A review by julian12
Soldiers' Pay by William Faulkner

5.0

William Faulkner manages his predominantly sombre tone so that nothing is too forced in his fine debut novel Soldiers’ Pay. Pathos and absurdity make compelling bedfellows in this story of the tribulations faced by a small group of American soldiers newly returned from the 1914-18 War. Faulkner here uses a much more straightforward technique than in his later books. There is the beginning of a focus on inward states but this does not impede the linear naturalism and clarity of the storyline. The descriptive writing has a plaintive quality in the carefully judged emotional impact. The tightness of the sentences has the sureness and detail of an engraving. It forces concentration and rewards with deeply felt phrasing that leaves the mind hovering in contemplation over each thought. The drunken revelry of the soldiers on the train at the beginning gives way in the tale’s progress to a steadfast contemplation of war’s impacts on participants and those who wait in “unhope” on the home front. At the centre of the story is the broken Lieutenant Mahon – an airman gravely injured, cared for by a gently solicitous buddy and the forceful Mrs Powers who has lost a husband she never truly loved. Mahon is taken home by these two to be reunited with his girl and his father the doting rector who keeps a pathetic collection of keepsakes to remind him of a son presumed dead. What plays out is a sad elegiac drama of the need to believe and hope shared out between those with widely different moral apprehensions of who they are. Mahon’s girl Cecily was never the type to wait for a beloved – she fascinates other suitors like Januarius Jones – a libertine and an amoral presence, or the more conventional George ever yearning, ever exasperated by the inconstant Cecily. The action has elements of the farcical interwoven deftly with wells of emotion that force a catch of breath. I was reminded of Steinbeck by Faulkner’s compassionate concern for the ordinary Joe or Jane and their perennial struggle with character and fate. Faulkner’s writing has a mystery and obscurity that becomes ever more pronounced in his subsequent books but you never want to turn away from what this writer places before you.