Light in August
98. William Faulkner, Light in August
This novel examines the intertwined lives of several characters in a small Mississippi town. Lena Grove has just come to town, searching for the father of her unborn child. On the same day that Lena arrives, a middle-aged woman named Miss Burden is murdered and her house burned down. According to the rumors, a mixed-race man named Joe Chrsitmas is the murderer. The novel switches from present to past time, following Joe Christmas from his boyhood days as an orphan, to his upbringing in a violent household, to his arrival in Mississippi and his relationship with Miss Burden. The tragedy of the novel is Joe’s struggle to understand his part-black, part-white identity.
This is my third attempt at a Faulkner novel, and I have to say, I just don’t like him. I know he’s supposed to be a Great Author, and I’m willing to believe that there’s something to his style that I don’t understand. So it’s not you, Faulkner, it’s me. This novel was a bit easier to get through than As I Lay Dying or The Sound and the Fury, though; the narrative structure is more straightforward, so it’s not too hard to follow the plot. The novel also paints a fascinating, brutally ugly picture of race relations in early 20th-century America. I just can’t stand the vague, overwrought prose and the ridiculously long sentences! In all, this book may deserve its reputation as a classic, but I really didn’t enjoy it.