dramatic, poignant. As a novel, it's got all Faulkner's old tropes and themes nestled within. Brilliant and challenging stuff, everything I look for in a novel, basically.
4/5. I've bumped many modernist books up after bouts of reflection (Woolf, Joyce, etc.), I think that's the way with the movement: it takes time to bury itself into you. This is often considered Faulkner's masterpiece by some, others hail it as The Sound and the Fury. For now, I'm sticking with the latter for pick, but this is still so fresh in my mind, I can hardly say as of yet. I knew just two things about this novel before opening it: that Quentin Compson is a character and it famously (infamously?) has a 1,288 word sentence.
Faulkner can be hard work, I think on a sentence level (notwithstanding the length of some of them) this one isn't too hard, it's the fact that the entire novel and focus of the novel is held at arm's length. We, as readers, are hearing everything removed from the actual happening. One of the most important chapters, for example, that reveals the most about some of our characters, we read about fourth-hand. Characters telling characters telling characters. Absalom Absalom! is like the literary version of Chinese whispers. The control Faulkner has over his narrative is unbelievable, as expected. He is one of America's great writers, perhaps one of the world's. I am continually astonished by his power. The structure of this novel is always circling, coming back around, taking several steps forwards and then back again; and because of this, it is a difficult one to get into. For the first 100 pages, I was concerned. I wasn't loving it as much as The Sound and the Fury or As I Lay Dying. Once it gains its momentum, it's difficult to stop. The final paragraph is easily worth 5-stars alone, chilling, dramatic, poignant. As a novel, it's got all Faulkner's old tropes and themes nestled within. Brilliant and challenging stuff, everything I look for in a novel, basically.