A refreshing read after the bitter disappointments I have had from the Pulitzer's lately. This is another in the list of Pulitzer prize winners I am reading. Lately the authors have been failing to meet even my minimum standards (Mailer, Updike), but this little gem has refreshed my enthusiasm.
It is a light comedy, and also a moral tale. Faulkner's last novel, published in 1962, and put into that time frame it seems dated and old-fashioned. It's set in 1910, and is a moral tale of an eleven year old boy coming of age. It has everything that a novel needs, and is told by a master story teller, so for that reason it is refreshing after the disaster of Mailer's Executioner's Song, the last Pultizer I read.
My only complaint is the somewhat vague start. The narrator is an adult, telling the story (we assume) to his son, about what happened to the narrator when he was a young boy. This is never clearly stated and has to be pieced together as the novel progresses. A clear unambigous statement of what is going on near the beginning would be helpful.
The novel is also filled with Faulkner's own interpretation of the race relations of that time period. There are strong Black characters and weak Black characters. There are strong white characters and weak ones. But Faulkner colors everything with his own peculiar take on racial relations. The eleven year old boy is able to relate to his Black friends in ways not possible for an adult white male of that period.
It's a great novel though, not terribly serious but very enjoyable.
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