Faulkner, Finally

For more than 30 years I've kept a list of the order in which the writer William Faulkner's books should be read, thinking "one day I'll get around to reading these."

The list was shared by a college professor who was a bit of a Faulkner scholar himself. And while there may be some disagreement among experts on where to start, my old list looked good to me.

So I'm on a quest to get all the major works of Faulkner read before the end of 2014. (Admission: I'm actually reading The Sound and the Fury first, simply because the local bookstore didn't have The Unvanquished in stock. I'll be using the local library or Amazon to secure the remaing books).

I've read around the edges of Faulkner for years, dipping into his short stories here and there (A Rose for Emily is a good place to begin if you're new to him). But I've never been serious about reading and understanding him. Until now.

Faulkner is not an easy read. His stream of consciousness narrative (think James Joyce in Ulysses and Virginia Wolf in Mrs Dalloway) can be tough going.

His prose often sounds as if someone sat down with a piece of paper and wrote everything that went through his mind with no worry about grammar or form; extended sentences, descriptions and details; actions in one scene that then recall a past or future scene; complex sentence structure. 

But there is a point to it all. It mimics the human brain and we're being placed inside the various characters' heads.

One critic has suggested that Faulkner be read as if the reader were sitting in a courtroom listening to and sifting through various testimonies of a parade of witnesses and knowing he'll have to make up his own mind about what actually happened and who is and who's not telling the truth.

Another has suggested reading Faulkner's stories as if they were a detective novel, each piece of information not complete or understandable but becoming a part of the larger whole as more information is revealed. The reader must rely on emotional instincts to embrace and unravel the ambiguities woven into each passage.

If all this sounds like to much effort to -- like work instead of reading pleasure -- let me say that the effort expended is well worth the work!

He evokes a sense of place and time like no other; he's brutally honest and truthful; his characters are so real you feel like you know them.

He is one of the most important writers in American literature generally and Southern literature in particular. Although his work was published as early as 1919, and in the 20s and 30s, he was relatively unknown until receiving the 1949 Nobel Prize in Literature. 

In 1998, the Modern Library ranked his 1929 novel, The Sound and the Fury, sixth on its list of the 100 best English-language novels of the 20th century. Also on the list were As I Lay Dying (1930) and Light in August (1932. Absalom, Absalom (1936 is often included on similar lists.

Here are a few Faulkner quotes from his books:

From As I Lay Dying
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From Requiem for a Nun
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From As I Lay Dying
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From Requiem for a Nun
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From The Reivers
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From The Wild Palms

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From The Sound and the Fury
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From The Sound and the Fury
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From The Sound and the Fury
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From The Sound and the Fury
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