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Reviews
A Summer of Faulkner: As I Lay Dying, The Sound and the Fury, Light in August by William Faulkner
princehal's review
4.0
there is some strangely uneven about this book. for the most part i loved it; it was my first experience of faulkner (and, really, any sort of emphatically american modernist work i think? i've been all about that #EuropeanExperience) and his writing is so evocative and uneasy and powerful that the landscape felt like i'd seen it with my own eyes. one description of the sun looking like a bloodied egg still comes to me in odd moments since i first read it and i think all over again how good and weird it is as a description.
i really liked the emphasis on not-knowing in the book; moments where you come close to a revelation, and then it's deferred, or undercut, and you're left thinking your instincts must surely be correct but perhaps you might never know.that's exactly how i felt on the very last pages - as if it was all building up to something meaningful, something that might answer at least some of the confused, messy riddles of before, and then anse reappears with a new wife and basically kicks the floor out from under all of us!! anse!! i can't believe i've had to deal with your NONSENSE behaviour for this entire time and this is how you repay me!!!
i say 'uneven' because there were a couple of character choices towards the end that i felt faulkner went a bit too far with. i'm not sure if 'too far' is the right word, but that's the best i can come up with, and they didn't sit right with the overall mood of the book for me. but they are small irritations, and i am very much looking forward to reading some more faulkner!
i really liked the emphasis on not-knowing in the book; moments where you come close to a revelation, and then it's deferred, or undercut, and you're left thinking your instincts must surely be correct but perhaps you might never know.
i say 'uneven' because there were a couple of character choices towards the end that i felt faulkner went a bit too far with. i'm not sure if 'too far' is the right word, but that's the best i can come up with, and they didn't sit right with the overall mood of the book for me. but they are small irritations, and i am very much looking forward to reading some more faulkner!
tapsandtomes's review
2.0
Can you believe that when I named my blog, I had actually never read Faulkner? I’ve since cut the “As” but really I just thought it was a clever play on words. I wonder what ILR would be called if I HAD read Faulkner first because it definitely would not be the same.
I looked up some Goodreads reviews to help me with this because holy cow I don’t even know how to explain this to you. Someone named Ademption explains it best. “THIS BOOK IS ABOUT HICKS THEY GO TO TOWN.” Thank you Ademption, that really about covers it.
Also, there is a fish.
Mostly, the first half of the book is every person saying “This woman is dying.” “Have you heard she’s dying?” “Do you think Addie might die?”
The second half, yup, you guessed it, Addie died. They trek through mud to get her to her hometown for burial.
GUYS WHY IS THIS BOOK FAMOUS?
The underlying theme, at least from what I can discern is how emotionally abusive their father is. He’s a complete jackass, a cheap bastard, and absolutely hates and ignores the needs of his children.
Annnnd that about covers it. Worst review ever? Maybe. Can we never talk about where I got my blog name again? Faaaaaaaaantastic.
I looked up some Goodreads reviews to help me with this because holy cow I don’t even know how to explain this to you. Someone named Ademption explains it best. “THIS BOOK IS ABOUT HICKS THEY GO TO TOWN.” Thank you Ademption, that really about covers it.
Also, there is a fish.
Mostly, the first half of the book is every person saying “This woman is dying.” “Have you heard she’s dying?” “Do you think Addie might die?”
The second half, yup, you guessed it, Addie died. They trek through mud to get her to her hometown for burial.
GUYS WHY IS THIS BOOK FAMOUS?
The underlying theme, at least from what I can discern is how emotionally abusive their father is. He’s a complete jackass, a cheap bastard, and absolutely hates and ignores the needs of his children.
Annnnd that about covers it. Worst review ever? Maybe. Can we never talk about where I got my blog name again? Faaaaaaaaantastic.
athenalindia's review
5.0
I am feeling totally inadequate to the task of reviewing this book. It's only the second Faulkner I've read, and while I enjoyed Absalom, Absalom, it didn't quite utterly astound me the way this one did.
I was expecting the run-on sentences and outright rejection of periods that I found in the first book. Instead, I found short little chapters, and voices that spoke in terse sentences that only hinted at what lay beneath.
Note: The rest of this review has been withdrawn due to the recent changes in Goodreads policy and enforcement. You can read why I came to this decision here.
In the meantime, you can read the entire review at Smorgasbook
I was expecting the run-on sentences and outright rejection of periods that I found in the first book. Instead, I found short little chapters, and voices that spoke in terse sentences that only hinted at what lay beneath.
Note: The rest of this review has been withdrawn due to the recent changes in Goodreads policy and enforcement. You can read why I came to this decision here.
In the meantime, you can read the entire review at Smorgasbook
mrbonanza's review
3.0
3/5 stars.
Really, really good and worthwhile read overall.
This book was written so well! Faulkner's writing style is so beautiful and descriptive, it makes me want to become a better writer. The stream of consciousness style lends really well to this character driven narrative. I liked how each chapter was narrated by a different character, it kept things fresh and interesting as a reader. I loved the whole tone of this novel, I can't really explain but I liked the dark humor and irony in it. I'm not going to lie, this was a very difficult novel to read. A lot of times I had to turn to the litcharts chapter summaries to understand what was going on completely. The first time I read Dewey Dell's first chapter I didn't even realize it was about her being pregnant. A lot of things flew over my head, but that is more of a personal problem than anything. That being said, I still think William Faulkner is a literary genius and want to read more of his novels.
Really, really good and worthwhile read overall.
This book was written so well! Faulkner's writing style is so beautiful and descriptive, it makes me want to become a better writer. The stream of consciousness style lends really well to this character driven narrative. I liked how each chapter was narrated by a different character, it kept things fresh and interesting as a reader. I loved the whole tone of this novel, I can't really explain but I liked the dark humor and irony in it. I'm not going to lie, this was a very difficult novel to read. A lot of times I had to turn to the litcharts chapter summaries to understand what was going on completely. The first time I read Dewey Dell's first chapter I didn't even realize it was about her being pregnant. A lot of things flew over my head, but that is more of a personal problem than anything. That being said, I still think William Faulkner is a literary genius and want to read more of his novels.
danslimmon's review
5.0
What's to say? It turns out this masterpiece that won Faulkner a Nobel Prize is a good book. I enjoyed it, on account of it was good.
chuffwrites's review
5.0
I have to say, for the first third of the book, I wasn't sure what I was getting myself into. It's a very difficult read, the language is dense and at times it's very confusing who is talking, and what in the world they're talking about. You get used to it, though; gradually, the book kind of teaches you how to read it, and once you've gotten the hang of the language, let me tell you, the pay-off is fantastic.
At its heart this is a book about the journey of a very dysfunctional family. Good things happen to characters who do not deserve it, and bad things to characters who deserved better. Its told in such a way that most of the story is inferred; once you get the hang of the jumbled timelines and switches in points of view, it's a bit like piecing together a mystery, and it is a LOT like being dropped into a real family's lives as a stranger, for you spend a lot of time glancing from one character to the next, working out why this one has a grudge against that one, what the backstory is there, why he did that, etc. Struck me as a very cerebral read; it doesn't flat-out tell you what's going on, and for that reason you have to work harder as a reader to follow. But because of that, like I said before, the pay-off is that much sweeter. I felt so connected to the characters by the end (and so *angry* at the selfishness of one of them, omigod, I was fuming so much I wrinkled my book) and you really begin to appreciate the work and talent required of Faulkner to be able to pull something like this off.
So, if you can whether through the first fifty pages or so and not get impatient or frustrated, I promise, you'll get used to the confusing parts and it'll become a seriously immersive, crazy experience. And I mean CRAZY. I think my favorite part was the scene at the river, because after pages and pages of coffin-building and characters mumbling, all of a sudden EVERYTHING STARTS GOING WRONG. From that scene onwards, the book became a story about a family completely falling apart out of one man's stubbornness and selfishness, and it went from a difficult read to a heart-breaking one. :(
At its heart this is a book about the journey of a very dysfunctional family. Good things happen to characters who do not deserve it, and bad things to characters who deserved better. Its told in such a way that most of the story is inferred; once you get the hang of the jumbled timelines and switches in points of view, it's a bit like piecing together a mystery, and it is a LOT like being dropped into a real family's lives as a stranger, for you spend a lot of time glancing from one character to the next, working out why this one has a grudge against that one, what the backstory is there, why he did that, etc. Struck me as a very cerebral read; it doesn't flat-out tell you what's going on, and for that reason you have to work harder as a reader to follow. But because of that, like I said before, the pay-off is that much sweeter. I felt so connected to the characters by the end (and so *angry* at the selfishness of one of them, omigod, I was fuming so much I wrinkled my book) and you really begin to appreciate the work and talent required of Faulkner to be able to pull something like this off.
So, if you can whether through the first fifty pages or so and not get impatient or frustrated, I promise, you'll get used to the confusing parts and it'll become a seriously immersive, crazy experience. And I mean CRAZY. I think my favorite part was the scene at the river, because after pages and pages of coffin-building and characters mumbling, all of a sudden EVERYTHING STARTS GOING WRONG. From that scene onwards, the book became a story about a family completely falling apart out of one man's stubbornness and selfishness, and it went from a difficult read to a heart-breaking one. :(
alyssab's review
1.0
"...a tale told by an idiot..."? Yes indeedy. That doesn't make it literature. If anyone tells you to read this book, just say no.