[lbo-talk] Faulkne, Absalom Absalomr

[Carrol Cox]

I've been listening to a recording of Absalom, Absalom. Listening is not the
same as reading prose of this quality; one does need to see it on the page.
But even in this form, the book is bowling me over! I reread As I Lay Dying
and The Sound and the Fury the year before I went blind. They are powerful
texts, but Absalom, Absalom must be one of the most 'densely packed' novels
in English. I've never read any criticism of Faulkner and all my reading of
his books was in the '40s & '50s. I'm having some trouble in getting hold of
this novel. Can anyone on this list give me some help?

Tentatively, it seems to dramatize the fragmentation of historical
understanding, the way it comes to us in bits & pieces and we struggle to
put it together. With all due respect to a very great novel, War and Peace,
Faulkner understands historical knowledge better than Tolstoi did -- he (or
his narrator) was much too confident that he had grasped "history" as it
"really was." Faulkner sees the flimsiness of that.

Any other readers of the book here?

Carrol