Skip to main content

Absalom, Absalom!

By

This is perhaps Faulkner's most haunting work, especially given that it is narrated by that tormented soul, Quentin Compson, when asked by a Harvard classmate to tell a story about the South.  What follows is a narrative like no other, casting the South as if from the pages of the Old Testament.  I was hoping to find Shelby Foote's 1936 review, but this is the closest I got.  The book cast quite a spell on me when I read it some years ago, and would love nothing more than to read the original edition again.

Comments

  1. TripplerNovember 22, 2011 at 7:31 PM

    Gosh - how did I overlook this classic in my reading list?

    I've read "A Light In August", a few short stories, and a couple of his essays. But somehow I missed this one.

    Perhaps we should consider it for our next reading?

    ReplyDelete
  2. James FergusonNovember 22, 2011 at 8:42 PM

    I would certainly be up for a reading.

    ReplyDelete
  3. AnonymousNovember 23, 2011 at 8:30 AM

    To say I don't care for the works of Faulkner would be a vast understatement....

    ReplyDelete
  4. James FergusonNovember 23, 2011 at 12:46 PM

    That's too bad, but I hope you find enjoyment in others.

    ReplyDelete
  5. Rick DiguetteNovember 28, 2011 at 2:35 PM

    Absalom, Absalom! requires commitment. It is one of those books that you may want to throw across the room . . . more than once. But if you stick with it you'll find there are many rewards.

    ReplyDelete
  6. James FergusonNovember 28, 2011 at 4:46 PM

    I suppose for some, any Faulkner should come with a warning label, but I thoroughly enjoyed Absalom, Absalom! and felt no need to hurl the book across the room ; )

    ReplyDelete
  7. James FergusonNovember 28, 2011 at 4:54 PM

    Among Faulkner's many screenplays was Hemingway's To Have and Have Not,

    http://www.mcsr.olemiss.edu/~egjbp/faulkner/films.html

    a certain irony in that.

    ReplyDelete
  8. James FergusonDecember 9, 2011 at 5:17 PM

    Trip, if you are still interested, I plan on reading this book over the holidays.

    ReplyDelete
  9. TripplerDecember 9, 2011 at 5:30 PM

    Would anyone else like to do so as well?

    ReplyDelete
  10. TripplerDecember 9, 2011 at 10:34 PM

    I made a request from my library and expect the book to come in soon. Hopefully, we can get a few folks to see this great book. I also requested "Johnny Tremain" and hope they will send the video at the same time. That was one of my favorite movies when I was a kid.

    :)

    ReplyDelete
  11. avrdsDecember 10, 2011 at 5:51 AM

    I tried to read Faulkner the first time I was in college and never could get into his books. That may change now that I'm older, but right now I have way too many others I need to read. Plus, hard to believe, I'm closing in finally on the dissertation. I may actually graduate in the spring!

    I'll enjoy reading your comments though!

    ReplyDelete
  12. James FergusonDecember 10, 2011 at 1:12 PM

    It took me a few tries to get a Faulkner under my belt. I found Intruder in the Dust to be the most easily accessible, a pre-To Kill a Mockingbird story.

    ReplyDelete
  13. avrdsDecember 10, 2011 at 4:10 PM

    As I recall, the Bear was the only Faulkner I had to read back when I was an English major, but I was always encouraged to read more of his work, and tried. Maybe after I read Proust.

    ReplyDelete
  14. TripplerDecember 10, 2011 at 6:59 PM

    I read "A Light In August" many moons ago. Much of the symbolism was lost on me at that time but I now understand it a lot better. Also read a couple of Faulkner's short stories. His works are very complex and there are many biblical references. But they do add much to one's understanding of the deep South and its conflicts in the post bellum and modern eras.

    ReplyDelete
  15. James FergusonDecember 10, 2011 at 11:34 PM

    Light in August is very good, but there was a lot of anger and resentment expressed in that book. Took me by surprise after reading some of his lighter, more spirited novels, such as The Reivers, which brings out his great sense of humor.

    ReplyDelete
  16. TripplerDecember 21, 2011 at 2:30 AM

    Got my copy of Absalom from the library. I'm wondering if anyone else wants to join in on a discussion. Will we talk here or on another page? If no one else is going to join we might as well just use this page.

    ReplyDelete
  17. James FergusonDecember 21, 2011 at 7:06 AM

    I started the book this week. Will post a new lead thread. Look forwrd to your comments.

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

The Triangle Shirtwaist Factory Fire

By
  Welcome to this month's reading group selection.  David Von Drehle mentions The Melting Pot , a play by Israel Zangwill, that premiered on Broadway in 1908.  At that time theater was accessible to a broad section of the public, not the exclusive domain it has become over the decades.  Zangwill carried a hopeful message that America was a place where old hatreds and prejudices were pointless, and that in this new country immigrants would find a more open society.  I suppose the reference was more an ironic one for Von Drehle, as he notes the racial and ethnic hatreds were on display everywhere, and at best Zangwill's play helped persons forget for a moment how deep these divides ran.  Nevertheless, "the melting pot" made its way into the American lexicon, even if New York could best be describing as a boiling cauldron in the early twentieth century. Triangle: The Fire That Changed America takes a broad view of events that led up the notorious fire, not...
230 comments
Read more

Team of Rivals Reading Group

By
''Team of Rivals" is also an America ''coming-of-age" saga. Lincoln, Seward, Chase et al. are sketched as being part of a ''restless generation," born when Founding Fathers occupied the White House and the Louisiana Purchase netted nearly 530 million new acres to be explored. The Western Expansion motto of this burgeoning generation, in fact, was cleverly captured in two lines of Stephen Vincent Benet's verse: ''The stream uncrossed, the promise still untried / The metal sleeping in the mountainside." None of the protagonists in ''Team of Rivals" hailed from the Deep South or Great Plains. _______________________________ From a review by Douglas Brinkley, 2005
293 comments
Read more

The Searchers

By
You are invited to join us in a discussion of  The Searchers , a new book on John Ford's boldest Western, which cast John Wayne against type as the vengeful Ethan Edwards who spends eight years tracking down a notorious Comanche warrior, who had killed his cousins and abducted a 9 year old girl.  The film has had its fair share of detractors as well as fans over the years, but is consistently ranked in most critics'  Top Ten Greatest Films . Glenn Frankel examines the origins of the story as well as the film itself, breaking his book down into four parts.  The first two parts deal with Cynthia Ann Parker and her son Quanah, perhaps the most famous of the 19th century abduction stories.  The short third part focuses on the author of the novel, Alan Le May, and how he came to write The Searchers. The final part is about Pappy and the Duke and the making of the film. Frankel noted that Le May researched 60+ abduction stories, fusing them together into a nar...
123 comments
Read more