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3.87 AVERAGE
3.87 AVERAGE
I liked it, but I thought that As I lay dying was better. It's got some great themes from the the Old South and the prose themselves are, as to be expected from Faulkner, very rich.
jesus was this a journey to get through
i understand its a classic, and i read it for class but GOODNESS GRACIOUS when i say i cannot handle chapters of literal paragraphs of story telling with little to no narrative, all the while the entire story being told THREE times from different perspectives...
i just cannot im so glad its over
i understand its a classic, and i read it for class but GOODNESS GRACIOUS when i say i cannot handle chapters of literal paragraphs of story telling with little to no narrative, all the while the entire story being told THREE times from different perspectives...
i just cannot im so glad its over
It took me a while to get used to Faulkner's incredibly long sentences, and longer still to actually get through this book, but I was actually interested and invested enough to want to finish it. Barring the first 25% of The Sound and the Fury , this is the first thing I've read from Faulkner. The achronological revealing of details reminded me a little bit of Ishiguro's Never Let Me Go, in that I felt that in the back of my mind I already knew what was going on before it was fully explored.
I did enjoy reading it, there were a lot of things that I felt was significant but ultimately went over my head. I'm curious enough to actually go read up on the analysis of this book, but I'm not going higher than 3 stars when my reaction immediately upon reading the last words was just, "huh. okay then."
I did enjoy reading it, there were a lot of things that I felt was significant but ultimately went over my head. I'm curious enough to actually go read up on the analysis of this book, but I'm not going higher than 3 stars when my reaction immediately upon reading the last words was just, "huh. okay then."
Sometimes when a book is so hard to understand, it's not high reading level writing, it's just bad writing.
I made it about two thirds of the way through and just don't see the point in finishing. I loved The Sound and the Fury, so I'm surprised by how much I disliked this. It just feels like a mess and the experimental aspect is just boring this time - what's he doing that he didn't already do? It also seemed weird and unnecessary to me to revisit Quentin...I was so confused when I started this and saw he was a character and had to double check that he is the same Quentin from The Sound and the Fury. This felt like a retread to me in a lot of ways. Maybe it was bad timing on my part, but I just could not get into it. I especially hate this because I bought my copy at the bookstore in his old house in New Orleans. At least I liked Soldier's Pay, which I bought on the same trip.
I am not ashamed to admit that a) I barely understood this book and b) I had to Sparknotes most of it. I think my critical reading brain disappeared when I graduated from college. I am giving it 3 stars because I only 3-star understood what was happening. So much for reading the classics during social distancing! Recommended for people who want a tough read and enjoy old southern sass.
Small town scandal and fables of the reconstruction, as told by elders to doomed Quentin Compson and by him to his college roommate.
It is, I think it is fair to say, a ~dense~ novel, and not one to be taken in effortlessly on the first pass on an audiobook. A couple of eye-readings, one with an open notebook on hand, would probably be more effective. On the other hand, the stories and language have a lot of charm when read out loud.
Much of the effect of the book seems to depend on figuring out who knew what when, which is made all the more tricky as much of the action is reported third or fourth hand, or is simply speculative -- one character thinking about what another character probably thought or did. Keeping track of all that would be where that notebook would come in handy. In the meantime, I'm so far from being able to really understand this book that I haven't completely figured out why it's called Absolom, Absolom!, despite being reasonably up on the Book of Samuel.
It is, I think it is fair to say, a ~dense~ novel, and not one to be taken in effortlessly on the first pass on an audiobook. A couple of eye-readings, one with an open notebook on hand, would probably be more effective. On the other hand, the stories and language have a lot of charm when read out loud.
Much of the effect of the book seems to depend on figuring out who knew what when, which is made all the more tricky as much of the action is reported third or fourth hand, or is simply speculative -- one character thinking about what another character probably thought or did. Keeping track of all that would be where that notebook would come in handy. In the meantime, I'm so far from being able to really understand this book that I haven't completely figured out why it's called Absolom, Absolom!, despite being reasonably up on the Book of Samuel.