Welcome to Litsy!

A lot of deep Faulkner readers say this is his best book. I found it hard - 4-min/pg hard. It propels itself. But it didn‘t leave me in awe. Just exhausted. My 12th Faulkner novel, and by far the most difficult to read.

57 pages in and Bail. I am not a fan of Faulkner‘s writing style. I will only read a certain number of pages in a book before I will not push forward any further. Life is too short and there are too many good reads to be had. I would have considered giving him another chance at another novel but I didn‘t care for the Sound and the Fury either with my main discontent being the authors style. This will be my last attempt at Faulkner.

What an utterly amazing book by certainly a brilliant author. It deals with all aspects of human nature and relationships: love, lust, family issues, rivalry, greed...and on and on. Then, there‘s the characterizations which not only include complex people but also a house, the South and the Civil War era. It reads like an unfolding and once you get to the core, you find the never-ending branches that remain with you. ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

There are some things which happen to us which the intelligence and the senses refuse...occurrences that stop us dead...like a sheet of glass through which we watch all subsequent events...

(I surprisingly required a hip replacement)

Just like with Virginia Woolf, halfway through, I figured out Faulkner‘s language. Wow, what an amazing book including the writing, characterization and story. It can be understood once you realize that he goes on a tangent until he gets back to the main point of the sentence. (Haha, my husband does that; maybe why I‘m familiar.) It‘s written from different perspectives so it did not matter that I skipped ahead.

I just couldn‘t help myself! I skipped ahead to the end of the book. It was kinda worth it. Now I‘m going back to my original place. Although the writing is beautiful and the story is so compelling, Faulkner was getting too long-winded.

I am truly surprised at how much I am enjoying this book. Looks like there‘s more Faulkner in my reading future. His writing style is like Virginia Woolf‘s. You stop and say: Whoa! Did he just say all of that? 🤓

I‘m glad I read this, but it was hard to get through and while the prose was beautiful in a lot of places I didn‘t like it as much as the sound and the fury and was surprised to see it called Faulkner‘s masterpiece when I‘ve liked others of his so much more. I felt lost a lot and the sheer scale of use of the N-word was jarring for me.

#scarathlon2020 #teamharkness @StayCurious +6 pts

Before the year started and in the absence of outer structure, I made myself this list of reading goals for 2020. It was casually done but then I became absolutely obsessed with sticking to it. I‘ve bailed on only one so far (The Stolen Child), but I keep going back and forth on whether or not to finish Absalom, Absalom! I am itching to get to October‘s creepy reads.

That was all. Or rather, not all, since there is no all, no finish; it not the blow we suffer from but the tedious repercussive anti-climax of it, the rubbishy aftermath to clear away from off the very threshold of despair.

The strange places you go when looking up something on Wikipedia....did not expect to end up rewatching Beyoncé‘s “Formation” video because of Absalom, Absalom! but glad it happened.

#weeklyforecast for me and #hiselderliness

I‘m going to continue with Absalom Absalom and hopefully get into IQ as well, which is a #blameitonReggie read 😂

Two nature books for dad. Had to wait for weeks for the Wilding book at the library - seems very popular!

Well Mr Faulkner, we didn‘t want you in our #spinsterlit club anyway! Embattled in virginity indeed. Tish tosh young man.

(But all the same, I am enjoying this!)

This book is truly a fantastic read. It was a very difficult book to follow sometimes but truly worth every moment.

Friends of the Library book sale haul. I am anxious to give Faulkner a go.. I'll probably just add my own punctuation 🤣

@Dempsey BOO!

#quotsyjune19 #pattern

This one took some getting through. The style was hard work and even harder to follow the plot as two characters basically speculated their way through the history of Sutpen‘s rise and fall. The descriptions were beautiful but the structure of the tale was gosh-darn hard work.

“It was just public opinion in an acute state of indigestion.”

What a brilliant line!

So close to finishing this now, I can almost taste it. This marks the 5th book down on what most people believe is the ‘100 Books to read before you die‘ list as seen in Denzel Washington‘s “The Equalizer” movie. It‘s been a hard, hard slog through Faulkner‘s classic and I have to admit, it didn‘t have much of an impact on me...

Probably Faulkner's greatest novel. He simultaneously crafts a riveting tale of colossal ambition and reveals how that story is the product of its narrators' speculations.

Crosby approved. #catsofLitsy

Crosby inspects Hardcovers from the Library sale.

A little, light early morning lake reading.

I found this rather unusual drawing of Rosa Coldfield to go with today's #bachelorette prompt for #Fiercefeb
Atrocious drawings aside... Rosa Coldfield is a great example of the post civil war Southern woman whose sense of reality is irreparably shattered.
If you haven't already read Absalom Absalom please, please do. It's absolutely worth it.
@Cinfhen @batsy

🌟January books! 🌟 So this is a much smaller number than usual as I kept to some New Years resolutions! 1) Only one book at a time and 2) Only real copies, no e-books. It was great - I read slower, enjoyed more, and didn‘t feel pressure to keep up or lose attention span. Winner of the month: ☝🏼Absalom! Absalom!

In spite of the surface racism and misogyny, this book was actually full of strong women and pointed out in its 1930‘s way how nonsensical trying to divide people by race is. The prose is dense but lovely, and there was sly humor and atmospheric descriptions galore. #litsyclassics @Sarah83

“one of those things that when they work you were smart and when they dont [sic] you change your name and move to Texas “ 😆

Half the previous, unseen page, all the way to the arrow is ONE sentence. This book astounds me. #Faulkner

“I waited not for light but for that doom which we call female victory which is: endure and then endure, without rhyme or reason or hope of reward —and then endure;”
Most sentences in this book are too long to quote, so here‘s a sentence fragment! I‘m enjoying this book, but it‘s not one to read quickly.

Settling in for the last bit of the weekend with Faulkner and my cozy socks. #sockSunday

This prose is so dense, yet so beautiful. I can tell it‘s going to take me a long time to finish. (Especially if my husband keeps talking to me while I‘m reading. 😏) @shawnmooney @batsy Want to jump back in? #LitsyClassics @Sarah83

So the family text thread became a literary meme war tonight. I found this one. #faulkner #currentread

My husband and I finished de-decorating and then rearranged the living room. Now I‘m settling in to start this for my #letterA for #LitsyClassics. After the bomb that was my last read I wanted a sure thing. 😀 @Sarah83

...when a book is so much more...love it from the first page to the end... #williamfaulkner #absalomabsalm

The Complete #bookhaul that I found in the mailbox when I got home from yoga tonight! All of these are for challenges, and all but the Tadjo are from Better World Books, my first experience with them. They were fast and all look to be in good shape. They‘re all ex-library books, but I don‘t know if that‘s coincidence or if all of their books come from libraries. I‘m excited to read them all!

Baby's First Faulkner.

#catchingup on #fallintobooks #day14 - #classicsforclassicshaters

Can't say this will win over the haters, only that it was among the first classics I really enjoyed, certainly the first to encourage me to actively seek them out.

This is not my usual kind of bail: this is but a deferral. I typically read about a dozen books at any one time; a William Faulkner novel is not meant to be read this way. I found it mind-blowingly interesting, and I loved the rich, dense prose. So I'm going to try again at some point and read only it, hopefully alongside other readers, maybe a professor or two, and with secondary reading guides. Looking forward to it!

20 year old college Ashlin tickles the shit out of me. #bookmark #obviously

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This is absolutely mesmerizing: I'm not sure I should be reading it at 11 at night after a long, busy day… :-)

It's my first Faulkner novel. I've long heard you either love or hate his prose. There's no in-between. I think I might belong in the former category. 💖