Review: Absalom, Absalom!

Absalom, Absalom!

            This is the tragic story of Thomas Sutpen’s attempt to establish a dynasty in the 1830s.  He arrives in Jefferson, Yoknapatawpha County, MS as a strange outsider with wild slaves, a mysterious source of seemingly limitless income, and a rigid plan—establish an estate, find a wife, produce a male heir.  While Sutpen does accomplish his life’s goals, his unwavering adherence to an ideal brings out the ruin of him and his family.  The story of Sutpen and his various il/legitimate children is told primarily through the point of view of Quentin Compson (the same as in The Sound & the Fury).  The book, however, is much more than a straightforward narrated life history.  Absalom, Absalom! is layered through multiple points of view.  It is a richly detailed story, but is also complex.

            If you are not a fan of Faulkner’s writing style, I would not recommend this book.  Other works by him, though still distinctly “Faulkner” in style, are much more accessible.  Here Quentin and his roommate Shreve spend a cold winter night at university telling the Sutpen tale to one another.  It is obvious that Shreve has heard much of the history before as he interrupts, embellishes, and at times takes over the narrative.  The story is not only about Sutpen, but also about Quentin’s experiences in Jefferson, about the ways in which he learned bits and pieces of these events over time from a variety of characters such as Aunt Rosa (Sutpen’s wife’s sister) and his father – who himself is retelling it from Quentin’s grandfather.  He experienced other events directly.

            The hearsay third-hand jumbled nature of the transmission is important because the reader experience the plot not as a straightforward narrative, but as a palimpsest of events across nearly a century.  The reader learns details in waves; at the beginning of the book, you get the basic idea and then Faulkner builds upon that foundation by adding details or retelling a section through a different character’s point of view. Unfortunately, many characters are unreliable, so as they passed on their story to Quentin or his grandfather, they edited and/or omitted crucial information.  “’Your father,’ Shreve said. ‘He seems to have got an awful lot of information awful quick, after having waited forty-five years.’… ‘Grandfather didn’t tell him all of it either, like Sutpen never told Grandfather quite all of it.’”  (220).

            Another example that is illustrative of the mangled transmission of key information, involves a tragic incident between Aunt Rosa and Sutpen; specifically, he has told her something, which she never is never able to forgive him for saying.  The reader is left in suspense about what exactly he said for over half the book, and the answer comes embedded within a page long sentence casually thrown into a paragraph on an unrelated topic.  There you finally learn, with little warning, of how Sutpen insulted Rosa.  Faulkner does not make reading easy.

            I could go on for pages about the way the book is written, about foreshadowing (“The day after we—after that night when we—“), and flashbacks, and mind-numbingly long rambling sentences.  I will not.  However, I do think ultimately, Absalom, Absalom! is worth reading.  First, you discover much more about Quentin’s personality and inner turmoil that I think helps clarify his actions in The Sound & The Fury.  He is a fascinating character.  Second, it is a powerful book about important issues—idealism, blind ambition, doomed Romanticism, and the end of an era.  It is also about deep-seated racism, so unwavering that incest is preferred over relationships between people of different color.  Finally, it is also about rigid class differences in the South.  It is a hard read, but worth the effort.

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In case you were keeping up, I have read 9 books by Faulkner at this point:
A Soldier's Pay
Mosquitoes
Sartoris
The Sound & the Fury

As I Lay Dying
Sanctuary 
Light in August
Pylon

Absalom, Absalom!

The reason why there are not reviews for that second collection - As I Lay Dying to Pylon - is because a) I read As I Lay Dying a long time ago and did not re-read it and b) because Pylon is the worst book Faulkner ever wrote, unreadable in fact.  As for the other two, I just didn't get around to reviewing them & now it has been too long.  I will say that so far Light in August is my favorite and I recommend it to any/everyone. 

4 Down...5 to go

Finally, I have finished the first volume in my quest to read the earliest 9 Faulkner books. I know I think I said I was going to do that this summer, but at least I am only 2 months behind. It could be much worse, I am so bad at these book challenges. The ones I read were Soldiers' Pay, Mosquitoes, Flags in the Dust, and The Sound and The Fury. Out of the four the best was The Sound and The Fury. The worst by far was Mosquitoes. It was absolutely the most pointless book ever. Next up is As I Lay Dying, which I read last year, and Sanctuary - the beginning of this last one is amazing, so hopefully it will not disappoint.

Soldiers' Pay

I started the book several months ago, and couldn't really get into it due to time constraints rather than lack of interest. Once I had a chunk of time to really engage with it, I found the book utterly captivating. I am rather impressed that this novel was Faulkner's first, but at the same time I felt it was very different - less sophisticated perhaps? - than his other works that I am familiar with. The plot at least is pretty generic. Sections are definitely slow, but other scenes blew me away - I was totally amazed by Faulkner's skill at writing. Granted that might be obvious, he did win a Nobel Prize, but it is nice to experience an author's ability for oneself. As part of a reading challenge, I decided to read Faulkner's first 9 books - this one is definitely a good start.

Mosquitoes

Took me a really long time and to be honest I skimmed most of the second half. One of the most utterly pointless books I have ever read in the sense that there wasn't too much of a plot and nothing really happened throughout most of the book. Gets 2 1/2 b/c some minor sections were interesting and b/c I found W.F's descriptions of the landscape (esp the swamp) and some of the characters' emotional states to be well-written and realistically portrayed. Otherwise, honestly I would say it is not even worth the time to read it.

Flags in the Dust

A bit more developed in terms of characters and plot than his first two books, but had the potential to be so much better. The biggest problem is that some of the most interesting scenes - that create tension and drama in the novel - are never resolved. There is an entire secondary plot that seems, at the beginning, like it will be the focus of the action as the story unfolds, but Faulkner never really follows up on this aspect of the book. It is also a bit confusing in parts because so many people have the same names, and it isn't always clear who is being referred to. I do realize that Faulkner had a specific reason for doing this; he is trying to show the Sartoris legacy and tradition is bound up in the names of the family members as if they develop a particular set of characteristics or a certain personality type simply because of their name. I think that point is made very clear at the end of the book when the new Sartoris is named. 3/5 stars.

The Sound and the Fury

I am so happy I finally read this book. I think I started it in 8th grade, but never could get through the beginning. Trying to follow the flow of the story through the perspective of Benjy amidst numerous flashbacks through time, characters, and space was, I think, a bit too much. However, this time around, I didn't find it that confusing - except for maybe the first 5 or so pages. Really Faulkner does a good job of leaving clues in the text as to when certain events occur whether early in the story when the characters are young, or later when the whole family has nearly disintegrated. The Compson Appendix definitely helps clarify some issues that Faulkner was not completely clear about in the novel itself. The ending was a bit random, but maybe considering the "stream of consciousness" style of the work that was to be expected. My absolute favorite part was with Dilsey at the end when she goes to church. The passages during the revival with the out of town preacher are amazing. Try reading them out loud (I did, it was great). Faulkner nailed this section. 4/5 Stars

Hello from Home

Back in Madison. Haven't been doing much. Went on a Frank Lloyd Wright tour, saw a funny play in an out door theater, and watched a couple of movies. Online: Prince Caspian. Much better than the first. In theaters: District 9. It was really good. Hope no one tries to make a sequel just for some extra bucks though. Of course, Hollywood being what it is, I am sure that they will.
Plodding my way through the self-imposed Faulkner book challenge. 3 down, 6 to go. In four months? Not likely. When I am feeling less lazy I will post my reviews of the ones that I have read here (two of them are on Library Thing now).

What I Have Been Doing....

Much of nothing actually, but I did manage to read three books:

S.: A Novel About the Balkans 4 1/2 Stars

A book about the Bosnian war from the point of view of a woman who survives a prison camp. Not light reading clearly, but the author is an amazing writer. She has this great ability for invoking all of the senses in dramatic ways. A couple of themes are humiliation/dehumanization, and the power of everyday objects to define identity. Some reviews compare it to One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich, which I can definitely see, but I prefer Solzjenitsyn.

Soldiers' Pay - 4 Stars (first of the "Faulkner" book challenge)

A good start to my goal of reading the first 9 Faulkner books. This is his very first, and while the writing isn't up to par with his later more well known works, I still think this book clearly showcases Faulkner's abilities. The storyline is pretty basic - essentially a love story, but absolutely worth reading.

The Angel Maker - 3 1/2 Stars

This one is translated from Dutch and I have a feeling that reading it in the original language would make it ten thousand times better because there seemed to be something lacking - I couldn't ever really connect with the characters. The structure of the book is also a little weird, the first section is from a completely different point of view than the other two, and while the middle part works amazingly well - it gives the background of the main character - the last section's climax isn't as powerful as it could be. Essentially, the book is about cloning and genetic experimentation, but also a bit about society in general and religion.

Besides reading, I hung out in N.O a bit, ate fried oysters, and went dancing - all in all a good time.
Had my hair cut today, but the lady totally fucked it up, so I have to get it fixed tomorrow.
Have been enjoying copious amounts of sunshine and NCIS (I alternate). May have broken the "addicted to facebook quizzes" phase of my life.
And I had my first snowball of the year, raspberry with condensed milk

Boring Update

I've been looking guiltily at this blog for weeks. I just don't have anything interesting to say. It is once again the end of semester drama. 15 weeks of work crammed into about 5 days.

I have however had beignets and Community Coffee the past two weekends, and will again this weekend. It gets me through the week :) I think the people at this restaurant know me by now - or at least should.

Oh, saw Slumdog Millionaire finally. I really enjoyed it, and I thought it was beautiful, and the kids were adorable, but the movie was just a bit sad for my tastes. I'm glad I wasn't totally disappointed though, b/c many times those over hyped movies just don't do it for me.

One last random note - I received a lovely volume of Faulkner's first 4 books in the mail yesterday. The pages are paper thin and the print is tiny, but I will read it; if not in La then in UA this summer.

Off to grading now, just didn't want anyone to think I had forgotten about posting (not that anyone reads this I'm sure, so its basically like talking to myself - which I actually have a tendency to do, but only when grocery shopping for some reason. I was humming to myself at the bus stop today and people were giving me weird looks, what is wrong with humming? At least I wasn't whistling, that is annoying).

A Soldiers' Pay

"Faulkner wrote Soldiers’ Pay while living in New Orleans in 1925, but much of the inspiration for the novel dates back to the time of the war. When the United States entered the war, Faulkner eagerly tried to join the U.S. Army as a pilot, but he was turned down because of his small size. Dismayed but undeterred, he adopted a British persona and joined the Royal Air Force as a cadet in Canada, but before he could finish flight training, the war ended, thus robbing Faulkner of the chance to achieve a hero’s status in the skies over Europe." http://www.mcsr.olemiss.edu/~egjbp/faulkner/n-sp.html

Later on on this website, it says that Faulkner was published in the Times-Picayune; the newspaper in S. La. Having read that paper my whole life, I find it really really hard to associate William Faulkner with it, but whatever....

This was just a note to say that I actually am serious in my challenge to myself to read 9 books by him. And yes, I am every so slowly working my way through this first one.

A Faulkner Note

In case anyone is curious, I have decided, as of yesterday, to read 9 books by William Faulkner. In chronological order.

The first nine are:

A Soldier's Pay

Mosquitoes

Sartoris

The Sound and the Fury

As I Lay Dying

Sanctuary

Light in August

Pylon

Absalom, Absalom

As I have already read, As I Lay Dying, the 9th book I will attempt is If I Forget Thee Jerusalem (first published as Wild Palms).

Feel free to join in if you so desire... :)