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A review by buddhafish
Absalom, Absalom! by William Faulkner
4.0
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.