Member Reviews

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  4 of 4 members found this review helpful.

  • Rated 5 stars

  “One of Faulkner’s supreme achievements. Written immediately after “The Sound and the Fury,” he continues to explore the possibilities of the stream of consciousness narrative, and here the effect is much more straightforward. Again, the act of reading the novel becomes hallucinatory, visionary – we are not just a reader, we are a divinely impotent Ear, an ear for bad news, mostly. As the bickering Bundren clan hauls the corpse of their dead matriarch the many miles back to her hometown for burial, we’re given a Southern Gothic Odyssey, an white trash Exodus. It’s epic quest turned blistering black comedy: the Bundrens are dirty, cruel, ignorant, irredeemable, tragic, vastly entertaining and alive, alive, alive. Along the way, we come to realize they stand in for all of us, scratching and clawing our way to dust and ashes. Truly a great work of art.”

  Tinky wrote this review Monday, October 22 2007. ( reply | permalink )
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  1 of 1 members found this review helpful.

  • Rated 0 stars

  “Terrible book. I don't know what the hub bub about this writer is, because holy shit. :(”

  Alicia B wrote this review Sunday, November 18 2007. ( reply | permalink )
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  1 of 1 members found this review helpful.

  • Rated 2 stars

  “We were assigned to read this book in high school, but I didn't like it so I only read a few chapters. I decided to read it in my adulthood to see if I'd misjudged it--I didn't. The only part I found enjoyable was the last page, and that was mainly because it was finally OVER.”

  anika b wrote this review Tuesday, November 13 2007. ( reply | permalink )
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  1 of 1 members found this review helpful.

  • Rated 1 stars

  “Books shouldn't be this confusing. I can't help but wonder about William Faulkner's state of mind when he wrote this. Maybe I'm glad that I didn't get this book - maybe that says something about my state of mind. ”

  joannamarie wrote this review Friday, August 10 2007. ( reply | permalink )
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  1 of 1 members found this review helpful.

  • Rated 5 stars

  “Somehow, I never read Faulkner in school. It is a difficult read at first, because his writing style is so different. If you stick it out and allow yourself to not know what is going on in the beginning, it will start to make sense as the characters fall into place. Then, it becomes a darkly humorous tale of a family's journey.”

  lilaphase wrote this review Sunday, April 1 2007. ( reply | permalink )
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  1 of 2 members found this review helpful.

  • Rated 5 stars

  “Extremely powerful, brilliant!”

  toinette wrote this review Friday, August 31 2007. ( reply | permalink )
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  • Rated 0 stars

  “BORING...it's a tough read, especially because of the antiquated Southern English.”

  Laura C wrote this review 6 days ago. ( reply | permalink )
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  • Rated 4 stars

  “Faukner writes this book with each chapter narrated by different characters using his stream of concious style. The effect is at first confusing but as the story unfolds the characters become more developed giving the effect of pealing back the layer of an onion. The result is a morbid tale of a southern family with many of the characteristic defects of humanity. By the end of the book I was disgusted with all the characters except Darl, the only one who makes sense but is considered crazy by the rest of the family.”

  David wrote this review Monday, September 1 2008. ( reply | permalink )
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  • Rated 4 stars

  “Wow! This novel is quite morbid, and grim. Probably most analogous with some of Cormac McCarthy's more dark epics. You read on to see how low this family can sink into a depraved, stingy, and heartless abyss. Faulkner was certainly a genius.”

  Sancti Spiritus wrote this review Wednesday, August 27 2008. ( reply | permalink )