Are You a William Faulkner Fan?

Faulkener at his deskWilliam Faulkner’s Intruder in the Dust was the book chosen for our reading group’s February novel.  We all agreed it was a difficult style to read. He used little punctuation. The pronoun ‘he’ in his long sentences could mean Chick or Lucas or his uncle or any male in the scene. Within the long, long paragraphs, we often couldn’t figure out which ‘he’ talked or took action.

However, we all liked the richness of the setting, and three out of five us appreciated the novel inspite of the writing style.

What Faulkner novels have you read?  What do you think of his writing?

8 Comments

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8 Responses to Are You a William Faulkner Fan?

  1. Gary Lea

    I read The Sound and the Fury and As I Lay Dying. It does take some getting used to but I liked them. It has been close to 50 years since I read them but I can still remember bits of As I Lay Dying. As I recall, he was capturing the way people in the region talked.

  2. He still inspires comment, even in the modern blog. That’s all I’m saying… 😉

  3. ladywinfred

    I have a complete set of Faulkner books purchased from a used book site, beautiful vintage looking things, but have yet to read more than 20 pages. I tried to persevere, to be captured by his brilliance, but got bogged down, so decided to save them for savoring in my old age. Well, huh, old age is here so I guess it’s time. Reading and understanding Faulkner seems a perfect antidote to dementia! Thanks for the reminder.

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    • A vintage complete set of Faulkner books, outstanding, Lady Winfred. After the first couple chapters of Intruder in the Dust, we all agreed to just read without trying to figure out anything. Then it became a fast read and we “got” the messages of the story.

  4. tandaclauson

    It’s been a while since I read any Faulkner, and I plan to re-read some, but he was my hero for a long time. Never had any trouble with he’s, and it was never hard to read. It was just intuitive. Though I have no idea, I think of him as a pantser. James Joyce also wrote in very long sentences, and hiis punctuation is wonderful. Don’t know why I was told that it’s discouraged now.

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