The best Southern Gothic I have read yet. It starts with a shudder and grips you all the way to the end. Based on a true story, I suppose it could be called historical fiction, but it's much more than the usual novel associated with that genre.
I wish I had written it, or that I could write one like it. It's written from several viewpoints, always in the third person past tense. There is some jumping around in time, but just in the beginning, and only for the effect - it's not confusing.
You won't find many adverbs here, or passive verbs. The author knows his craft and works hard at it. What I liked most about it was the excellent mix of plot and character. There was even a surprise at the end - rare in a literary novel. And I do consider this a literary novel.
Tuesday, September 20, 2005
Monday, September 12, 2005
To Kill A Mockingbird by Harper Lee
The novel we all had to read sometime during our school years. I wasn't interested at the time. Why should I read a novel about a girl growing up in the South? I was a boy growing up in the South. Now, of course, I wish I had paid better attention.
Reading it now, I can see more reasons why I wasn't impressed as a schoolboy. Almost all the action happens off-stage. Only the final confrontation with the white trash father of the girl that cried rape is really narrated, and even that is confusing and murky.
I would be really surprised if this novel could get published today. There are so many passive verbs in that first page that agents would reject it on sight. But if you slow down to the pace of the book and the pace of the small town, it does have a mood and atmosphere that sucks you in. And it is very easy to read and understand.
The symbolism, as explained in any textbook or cliff's notes version of the book, if obvious but not overstated. It is a true Southern gothic, pointing out the good and the bad in Southern culture.
There do seem to be many manipulations by the author. Each little scene seems to have some deeper meaning or offer some insight into the world of the little girl. It almost seems as if Lee planned these little episodes just to preach to us.
If someone like Atticus Finch can rise above his ancestry and education, perhaps there is hope for all of us.
Reading it now, I can see more reasons why I wasn't impressed as a schoolboy. Almost all the action happens off-stage. Only the final confrontation with the white trash father of the girl that cried rape is really narrated, and even that is confusing and murky.
I would be really surprised if this novel could get published today. There are so many passive verbs in that first page that agents would reject it on sight. But if you slow down to the pace of the book and the pace of the small town, it does have a mood and atmosphere that sucks you in. And it is very easy to read and understand.
The symbolism, as explained in any textbook or cliff's notes version of the book, if obvious but not overstated. It is a true Southern gothic, pointing out the good and the bad in Southern culture.
There do seem to be many manipulations by the author. Each little scene seems to have some deeper meaning or offer some insight into the world of the little girl. It almost seems as if Lee planned these little episodes just to preach to us.
If someone like Atticus Finch can rise above his ancestry and education, perhaps there is hope for all of us.
Wednesday, September 7, 2005
Light in August by William Faulkner
This is one of the easier Faulkner novels to read, even easier than "As I Lay Dying." The problem that may lead to frustration for the modern reader is that Faulkner really doesn't care about the plot; his concern is for the characters.
This is not to say that there isn't a plot. There are actually several entwined plot lines, any of which could have been engaging for the reader. Time after time Faulkner ruins these plot lines by revealing the climax before it happens.
As an example, and probably the worst example, look at the murder of Miss Burden. We know very little about her before she is murdered. Faulkner tells us who murdered her - Joe Christmas. Then he starts a chapters long tale of the life of Joe Christmas, from his life in the orphanage all the way to the murder - which we know that he has already committed.
It happens again at the capture of Christmas and his death. Each time Faulkner tells us it has happened as if the fact is of little importance, then proceeds to fill in the details after the fact.
I guess I prefer a little more attention to the plot than this. Who am I to say that the novel could have been a lot better? Nobody, I guess, but I wish that he had simply arranged things to provide actual climax and release periods. The raw material was there, he just ignored it on purpose so that he could focus on the characters.
My favorite Faulkner so far is still "As I Lay Dying."
This is not to say that there isn't a plot. There are actually several entwined plot lines, any of which could have been engaging for the reader. Time after time Faulkner ruins these plot lines by revealing the climax before it happens.
As an example, and probably the worst example, look at the murder of Miss Burden. We know very little about her before she is murdered. Faulkner tells us who murdered her - Joe Christmas. Then he starts a chapters long tale of the life of Joe Christmas, from his life in the orphanage all the way to the murder - which we know that he has already committed.
It happens again at the capture of Christmas and his death. Each time Faulkner tells us it has happened as if the fact is of little importance, then proceeds to fill in the details after the fact.
I guess I prefer a little more attention to the plot than this. Who am I to say that the novel could have been a lot better? Nobody, I guess, but I wish that he had simply arranged things to provide actual climax and release periods. The raw material was there, he just ignored it on purpose so that he could focus on the characters.
My favorite Faulkner so far is still "As I Lay Dying."
Saturday, September 3, 2005
The Sound and The Fury by William Faulkner
Another difficult to understand but rewarding Faulkner novel. More obtuse than "As I Lay Dying" but not nearly as difficult as "Absalom, Absalom!", this novel is full of complex characters.
There are four viewpoints, told in Faulkner's characteristic stream of consciousness style, followed by a final short chapter in the omniscient point of view. Everyone that reads this novel remembers Benjy, the mentally retarded man-child. The first chapter is in his viewpoint, and is a confusing sequence of out-of order and out-of-time memories of Benjy's. If you can make it through the first chapter you will probably make it through the book!
Once again, we have to piece together the plot, which is secondary to the characters. It doesn't help that there are two Maurys and two Quentins (one male and one female!) The setting is not quite so important in this novel as in other Faulkner works. At least the characters are not doing battle with the land, but with their own selves and each other.
There are plenty of family secrets. Castration, incest, theft, adultery, suicide - a whole list of sins. The last chapter, in the omniscient viewpoint, seems racist in it's treatment of the black characters of the novel.
Not my favorite Faulkner novel, and not the one I hate, but still well worth the time and effort to read and understand it.
There are four viewpoints, told in Faulkner's characteristic stream of consciousness style, followed by a final short chapter in the omniscient point of view. Everyone that reads this novel remembers Benjy, the mentally retarded man-child. The first chapter is in his viewpoint, and is a confusing sequence of out-of order and out-of-time memories of Benjy's. If you can make it through the first chapter you will probably make it through the book!
Once again, we have to piece together the plot, which is secondary to the characters. It doesn't help that there are two Maurys and two Quentins (one male and one female!) The setting is not quite so important in this novel as in other Faulkner works. At least the characters are not doing battle with the land, but with their own selves and each other.
There are plenty of family secrets. Castration, incest, theft, adultery, suicide - a whole list of sins. The last chapter, in the omniscient viewpoint, seems racist in it's treatment of the black characters of the novel.
Not my favorite Faulkner novel, and not the one I hate, but still well worth the time and effort to read and understand it.
Friday, September 2, 2005
As I Lay Dying by William Faulkner
This has to be one of the easier Faulkner books to read, and I would suggest it as a good starting point if you want to start reading Faulkner. It is typical of his work: hard to understand until you grasp his technique.
It is written in first person present tense from the viewpoint of about 15 characters. Some of the characters are used only once and then forgotten, others are followed throughout the novel. It is the story of the Bundren family as they bury their wife/mother. The burial is not the focus, of course, but the journey to deliver her body. Even that is subvervient to the characters, and the characters are subservient to the world of the Bundrens. It is a perfect example of the Southern Gothic.
It is necessary, of course, to piece together what is happening as you read along. In that sense it's very similar to a mystery novel, although you are not solving a murder or a crime, you are attempting to understand what is going on. That is the appeal that the novel has to the literary experts. It presents a puzzle that must be pieced together.
Needless to say that I, or any other unkonown author, could not get away with such a puzzling novel. No one would bother to take the trouble to read this if I submitted it.
As I read it I started to realize some of the tricks that Faulkner uses. When he wants to exercise his literary prose, he uses the character Darl. When he wants to use the stream of consciousness style he is so famous for he uses the child Vardaman. The incidental characters are usually the most lucid and easiest to understand - Tull, the doctor Peabody, Armstid, Moseley.
I also enjoyed the subject matter, the hapless and unlucky family that nothing seems to go right for. If it weren't for bad luck, they'd have no luck at all.
It is written in first person present tense from the viewpoint of about 15 characters. Some of the characters are used only once and then forgotten, others are followed throughout the novel. It is the story of the Bundren family as they bury their wife/mother. The burial is not the focus, of course, but the journey to deliver her body. Even that is subvervient to the characters, and the characters are subservient to the world of the Bundrens. It is a perfect example of the Southern Gothic.
It is necessary, of course, to piece together what is happening as you read along. In that sense it's very similar to a mystery novel, although you are not solving a murder or a crime, you are attempting to understand what is going on. That is the appeal that the novel has to the literary experts. It presents a puzzle that must be pieced together.
Needless to say that I, or any other unkonown author, could not get away with such a puzzling novel. No one would bother to take the trouble to read this if I submitted it.
As I read it I started to realize some of the tricks that Faulkner uses. When he wants to exercise his literary prose, he uses the character Darl. When he wants to use the stream of consciousness style he is so famous for he uses the child Vardaman. The incidental characters are usually the most lucid and easiest to understand - Tull, the doctor Peabody, Armstid, Moseley.
I also enjoyed the subject matter, the hapless and unlucky family that nothing seems to go right for. If it weren't for bad luck, they'd have no luck at all.