Reviews

Took me ages to get through the first 100 pages and then everything just clicked; I cracked the code and finally learnt how to read this book. The rest was an absolute treat, just incredible writing and innovation. Felt like a huge jigsaw puzzle... like there was this mystery hidden throughout. Turns out there was, and it also turns out that reading the timeline of events and character list at the back of the book spoils all of said mystery. But alas...

I just have these burning images in my brain of the different scenes and the characters... absolute ferocity... the force of writing and intensity just barrels you along through the minds of the narrators. And suddenly we're in one room and suddenly we're in another. And then we're in a metaphor, and then we're back with Sutpen, or back in Harvard. I just love having all of these loose threads as you're reading, but having no idea when you're going to get the chance to tie them. Like, I knew the novel was going to reach a climax, but I didn't know it was THAT that was going to be the climax. So there are multiple climaxes, and then the last 100 pages is like a rollercoaster through a volcano.

I wish I could do a bigger review, because I am giving this book five stars, but I genuinely don't know how to describe it. It's either because the book is so strange and evil that I can't, or it's because I feel very uninspired in class learning about it... I'm gonna say it's a mix of both. And I also just really enjoy Faulkner's style of writing. He's the closest to Virginia Woolf I've read, and we all know how much I LOVE Virginia Woolf. Maybe just read my Woolf reviews, turn down the volume by like 2, and then those are my thoughts. With some extra Southern twang.

Really wish I could learn about this book in a classroom... four semesters of Zoom classes... Zoom, Zoom! by The University of Sydney... one day... one day...

casparb's review against another edition

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4.0

Been a while since I was at the Faulkner. Absalom (x2) is a very insistent, vigorous text. It's not so demanding as S&F, but certainly requires considerable focus. One can become lost quite easily - rereading chapters is recommended.

Also a brilliant one on the title. Even if the book of Samuel is familiar, the reference can pass by.

Faulkner shines as always, in the style. Here and there he channels Wilde (the opening stacks adjectives upon adjectives almost parodically). Elsewhere, I find myself reminded of ancient mystical authors. Love all that.

'we see dimly people, the people in whose living blood and seed we ourselves lay dormant and waiting, in this shadowy attenuation of time possessing now heroic proportions, performing their acts of simple passion and simple violence, impervious to time and inexplicable'

'Yes. Maybe we are both Father. Maybe nothing ever happens once and is finished. Maybe happen is never once but like ripples maybe on water after the pebble sinks, the ripples moving on, spreading, the pool attached by a narrow umbilical water-cord to the next pool which the first pool feeds, has fed, did feed, let this second pool contain a different temperature of water, a different molecularity of having seen, felt, remembered, reflect in a different tone the infinite unchanging sky, it doesn't matter: that pebble's watery echo whose fall it did not even see moves across its surface too at the original ripple-space, to the old ineradicable rhythm thinking Yes, we are both Father.'
I'm reminded of Ulysses here - the water-talk in Ithaca, the feminine 'Yes' of Penelope. Also something of an ee cummings poem here.

anitaderouen's review against another edition

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challenging emotional informative mysterious tense slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

klabe15's review against another edition

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challenging dark reflective sad tense

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

ralowe's review against another edition

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4.0

sharon patricia holland, edouard glissant and hortense spillers oh yeah and fred moten brought me to faulkner but then left me there. my impression from other faulkner readers-- or really a better description is just other people who did or once or twice or had to read faulkner-- is this his other stuff is not a stream of consciousness mess. that's what i get for jumping around the canon without a trusty roadmap. but the loss of roadmap, compass or complete genealogy chart (timeline on last page, tho) is what immerses you helplessly in the traumatic gothic psychological mess of america-- not just the south-- and i'm fourstarring for the moments that are truly brilliant. but chattel slavery is still a downer and although this book is allegedly this well-read american classical monument practically nothing in the mainstream really reflects the evidence of reading, so. what's missing?

justinlavish's review against another edition

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challenging dark mysterious sad slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

franklyfrank's review against another edition

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challenging dark mysterious relaxing slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.75

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