Started today. And after reading a couple notes…looks like I‘ll need to read that part over again.
pickThis a simple story that is stuffed full of Faulknerism which is not necessarily every person‘s cup of tea. Written in a stream of consciousness style with circular imagery, opaque idiomatic references, and a profound understanding of a bygone South and people, this book somehow positions the reader as the intruder and leaves us in the dust. Thoroughly enjoyable if you are OK with bowing to Faulkner‘s world.
pickFaulkner‘s 1st book set in his fictional Yoknapatawpha county MS. It sets the backdrop most of his other work going forward. His postage stamp. It was rejected by publishers for having no plot or character development.
And yet I enjoyed it. I took in these characters and I closed it with real affection - the myth of Colonel John Sartoris, his brother, son, great grandsons all a short paths to glamorous bad ends, or haunted by the prospect.
My past week. I finished Ammonites, started Faulkner‘s Flags in the Dust - which will take me most of March. Chaucer and How to Say Babylon continue. (I finished Sir Tropas in Canterbury Tales)
Started Faulkner‘s 3rd novel yesterday. The publisher felt it was too long, and only published it in a cut form in 1929. The full version wasn‘t released until 1973. There were corrections made in 2006.
panWas stream of consciousness the fad of the 1920s? I get that it might have been new and innovative and a tool to convey perspective, but I absolutely loathe it. I didn‘t like To The Lighthouse for that reason and this is worse. The first two chapters are written this way and are very difficult to follow. The third chapter is written in first person and the fourth and final chapter is written in third person. Each follows a different character.
pickA ship of fools goes aground in a lake near New Orleans, and the yacht‘s widowed mistress is not too happy. This book, Faulkner‘s 2nd (1927), has so many issues, including a sputtering narrative and Lolita-ish eroticism. And yet, so, I enjoyed it. It‘s funny. The characters stick and hang around. They can humorously romantic, and then suddenly full of deep drunken thoughts on the arts. One character reads poetry aloud. So…well…flawed but…
pickThis was my first book i read this year, finished a month ago but haven‘t been posting on Litsy. Sorry all. Faulkner‘s 1st, from 1926. American soldiers returning home to small town Georgia, to wives, fiancés, hopes and consequence. It‘s an odd book, faulkner putting in impressionists touches, toying a little with the rules of prose. Maybe inconsequential, maybe romantic, sex charged or thoughtful. I liked this problem piece, anyway.
The other book I started this morning. William Faulkner is a theme for me this year. This is his first novel, from 1926.
