Book Description
Mississippi Sissy is the stunning memoir from Kevin Sessums, a celebrity journalist who grew up scaring other children, hiding terrible secrets, pretending to be Arlene Frances, and running wild in the South. As he grew up in Forest, Mississippi, befriended by the family maid, Mattie May, he became a young man who turned the word sissy on its head, just as his mother taught him. In Jackson, he is befriended by Eudora Welty and journalist Frank Hains, but when Hains is brutally murdered in his antebellum mansion, Kevin's long road north towards celebrity begins. In a memoir that echoes bestsellers like The Liars Club, Kevin Sessums brings to life the pungent American south of the 1960s and the world of the strange little boy who grew there.
Customer Reviews:
A sincere memoir.......2007-09-04
This is a surprisingly enjoyable memoir, perhaps because it's the first thing he has ever written about himself that is actually supposed to be about him.
Honest and Heartbreaking..........2007-08-13
Not one false note in this true story of growing up gay in a less then ideal environment. I identified with Sessums on many levels; being born gay in a straight world, struggling with religious and cultural issues, and the confusion I felt early on from my "loving" family and the hatred I felt from various members of it toward anything diffrent.
Beautifully, lyricly written... I'm in awe.
Jeff Mitchell
Powerful Work.......2007-07-31
The book was heart-wrenching, humorous, and philosophical. Sometimes within the same paragraph. It mines new depths of emotional injustice and human resilience. Ultimately, this is a book about triumph of the spirit.
Bravo, Sissy!.......2007-07-30
I wonder how Sessum's memoir would have been different had his parents lived. Would he have written it? Would he have remembered so vividly? Would he have been so unflinchingly honest about his father? As it is, his early memories have been crystallized into this stark and searing memoir washed with the languor of the Mississippi south.
Despite being orphaned, Sessums doesn't dwell only on loss, but also provides us hysterical scenes such as the one where he plays "doctor" with a local tomboy who pulls down her pants and tells him to check out her "crawdad hole." Or when he wants to be called "Arlene" because he's obsessed with a TV game show personality with that name. At one point, Kevin wants to dress up as the Wicked Witch for Halloween. His Grandma refuses, so he throws a temper tantrum and the only way to calm Kevin down is to give in to him. "Arlene, stop it!!" screams Grandma, and Kevin quiets down. With his mother's dying blessing, he is allowed to dress as the Wicked Witch for Halloween. In rural Mississippi. Try to imagine.
Pop culture personalities ("Arlene Francis" for example) are plentiful and are all a generation ahead of me, so when they came up, I felt out of the loop. He also left a few remaining questions (What was the motive behind the Hains murder?) Also, oddly, Sessums planted certain reveals later than they actually happened--a sort of literary flashback (the "promise" he made to his father, or his father's final haunting words to him) which I feel would've packed more of an emotional punch had they been placed when and where they happened. That's not to say "Mississippi Sissy" doesn't pack an emotional punch. It packs plenty.
His grandparents' maid, Matty Mae, is a black woman whose only hope for a better life was found in two beautiful words: Sidney Poitier. She ultimately disappears because there's not much hope in the world when a sensitive sissy boy like Kevin can call her precious Poitier a "Nigger." The sissy and the black maid reunite in a cotton field for the most heartbreaking scene in the book.
From his mother, as she lay dying, Sessums learned to love words and language, and ultimately to accept his nature. It was his mother who taught him not to cower when people called him a "Sissy" because look what a beautiful word it is -- look at the strong arms in that "Y." Look at the beautiful curves of those "S"'s!
So it is easy to see that Sessum's had no choice but to become a writer. He was destined to write this haunting memoir for his own vindication, for his family, and for all the others who grew up feeling to the left of center. That is to say, for all of us.
Memoir with style.......2007-07-23
The best thing about this memoir is that it is well written. Pages full of childhood atrocities are not enough to carry a memoir, I need more. There are no atrocities here, just the typical horrors of growing up and much more. The writing style carries you there, the people, places, events, and emotions are vividly portrayed and captivating. Some southern writers just have a knack for story telling and Sessums is one.
My one complaint is that the sex scenes were just too much information but I could not even take away a star, they rest is just that good. I look forward to the next offering from this author.
Amazon.com
When Larry Brown died suddenly in 2004 at 53, he left a nearly finished sixth novel, A Miracle of Catfish, that revisits several of his favorite themes: fatherhood, alienation, and loneliness. Shannon Ravenel, Brown's Algonquin editor, had the daunting task of trimming the enormous manuscript to manageable size, almost impossible for a responsible editor to do without the help of the author. Brown's prolix, rambling style is at times mesmerizing and at times--just rambling. Brown's notes at the end show us where the story might have gone, but it does not suffer for being unfinished. Larry Brown definitely knew where he was taking his reader, and Ravenel helped him along.
Consideration of the fatherhood theme centers around a man known only as "Jimmy's Daddy," an unregenerate, wretched human being and an ignorant, violent drunkard. His preoccupations, view of women, and treatment of Jimmy might be seen as caricatures if we didn't know that such people actually exist. Another father, with a much more interesting story, is Cortez Sharp, a farmer in the low hills near Oxford, Mississippi, for nearly fifty years. He has a daughter, Lucinda, living "with a retard" in Atlanta. The man is a layabout artist who suffers from Tourette's Syndrome, which makes Cortez think that he is simply retarded. Cortez has a deep, dark, guilty secret which is eventually revealed, but the two things that we know about him from the beginning are that he is terribly lonely and is stocking a pond he just had dug with catfish--thousands of catfish. Two minor players are Cleve, a muderous black man who is an occasional employee of Cortez's and Tommy, who delivers fish to stock Cortez's pond and owns Ursula, the Mother of all Catfish. Jimmy is the hapless nine-year-old who suffers at the hands of his daddy, and comes to the attention of Cortez who tells him--initially--to get off his property. All of these lives intersect in unexpected ways and are changed by the encounters. Brown writes hell-bent-for-leather in a style uniquely his own which carries the reader along, into landscapes interior and exterior. --Valerie Ryan
Book Description
Larry Brown has been a force in American literature since taking critics by storm with his debut collection,
Facing the Music, in 1988. His subsequent work—five novels, another story collection, and two books of nonfiction—continued to bring extraordinary praise and national attention to the writer
New York Newsday called a "master."
In November 2004, Brown sent the nearly completed manuscript of his sixth novel to his literary agent. A week later, he died of a massive heart attack. He was fifty-three years old.
A Miracle of Catfish is that novel. Brown's trademarks—his raw detail, pared-down prose, and characters under siege—are all here.
This beautiful, heartbreaking anthem to the writer's own North Mississippi land and the hard-working, hard-loving, hard-losing men it spawns is the story of one year in the lives of five characters—an old farmer with a new pond he wants stocked with baby catfish; a bankrupt fish pond stocker who secretly releases his forty-pound brood catfish into the farmer's pond; a little boy from the trailer home across the road who inadvertently hooks the behemoth catfish; the boy's inept father; and a former convict down the road who kills a second time to save his daughter.
That Larry Brown died so young, and before he could see
A Miracle of Catfish published, is a tragedy. That he had time to enrich the legacy of his work with this remarkable book is a blessing.
Customer Reviews:
Larry Brown's last miraculous novel.......2007-09-05
Another reason to mourn Larry Brown's untimely death is the fact that we will never know just how the lives of the people he created in his final masterpiece would have turned out. Would Cortez have become the father little Bobby deserves, replacing the hapless and clueless daddy who can think of no one but himself? Would we ever know any more about the fish man? Perhaps we already know enough about all the living, breathing, all-too-real characters Larry imagined for us by the time we come to the page where we are left wanting to know more about them and about the others living in his imagination, waiting for future books that won't be written. It's a rare talent who can keep us interested in and even hopeful about the fates of some pretty unlikeable and apparently unredeemable people. Bobby, Bobby's daddy, and Cortez are among Larry Brown's finest creations.
The last hurrah of talented writer Larry Brown.......2007-08-24
'A Miracle Of Catfish' was unfinished when author Larry Brown died unexpectedly. Because the book was almost finished, publication of Brown's last offering to his fans was possible. The book uses ellipsis to show where editing was done, and though unfinished, includes the notes that Brown left behind as to how he planned to wrap up the novel.
In Brown's languid southern prose, he explores the lives of several people living in the quiet, countrified outskirts of a small town. Cortez Sharp, a 72 year old man who's wife is disabled, decides to dig out a large pond on his property and stock it with catfish. He lives a solitary life, preferring to be left alone with his vegetable patches and herds of cows. His daughter Lucinda lives in Atlanta with her boyfriend Albert, who suffers from Tourettes Syndrome. Cortez calls Albert 'The Retard', driving a wedge between him and his only surviving child. Cortez carries a dark secret with him, one of horrible proportions.
There's Jimmy, a ten year old boy with bad teeth, who lives near Cortez's farm in an old trailer. Jimmy struggles with his father's temper, his two half-sisters Evelyn and Velma, and his desire to fix the go-kart his daddy built for him. Jimmy's Daddy (known only in the book as 'Jimmy's Daddy') is a typical redneck loser. He drives around in his old '55 drinking beer and smoking cigarettes, fights with himself over trying to treat Jimmy better, and has an affair with a woman at the stove factory where he works that turns out bad (in pregnancy) which threatens his life and marriage to Jonette.
And then there's Cleve, an old black man who used to work for Cortez, mean as a polecat, and murderous to boot. He's been in prison twice and though he swore he'd never go back, he's not quite done committing crimes.
Typical of Brown's unhurried and languorous prose, there's lots of smoking, beer drinking, and driving around. There's surprises like DUI's, tractor accidents, unwanted pregnancies, affairs, fishing, hunting, and a young boy worried about having puppies.
These aren't exactly people you would want for neighbors, but Brown brings them out fully fleshed and alive, and you know there are people out there just like Brown's characters. Everyday folk struggling with everyday problems, inner monologues that both repulse and enchant, and scenes that will suck you into the story despite their slowly building climaxes.
While I highly recommend Brown's work, I would recommend 'Joe', 'Fay', and 'Father And Son' as a warm up to 'A Miracle Of Catfish', simply because this is an unfinished work and may leave the novice Brown reader feeling flat at the abrupt end. It's sad that this is the last time we will hear Brown's voice in the literature world. Enjoy!
Unfinished but pleasing anyway.......2007-07-10
I have the same feeling reading Larry Brown as I do reading Faulkner: He's writing about us! And this latest is the same as the others of his; he has the weather, the land, the people, the animals and all down pat. It's like it is down here. He's just chosen a few characters to show a representation but he uses them to give insight into the universal truths as Faulkner says. It's a shame he wasn't able to finish the book but it's wonderful that his wife and publisher went ahead with what's there. And most of it is there.
I was in the Oxford Hospital getting a stent put in and finally going home after a week of tests and procedures when I read that he'd died suddenly of a heart attack. I always wanted to meet him as I thought we had so much in common. A couple of years before I thought I saw him leaving Square Books as we were going in- my brother from North Carolina who always wants to got to Square Books and my wife and our daughter who lives in Oxford. He had on a gray raincoat or light overcoat and he smiled at us when he saw us getting out of the car and heading into the bookstore. What a loss.
Beverly Lowry of George Mason University has written a fine review in the April 27, 2007, New York Times Book Review and I'm sure there are others. Read this book and you'll want to go back and read his others too.
Dewitt Spencer
You simply MUST READ this book! Such a masterpiece!!!.......2007-07-07
I was devastated when I heard that Larry Brown had passed away. What a loss to his friends and family, and what a loss to his fans. This man could spin a tale, write a story, take you away, pull you in. Such a loss - God bless him!
I have read EVERY book that Mr. Brown ever wrote -- FAY, JOE, FATHER AND SON, etc. When I saw A MIRACLE OF CATFISH on the new book shelf at my library, I almost fell over! Knowing Mr. Brown has passed, I was shocked and happy to see this book there -- all 454 pages of it.
Let me tell you, at first I didn't think I was going to be able to get into this book. Which I found very puzzling! So, I sat down and really READ and by page five I was HOOKED!! I will think of this book for years to come!!! It is just THAT GOOD.
The characters in this book are sooo life-like and believeable. There are not many people in this novel, but you don't need many. Each chapter revolves around one character and their life; however, they are all inter-twined and make the book was it is ~~ EXCELLENT.
The main characters are Cortez Sharp, who farms and raises cattle. His wife is ill and his grown child lives in Atlanta. He is older and very lonely. He decides to build a pond and stock it with catfish. When the author describes the tomato sandwiches Cortez makes, yum, hook me up with one!
Another main character is Jimmy, a young boy who lives with his white trash family down the road from Cortez. He is a lonely little guy whose step-sisters treat him like crap. His mom, Johnette {gotta love the names!}, works, eats, and sleeps (around!!) and doesn't pay her children too much attention. Hence, Jimmy is looking for attention, affection, interest, and love. He wanders down by the new pond only to get kicked off the property by Cortez Sharp, which is how these two main characters meet.
My favorite main character was Jimmy's dad who is only referred to as Jimmy's daddy. Such a loser! Such a womanizer! Such a sorry excuse for a father! Always thinking of himself, always looking out for himself. Loves his old '55 car more than his family. But all of these bad traits make him the great character he is. You have to give Jimmy's daddy credit -- he does try, he does love his family; however, if something bad is going to happen it happens to Jimmy's daddy. He never quite makes things work right for himself or his family.
Cortez Sharp decides to have a pond dug and filled with catfish. He doesn't know how having this pond will affect not only him, but Jimmy down the road. The book takes us on a journey that involves all of the above mentioned characters and simply their lives -- at work, school, their friends, family, their affairs, and the deep dark secret that Cortez Sharp lives with daily.
Sound boring? It is NOT. I found I could not turn the pages fast enough. The way the story is told and how life in the South is related just takes you right to the banks of that pond with a fishing pole in hand and trouble on the way. Life in this small southern town is one hell of a ride. Get this book and enjoy it.
You must get this book and read it. There are other not so main characters that add spice to the book. The writing is stupendous -- you can feel the heat, see Cortez taking care of cattle and riding his tractor, see the dirty, nasty living conditions at Jimmy's trailer, see the dirt and grease on Jimmy's daddy's hands, feel the hurt in Jimmy's nasty teeth, see the trashy way Jimmy's sisters and Mom dress. Mr. Brown had a talent and gift that will be sorely missed. I find I am having a problem finding my next "read" as nothing seems to compare to this wonderful book.
Take my advice and the advice of the other reviewers -- get this book, read it, and then get the rest of Mr. Brown's works and just enjoy. Every book he has written is simply a treasure! A MIRACLE OF CATFISH ~~ a miracle in itself!!!!!!!!
Thank you!!!
Pam
Dadgummit Larry, why'd you have to leave...........2007-06-12
Larry taught himself how to write and his stories improved exponentially to the end. If you are a fan, look for Larry Brown in the Blue Moon Cafe line; one of them has a strange, but awesome short-story in it.
As I neared the last few pages of the book I was anxious as to what point it might end, or if it would end before he passed away. I wasn't sure. Undeniable sadness filled me too, because Miracle was his best, and I knew it was his last.
While he didn't finish the book with in a cathartic end, his heart, I suppose, was driving it towards something good. Likely Jimmy's daddy would "get his" and Jimmy would end up happy. Who knows, but it is how it was flavored.
But it ended. The chapter just ended and his notes wrapped it up-- questions remained over things from Jimmy's daddy, to Queen and Ursula. But all in all, the end cut short is in a way a fitting epitaph for a great writer's life cut short like Willie Morris. No doubt the two are now side by side at the great catfish pond in the sky.
Lord knows how many times we might have brushed shoulders at The Beacon, or Smitty's, or Sneeds...God, I wish I'd actually known him during my years in Oxford.
Average customer rating:
- Confusion about ordering
- Some will say "tragic" -- some "hilarious"
- The dialog is like "music" and you hear it. A stream of Consciousness, first class approach to telling a story
- Faulkner was no fish
- a Faulkner for the masses
|
As I Lay Dying
William Faulkner
Manufacturer: Vintage
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
 Faulkner, William
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Absalom, Absalom!
ASIN: 067973225X
Release Date: 1991-01-30 |
Amazon.com
Faulkner's distinctive narrative structures--the uses of multiple points of view and the inner psychological voices of the characters--in one of its most successful incarnations here in As I Lay Dying. In the story, the members of the Bundren family must take the body of Addie, matriarch of the family, to the town where Addie wanted to be buried. Along the way, we listen to each of the members on the macabre pilgrimage, while Faulkner heaps upon them various flavors of disaster. Contains the famous chapter completing the equation about mothers and fish--you'll see.
Book Description
At the heart of this 1930 novel is the Bundren family's bizarre journey to Jefferson to bury Addie, their wife and mother. Faulkner lets each family member--including Addie--and others along the way tell their private responses to Addie's life.
Customer Reviews:
Confusion about ordering.......2007-09-27
I liked the book a lot but was unhappy about getting (and paying for) two copies rather than just one. I ordered one copy via the one-click method but there was no evidence that the order went through. Then I ordered again and the second time I got the usual confirmation. I was surprised when two separate deliveries came with the same book! Now I'm wary of using one-click ordering.
Some will say "tragic" -- some "hilarious".......2007-09-22
I am of the latter group. I love Faulkner's brand of humor. One could look at this as early "mississipius peccadillus" and be right on the money. Certainl the poor folks of Mississippi had layers of problems back in the early 20th Century (and as they do today!) and this family was no exception. Maw dies, but before she does, she forces Paw to promise that he'll bury her where she wants to be buried -- far away! They have neither money nor viable means to get her there but the old man tries his damndest to make good on his dubious promise.
I should say that this work is VERY much akin (a pun there) to Jesse Stuart's "Taps for Private Tussie" in both subject matter and in Flavour as well. So if you end up loving this one you may as well grab "Tussie" too!
This one is a hoot, albeit, some folks will say I'm a sicko for saying that. One of Faulkner's best and true to his bizarre writing style.
The dialog is like "music" and you hear it. A stream of Consciousness, first class approach to telling a story.......2007-09-08
The story is set in Yoknapatawpha County. As you begin to read you seem to step into a different time and place. It is the dialog, the tone, and voice presented that makes this book such a positive experience.
This is the story of Addie Bundren, the mother, and of her family and how they wait and then deal with her death. It also is the struggle to bury her and how that struggle is met with by each of the characters. It starts out with her lying on her bed waiting to dye. Close by her son Cash is sawing and hammering together her coffin. Another son Darl talks another brother Jewel into going to get a load of lumber for the coffin.
The events are told over 59 chapters from the point of view of 15 different narrators. Each chapter is the point of view of one character-narrator. By the time you get through the trip and events you have heard the points of view of all of them and even the thinking of Addie from inside her coffin as she lay then dead.
It is the approach and style of telling the story that is most interesting. The words bring the characters to life. Each seems to compliment each other is rhyme and tempo but each looks at the events different.
The writing style is called "stream of consciousness:" and it is a method where you feel the inner thinking and reactions of the narrator who points out much more than the simple events in the words they express. You seem to hear their inner thoughts.
This book is considered Faulkner's best novel. It is not easy to read. It may take several readings and it is better read slowly trying to listen to the words.
Faulkner was no fish .......2007-08-26
This breakthrough novel written in 1929 and published in 1930 tells its story through multiple- narrators each of whom has his or her own distinctive character , perspective and style. The technique used here is also used in a more perfect way and with more distinct voices in Faulkner's greater masterpiece , "The Sound and the Fury". Here Addie Bundren the mother of the family lies dying.(The title is taken from Agamemmon 's words in the Odyssey, "As I lay dying, the woman with the dog's eyes would not close my eyes as I descended into Hades".)
She insists as act of revenge upon her selfish, lazy husband Anse to have her burial in Jefferson. The story the book will tell will be the journey towards that burial. Addie's children Darl, the most sane at first and Cash the skilled carpenter who dries to build her coffin in a way easy for her to rest in, Jewel the illegitimate one and her favorite the son of the preacher she has had an affair with, Dewey Dell the only girl who herself is in a compromised position, pregnant by her boyfriend Larl, and Vardamon the youngest who sees all of reality unclearly in mixed- up pictures, each tell the story as stream- of - consciousness narrative. Each of the fifty- nine chapters has a character doing the telling in its own way. Through this technique we get to see more intimately each character and their relations with each other. The story not an easy one contains violence greed lust and disruption, but also in certain relations and moments signs of more caring relations, as in Darl who eventually goes mad feeling for his mother, or Dewey Dell's caring for all the children.
This is one of Faulkner's most famous novels and if not in the very first rank is still a remarkable, powerful, innovative and passionately alive one.
Faulkner was no fish.
a Faulkner for the masses.......2007-08-22
I enjoyed this one a lot more than The Sound and the Fury - it didn't make me want to pound my head on the wall in the least.
The short chapters kept the pace going, and once I got a feel for the characters the different viewpoints in each chapter worked very well.
The foreshadowing of events through hints from different perspectives kept the interest up until the action in question was fully revealed.
Not a "dumbed-down" novel, but much more accessible and enjoyable to read.
Average customer rating:
- Get cliff notes as a reading companion.
- Huh?!
- Want to know what's inside Faulkner's head?
- You've got to be kidding
- Great book - top ten of all time
|
The Sound and the Fury
William Faulkner
Manufacturer: Vintage
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
Faulkner, William
| Classics
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| Literature & Fiction
| Subjects
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Classics
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Contemporary
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| General
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Faulkner, William
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As I Lay Dying
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ASIN: 0679732241
Release Date: 1991-01-30 |
Amazon.com
The ostensible subject of The Sound and the Fury is the dissolution of the Compsons, one of those august old Mississippi families that fell on hard times and wild eccentricity after the Civil War. But in fact what William Faulkner is really after in his legendary novel is the kaleidoscope of consciousness--the overwrought mind caught in the act of thought. His rich, dark, scandal-ridden story of squandered fortune, incest (in thought if not in deed), madness, congenital brain damage, theft, illegitimacy, and stoic endurance is told in the interior voices of three Compson brothers: first Benjy, the "idiot" man-child who blurs together three decades of inchoate sensations as he stalks the fringes of the family's former pasture; next Quentin, torturing himself brilliantly, obsessively over Caddy's lost virginity and his own failure to recover the family's honor as he wanders around the seedy fringes of Boston; and finally Jason, heartless, shrewd, sneaking, nursing a perpetual sense of injury and outrage against his outrageous family.
If Benjy's section is the most daringly experimental, Jason's is the most harrowing. "Once a bitch always a bitch, what I say," he begins, lacing into Caddy's illegitimate daughter, and then proceeds to hurl mud at blacks, Jews, his sacred Compson ancestors, his glamorous, promiscuous sister, his doomed brother Quentin, his ailing mother, and the long-suffering black servant Dilsey who holds the family together by sheer force of character.
Notoriously "difficult," The Sound and the Fury is actually one of Faulkner's more accessible works once you get past the abrupt, unannounced time shifts--and certainly the most powerful emotionally. Everything is here: the complex equilibrium of pre-civil rights race relations; the conflict between Yankee capitalism and Southern agrarian values; a meditation on time, consciousness, and Western philosophy. And all of it is rendered in prose so gorgeous it can take your breath away. Here, for instance, Quentin recalls an autumnal encounter back home with the old black possum hunter Uncle Louis:
And we'd sit in the dry leaves that whispered a little with the slow respiration of our waiting and with the slow breathing of the earth and the windless October, the rank smell of the lantern fouling the brittle air, listening to the dogs and to the echo of Louis' voice dying away. He never raised it, yet on a still night we have heard it from our front porch. When he called the dogs in he sounded just like the horn he carried slung on his shoulder and never used, but clearer, mellower, as though his voice were a part of darkness and silence, coiling out of it, coiling into it again. WhoOoooo. WhoOoooo. WhoOooooooooooooooo.
What Faulkner has created is a modernist epic in which characters assume the stature of gods and the primal family events resonate like myths. It is The Sound and the Fury that secures his place in what Edmund Wilson called "the full-dressed post-Flaubert group of Conrad, Joyce, and Proust." --David Laskin
Book Description
First published in 1929, Faulkner created his "heart's darling," the beautiful and tragic Caddy Compson, whose story Faulkner told through separate monologues by her three brothers--the idiot Benjy, the neurotic suicidal Quentin and the monstrous Jason.
Customer Reviews:
Get cliff notes as a reading companion........2007-07-15
I read a lot and I like to think that I am pretty smart. I thought I could read and understand this book on my own. That was a bad idea. 4 chapters with four different narratives. The first chapter is narrated by Benjy, a mentally retarded individual who has no concept of time. As a result his narrative shifts all over a thirty year period. Faulkner goes out of his way to make things confusing by not always indicated when the time shifts occur. I swear Faulkner made the book difficult for the sake of making it difficult. For example, one of Benjy's brothers is named Quentin, which is the same name that his sister has given his niece. The second and third chapters become progressively easier to understand, however, I found the fourth chapter quite confusing. While you can pick up the overall themes of the novel and what Faulkner is trying to convey, it wasn't until after I got the cliff notes that I fully understood all of the details. If I had the cliff notes before hand it would have made the book more enjoyable. Probably 4-5 stars if I had the cliff notes as I was reading.
Huh?!.......2007-06-01
I absolutely enjoy reading classics and because this was mentioned on the great 100 books list, I thought i might give it a shot.
My GOD it was so hard to read. I truly do enjoy challenges but i couldn't understand what the heck was going on through most of the first half of the book.
I do understand the purpose of Faulkner writing in so many different dialects/styles however it was painful to read. I finally had to set the book aside and read a synopsis of the book to really understand what the heck was going on and even after reading that, I seriously questioned how one could possibly pick up on those nuances from reading the book.
This book is impossibly difficult to read and frankly, for what the actual plot ended up being, really not worth it. I am still confounded as to why this book is even considered a classic.
Want to know what's inside Faulkner's head?.......2007-05-15
William Faulkner's "The Sound and the Fury" is one of the most difficult books I've had read. First allow me to explain the reason or at least what I think is the reason for this book being extremely difficult to me. I am only on my second semester of English (ENG 101). All my schooling prior to this one was done in Mexico. "The Sound and the Fury" is set in the Deep South, a region known for his accent among other things. So adding the accent from the Deep South plus the fact they also speak Ebonics on top made my reading a lot more difficult, especially Benjy who happens to be retarded. Faulkner's style of writing and how he unfolds this drama surrounding the Compson family share many similarities with Shakespeare style. I never knew or heard of Faulkner's work before reading this book, but through research I learn he has had a prolifically career as a writer. Faulkner has gone to write best seller books such as "As I Lay Dying," "Light in August" also award winning novels like "A Fable" and "The Reivers."
"The Sound and the Fury" is full of amazing characters. Caddy is the main character of the book. She is the object of fixation by her brothers. Her character seems to speak through actions instead of words. (Example: squatting on the branch with muddy underwear looking through the window at her grandmother's funeral...). Benjy the retard, only notice things happening around him, and has no emotions or thoughts. Jason, evil Jason has an obsession with material things. There is also Mr. Compson with his inability to be a father at all levels. Mrs. Compson the mother who can't take care of herself or her family. And finally there is Dilsey the house keeper who is the responsible kind and always looking up for the family.
Regardless of all the trouble I went to finish this book; I highly recommend it reading it. This is definitively not your weekend book, so be ready to get a pencil and paper to get a better understanding of it. Faulkner use of symbolism makes it harder to understand that's why the need to pick up a pencil and paper. But once you get pass all the symbolism and get comfortable with his style of writing it all makes sense.
Done by: Jose G Flores
You've got to be kidding.......2007-05-12
Please, don't insult my intelligence. Faulkner was a Jamnes Joyce wannabe; his characters are poorly-educated, racist and revolting, they have no thoughts worth following anyway. And his writing style is a very poor imitation of Joyce's with its split-time and stream of consciousness. Both Dashiell Hammett and Jack Kerouac could write rings around Faulkner.
Great book - top ten of all time.......2007-04-02
This is an amazing, crazy book that takes a lot of work to read, but it is absolutely worth your effort. In fact it will be impossible for you to grasp every part of the story during the first read. It is told from the point of view of four people who live in a small southern town, set in about the 1930s. The first section is told through the viewpoint of a mentally challenged guy named Benji... you just won't be able to understand everything, nor is the reader meant to understand everything, upon a first casual read. Anyway, this made my top ten of all time list. Great book... the one-star reviews are that way because (and I can sympathize) the reader wasn't able or didn't put forth the effort to read the whole book. Maybe glance at a cliffs-notes type of review before reading, so you can understand the structure of the book... check it out though!
Amazon.com
Bestselling historian Douglas Brinkley, a professor at Tulane University, lived through the destruction of Hurricane Katrina with his fellow New Orleans residents, and now in The Great Deluge he has written one of the first complete accounts of that harrowing week, which sorts out the bewildering events of the storm and its aftermath, telling the stories of unsung heroes and incompetent officials alike. Get a sample of his story--and clarify your own memories--by looking through the detailed timeline he has put together of the preparation, the hurricane, and the response to one of the worst disasters in American history.
Book Description
In the span of five violent hours on August 29, 2005, Hurricane Katrina destroyed major Gulf Coast cities and flattened 150 miles of coastline. Yet those wind-torn hours represented only the first stage of the relentless triple tragedy that Katrina brought to the entire Gulf Coast, from Louisiana to Mississippi to Alabama.
First came the hurricane, one of the three strongest ever to make landfall in the United States -- 150-mile-per-hour winds, with gusts measuring more than 180 miles per hour ripping buildings to pieces.
Second, the storm-surge flooding, which submerged a half million homes, creating the largest domestic refugee crisis since the Civil War. Eighty percent of New Orleans was under water, as debris and sewage coursed through the streets, and whole towns in south-eastern Louisiana ceased to exist.
And third, the human tragedy of government mis-management, which proved as cruel as the natural disaster itself. Ray Nagin, the mayor of New Orleans, implemented an evacuation plan that favored the rich and healthy. Kathleen Blanco, governor of Louisiana, dithered in the most important aspect of her job: providing leadership in a time of fear and confusion. Michael C. Brown, the FEMA director, seemed more concerned with his sartorial splendor than the specter of death and horror that was taking New Orleans into its grip.
In The Great Deluge, bestselling author Douglas Brinkley, a New Orleans resident and professor of history at Tulane University, rips the story of Katrina apart and relates what the Category 3 hurricane was like from every point of view. The book finds the true heroes -- such as Coast Guard officer Jimmy Duckworth and hurricane jock Tony Zumbado.
Throughout the book, Brinkley lets the Katrina survivors tell their own stories, masterly allowing them to record the nightmare that was Katrina. The Great Deluge investigates the failure of government at every level and breaks important new stories. Packed with interviews and original research, it traces the character flaws, inexperience, and ulterior motives that allowed the Katrina disaster to devastate the Gulf Coast.
Customer Reviews:
A deeply flawed book.......2007-10-07
The first large recap of the disaster, published six months after the storm by the well known Tulane historian. A deeply flawed book, due to factual errors and the author's blatant political pronouncements. Brinkley's science is wrong, and he misrepresents what happened at locations other than the Superdome and Convention Center, such as Tulane Hospital and the Aquarium of the Americas. Brinkley supported Lt. Governor Landrieu against Mayor Nagin in the New Orleans mayoral race in the spring of 2006, and it colors his writing. Brinkley has nothing good to say about President Bush, FEMA, or Mayor Nagin, yet he paints Governor Blanco (who cooperated with the book) in the most flattering light possible. Worse, he gives the news media a pass over their horrendous coverage.
Still, the book is worth reading (with a huge grain of salt) because of the extensive timeline offered and the stories of the people affected. His recounting of the heroic efforts of the US Coast Guard and the LA Wildlife & Fisheries personnel is worth the price of the book. Read it until a better one comes out.
An Excellent Read and Reminder . . ........2007-10-02
Highly recommended! I don't read many contemporary history/current events books because they are just too depressing (as in yeah, the other side is in charge and screwing everything up - I know that already!), these books are rarely `fair and balanced' these days, and I do read two newspapers and use other sources to keep up to date.
This book definitely meets the fair and balanced standard, and Brinkley has written a fascinating page-turner to boot. Pretty much everybody but the Coast Guard is a target for `biggest idiot in charge', with Mayor Nagin and also the NOPD taking perhaps the biggest hits (although Bush, Chertoff, Brown and Blanco all take well-deserved broadsides too - oh, and the Red Cross too). NO gets most of the coverage because of the floods, but Miss. and Alabama get a decent amount of print.
A fascinating read, and a great reminder to those of us who live in disaster-prone areas of what kind of help to expect when the big one hits your area. I have a few things to add to my disaster recovery stash . . .
Great Detailed & Compassionate Book.......2007-09-28
I lived thtough Katrina and this is the first book that has told the story in the most detailed & compassionate way.
A grim picture of America at it's worst.......2007-09-22
Deluge is the real deal. A true and unbiased view of the New Orleans situation. It paints government from local police to FEMA in Washington as vastly incapable of the jobs citizens believe someone will do. Since you need to pass a test to drive a motorcycle or sell insurance, shouldn't there be a test to show ability in serving as mayor, governor, president, or the head of a "relief" agency? If Katrina was the test - they all failed.
Magnus Opus account of Hurricane Katrina.......2007-09-03
This is a well written account of the dwellings in New Orleans, Hurricane's and with a few tragic personal stories before during and after the accounts of Hurricane Katrina. The author is a native of O'rleans as you will read about Tragic loss and heroism in the State of Louisiana and Miss.
Did you know that the Mayor of New Orleans was an actor? Did you know that he was holed up in the 27th floor of the Hyatt Regency before the storm while he didn't issue a "MADADORY evacuation" until 18 hours before the storm hit because he needed to consult his attorneys in fear of being sued by the restaurant and bar industry?
Did you also know that New Orleans had, when Mayor Nagin took over,a crime rate over 10 times the national average coming in at 2nd in the Nation. The poor people in the state were simply brushed under the rug and an embarrasment to this flashy Mayor.
Once you finish The Great Deluge, you will come away with an awesome understanding of not only a facsinating account of what happened before and after Hurricane Katrina but an in-depth and detailed account of how the city of New Orleans was/is run and the Leaders (crooks) who run it.
You will feel alot smarter than that you did before reading it. Buy the Hardcover...worth every penny
Book Description
Born and raised in Greenville, Mississippi, within the shelter of old traditions, aristocratic in the best sense, William Alexander Percy in his lifetime (1885-1942) was brought face to face with the convulsions of a changing world. Lanterns on the Levee is his memorial to the South of his youth and young manhood. In describing life in the Mississippi Delta, Percy bridges the interval between the semifeudal South of the 1800s and the anxious South of the early 1940s. The rare qualities of this classic memoir lie not in what Will Percy did in his life—although his life was exciting and varied—but rather in the intimate, honest, and soul-probing record of how he brought himself to contemplate unflinchingly a new and unstable era. The 1973 introduction by Walker Percy—Will's nephew and adopted son—recalls the strong character and easy grace of "the most extraordinary man I have ever known." AUTHOR BIO: William Alexander Percy was the author of four books of poetry, and he practiced law in Greenville until his death, one year after the publication of his autobiography. Awarded the Croix de Guerre with gold star for his service in World War I, he also was one of the leaders in the succesful 1922 fight against the Ku Klux Klan in Greenville and headed the local Red Cross unit during the disastrous Mississippi River flooding of 1927.
Customer Reviews:
Over hyped.......2007-06-30
I've heard great things about this book, but it simply doesn't live up to the reviews. It isn't vivid, isn't absorbing, isn't all that interesting. It is a decent piece of period biography, and if you're interested in the Percy family or the region or time period, it might be worthwhile. Otherwise, give this one a pass.
Not Impressed.......2006-02-06
This is my first book about planters and plantation life. It was my expectation that the author would give more specific information about plantation finances and management. This subject is hardly touched upon. He does briefly give his opinions about slavery, but there is nothing unique about it. Basically, this is a nice, slow look back at a bygone time, but it left me wondering how the heck did these people come about, and maintain or eventually lose their wealth.
Elusive find: an autobiography of literary quality.......2005-10-09
Percy's approach to life can be summed up by a quote from the book: "It is a very nice world-that is, if you remember that while morals are all-important between the Lord and His creatures, what counts between one creature and another is good manners." Percy's book is a rare member of that most elusive category of books - the autobiography of true literary quality. Percy's touch is honest without being journalistic; poetic without appearing over-embroidered; and in his own eccentric person he provides the subject matter which is required to make such a work interesting. He steps out of the late 19th/early 20th century Mississippi delta as a character that could not have existed anywhere else. Affected, genteel, kind, elitist, romantic and with a view of race more in keeping with British Imperial "white man's burden" line of thought than anything American in origin - Percy the character remains fascinating even as the modern reader disagrees with his positions. A clearly and well told tale of an extinct breed (the gentrified southern aristocrat), a lost land (the Mississippi delta of the turn of the 20th century), and a buried epoch (the pre desegregation era). An excellent book - well worth reading not only to better understand a particular aspect of American history but for the pleasure of reading a well written book, regardless of the subject matter.
Perceptions of a Southern Artistocrat.......2004-01-23
It is true that this book attempts to explain the South, in both its physical and social aspects, from the point of view of the "landed gentry." However, a more accurate description of "Lanterns on the Levee" is that of an autobiography of William A. Percy, in which he reflects upon his life and the interesting times in which he lived. I found this book very inciteful into the mind of a southerner, and believe that Mr. Percy did a fine job of bringing his broad experiences with different cultures and social climates into this book, and using these to produce a cogent analysis of his homeland. Though not completely objective (and often bigoted by today's standards), I think that Mr. Percy did his best to "tell it as he saw it," and often admits his biases as a precursor to his analysis. The book is very poetic and philosophical in places, and includes both the subjective and emotional sentiments that one must understand in order to come to terms with "a southerner's love for the south." Additionally, I feel that Mr. Percy (especially in his last few chapters) provides the reader with thought-provoking and highly articulate observations about life, time, and human-nature. I think this book is excellent, and believe it to be a "must read" for anybody with an open-minded interest in the Missisippi Delta region, or the South in general.
A Lost Voice Of A Lost Cause.......2002-12-14
This is one of those books that is almost impossible to objectively review. The writing is elegant and evocative of an era in the South that died almost in tandem with Mr. Percy and yet I find some parts of it so arrogant and condescending that I feel myself grinding my teeth. You see, I am descended from those Mississippi hill people Percy so despised and, even after all this time, I can almost see the languid gaze and soft, drawling voice. My people came to the Yazoo-Mississippi Delta after the Flood of '27 and we build and earned what we got without the benefit of the massive slave labor that built Mr. Percy's fortune.
But this is a book review and I'll put aside old feelings to say that this is a literary gem that brings to life a way of life on which so many stereotypes of the South are built. And Will Percy is amazingly honest in his descriptions of his society. However, a society this simple and yet this complex takes more than just one book to grasp.
Thus, I also recommend "Rising Tide" by John Barry and "The Most Southern Place on Earth: The Mississippi Delta and the Roots of Regional Identity" by James Cobb to balance your view of this time and place in history.
Bottom line: This is a wonderful, beautifully written story that is refreshingly candid with none of the defensiveness and politically correct breast beating of many of the works of southern writers of recent years.
Amazon.com
Mississippi is not widely known for being first in anything; in fact, Michael Orey notes in Assuming the Risk, the state ranks last or near last on an embarrassing array of scales. And yet, he writes, it was in the courtrooms of this disparaged Southern state that a pioneering team of lawyers led the way in a politically controversial crusade against the tobacco industry. Mississippi was the first state in the nation to sue cigarette manufacturers to recover smoking-related health care costs incurred by the state's Medicaid program. The fierce legal battle resulted in a multibillion-dollar settlement and eventually led to hundreds of billions of dollars in fines levied against the tobacco industry when other states followed suit.
Though decidedly pro-plaintiff, Assuming the Risk is not another vituperative rant against the Evil Empire of Big Tobacco: Orey does not shout and stomp on his soapbox. Instead, the veteran legal journalist and Wall Street Journal editor coolly focuses on the objective facts, presenting the who, what, where, and when of a complex and contentious litigation. His well-researched and detailed narrative spotlights the key figures in this real-life morality play--the mavericks, lawyers, and whistleblowers--including one particularly revealing chapter on Jeffrey Wigand, a former research scientist for the tobacco firm Brown & Williamson, whose decision to break a confidentiality agreement by speaking with 60 Minutes investigative reporter Mike Wallace became the subject of the 1999 film The Insider. --Tim Hogan
Book Description
Mississippi is not widely known for being first in anything; in fact, Michael Orey notes in Assuming the Risk, the state ranks last or near last on an embarrassing array of scales. And yet, he writes, it was in the courtrooms of this disparaged Southern state that a pioneering team of lawyers led the way in a politically controversial crusade against the tobacco industry. Mississippi was the first state in the nation to sue cigarette manufacturers to recover smoking-related health care costs incurred by the state's Medicaid program. The fierce legal battle resulted in a multibillion-dollar settlement and eventually led to hundreds of billions of dollars in fines levied against the tobacco industry when other states followed suit.Though decidedly pro-plaintiff, Assuming the Risk is not another vituperative rant against the Evil Empire of Big Tobacco: Orey does not shout and stomp on his soapbox. Instead, the veteran legal journalist and Wall Street Journal editor coolly focuses on the objective facts, presenting the who, what, where, and when of a complex and contentious litigation. His well-researched and detailed narrative spotlights the key figures in this real-life morality play--the mavericks, lawyers, and whistleblowers--including one particularly revealing chapter on Jeffrey Wigand, a former research scientist for the tobacco firm Brown Williamson, whose decision to break a confidentiality agreement by speaking with 60 Minutes investigative reporter Mike Wallace became the subject of the 1999 film The Insider. --Tim Hogan
Customer Reviews:
Insightful!.......2001-09-19
Michael Orey begins his thorough examination of the courtroom battles against big tobacco by examining Horton v. American Tobacco, the Mississippi case that launched the mid-1980s barrage of legal attacks on big tobacco and led eventually to U.S. settlements of more than $200 billion. As they read about the assault on Brown and Williamson, cinema buffs may feel they are revisiting The Insider with Al Pacino. The book combines a walk-through of the day-to-day legal procedures and motions with a look into the lives of the major players. This well-written volume presents the tobacco case like an engrossing true-crime story, although some readers may find it has too much detail to hold their interest. We [...] recommend this fascinating book to most general readers. But while executives searching for principles to apply to their own companies may find themselves captivated, they won't find much here that is generally applicable.
Great!.......2000-07-27
It may seem paradoxical to most that for trial lawyers are not afraid to lose a case. Every trial is a learning experience. You learn about your opponent; you learn about yourself. You try a losing case over and over in your head at night. You learn from your mistakes. You learn from the opposing lawyer. You become obsessed and through it all you learn how to win.
This is the true story of some country lawyers in Mississippi who launched a holy war against Big Tobacco. They were unlikely Davids battling a Goliath.
The country lawyers looked like easy pickings to the big firm lawyers from the big cities. The silk stocking crowd would bury them in paper, bankrupt them in endless discovery, and outdazzle them in court, if the bumpkins ever got that far. These champions of nicotine had never lost a case. The clients had never paid one dime to any tobacco victim. They were the chosen ones, selected to keep the streak alive, to bring home the scalps of the piteous Mississippi lawyers.
Trial lawyers know that a lawyer who has never lost a case has never tried a case. Undeterred by the myth of invincibility of the tobacco industry these dreamers were able to use the industry's incredible arrogance on itself to bring it to its knees. In short, the truth got out, and the rest is history.
If you are a law student or a young lawyer thinking about trying cases for a living, read this book. This is how its done and how you can sleep at night.
Superb Story With Little Heroes And Lots Of Lying Everywhere.......1999-09-14
What an interesting recording how Lawyers violate their own standards of conduct just to win. The book shows how documents about Tobacco were stolen and then how the person who stole them was paid $1.8 million by the very Lawyers he helped to win billions for in fees. Yet, I wondered what those same Lawyers would have the same tactics used against them, how they would feel. But the cause was to show that smoking Cigarettes is evil and not good for our health, yet we already knew this and making the companies admit it was a victory. So in the end whenever someone is being sued and if we applaud those breaking ethics and the laws in pursuit for justice, then we encourage bad behavior. In the end when we celebrate this kind of action how far can murder, threats of murder and destruction's of families will be justified in pursuit of justice? Billions have been made, billions have been won, but by whom and for whom? No one should be proud of their actions as described in the book and if they are they can wonder later what will happen when others use the same tactics are them. What is tragic is Society knew shortly after the Native Americans gave Tobacco to Columbus that it was deadly, but people wanted it, and used it, so the governments created Sin Taxes to help discourage it. It did not work back then and it will not work now. People will be free to do what they want and nothing will stop it. At the same time, no one should begin to smoke or smoke but how do you stop it. The book is a great read. I recommend it highly but read it without smoking if you can!
Average customer rating:
- Not angry... Just historically honest
- Descriptive, emotional, engaging
- Wasn't reasonable or logical or comprehensible
- Prompt Service
- Remarkable, Unforgettable, Invaluable, Candid, Daring, Astounding...
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Coming of Age in Mississippi
Anne Moody
Manufacturer: Dell
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Mass Market Paperback
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The Things They Carried
ASIN: 0440314887
Release Date: 1992-01-04 |
Book Description
Written without a trace of sentimentality or apology, this is an unforgettable personal story -- the truth as a remarkable young woman named Anne Moody lived it. To read her book is to know what it is to have grown up black in Mississippi in the forties an fifties -- and to have survived with pride and courage intact.
In this now classic autobiography, she details the sights, smells, and suffering of growing up in a racist society and candidily reveals the soul of a black girl who had the courage to challenge it. The result is a touchstone work: an accurate, authoritative portrait of black family life in the rural South and a moving account of a woman's indomitable heart.
Customer Reviews:
Not angry... Just historically honest.......2007-07-10
Though I read this book many years ago, I had to strongly disagree with part of the editor's initial characterization of this book as being "angry". Powerful, painful and anxiety producing, yes. Angry, no.
I personally came away with the lasting impression of a very honest and heart-felt description of the events and struggles that shaped Ann Moody's life, and her active participation in the Civil Rights Movement. She describes beautifully the fears and pains felt by communities during tragic events such as the murder of the young Emmett Till, and injects the intensity felt by the leaders of the Movement, including MLK Jr., as they constantly tried to dodge authorities.
I strongly believe, and echo other reviewer's opinions, that every High School and young college student should be required to read this book.
Descriptive, emotional, engaging.......2007-03-20
Thus a civil rights advocate was born.
I read this book seven years ago, on a whim, because I was wanting to understand why Southerners were especially proud of their heritage when there was so much suffering among its own people, especially its blacks.
Ann Moddy lived a life that most whites would be ashamed of, but that many blacks endured. This is a part of American history that mainstreem history books seldom cover in any detail and leave to the "Black Studies" department.
Moody lived her life struggling for identity, struggling for change, struggling for advancement. She made something of herself and has never looked back. (I read somewhere that she doesn't like to talk about her growing-up years and has lived a life of seclusion.). She can only be admired for what she has made of herself.
Moody never once expresses hurt. All she wanted was justice for all. She left Mississippi with more than a tinge of anger.
This book should be required reading for all social studies classes. It is engrossing without being sentimental or overly emotional (and it certainly is not "girly" at all.) For anyone, regardless of color, gender or legal status, this should be a must-read.
Wasn't reasonable or logical or comprehensible.......2007-03-05
I quit early on and here's why.
Anne's mother leaves her 6 month old infant and Anne (who is "almost 4") in the hands of her (anne's mother) 8 y/o brother, then later her 12y/o brother, for 12+ hours every day. According to Anne they never took care of them and in fact took off as soon as her parents were out of sight.
Who's feeding the 6 month old for those 12+ hours? They were living on a farm with lots of other black families. Surely the women had some kind of communal child care system going. Where's the wet nurse? I don't believe it.
Same happens with the next infant. Mom's never home. All male babysitters. One male adult would take all three kids (ages 5, 2.5 and a little over a year old) HUNTING with him in the swamps! I don't believe it. I don't believe Anne Moody.
How is it that Anne goes to school at age 5 but her mom's 8 y/o and 12y/o brothers don't?
In Anne Moody's story the boys and some men stayed home and babysat while the girls go to school/work. Now I always thought it was just the opposite. Girls usually stayed home and tended to their younger siblings, cleaned, cooked etc., while the boys if they didn't go to school, worked along side the men.
How is it that little 5 y/o Anne walks 2 miles up and 2 miles back to school everyday all by herself. Just try and picture that in your mind. A tiny little threadbare 5 y/o girl all alone walking 4 miles a day in the rain, humid heat or cold. Then hiding in the schools outhouse for as long as she can because she doesn't like school or the teacher! I don't see it. I don't believe it. Four miles is nothing for a healthy adult/teen/kid but a 5 y/o "baby"? I don't think they'd have the mind to do it nor the legs.
How is it that when Anne is 6 and back at school, her mom just leaves the 3.5 y/o and 1.5 y/o all by themselves, all day at the house, no babysitter? I don't believe it. Was Anne's mother mentally retarded? They're living in town at this time. What about the neighbors, friends or church? Women have always gotten together to help care for the children?
The story just wasn't adding up so I quit. Sorry.
I also don't believe the memoirs of Augusten Burroughs "Running with Scissors" etc. and Mary Karr "The Liars' Club".
Prompt Service.......2007-02-28
I do not have any complaints about Amazon.com service. I got my book on time and in the conditions stated on the site. I am very satisfied. The book is a great addition for my library and it is very helpful for my classes in college.
Remarkable, Unforgettable, Invaluable, Candid, Daring, Astounding..........2007-01-29
This book is one of the the best books to help you to REALLY understand the Civil Rights Movement and what it meant to be black in the south during that era. Anne Moody lets the reader into her life in a remarkable way and helps her audience comprehend what the south was like (not only for the black population, but for black women as well) and why Civil Rights workers, like herself, put up with so much for their cause. It is very hard for me to put into words what a great book this is-it will open your eyes to history even if you don't like history or reading I guarantee you will LOVE this book! Definitely a MUST READ.
Other books that compliment this book well, if you're interested in the subject are: Passing, Quicksand, and Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl
Average customer rating:
- Eleven Days In August
- Wonderful writing, sad and fatalistic story
- Fine characterization
- Major but Flawed
- The book for the first time Faulkner reader to start with.
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Light in August (The Corrected Text)
William Faulkner
Manufacturer: Vintage International/Random House
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
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Book Description
Joe Christmas does not know whether he is black or white. Faulkner makes of Joe's tragedy a powerful indictment of racism; at the same time Joe's life is a study of the divided self and becomes a symbol of 20th century man.
Customer Reviews:
Eleven Days In August.......2007-08-12
This book has been touted as being Faulkner's most accessible. Although a bit easier to follow having less stream of consciousness it still requires some patience and appreciation for nuance. Further, if you take the story at face value you will be missing out on 90% of what it has to offer. The themes run deep and the characters symbolic. I'd recommend reading exerpts from One Matchless Time by Jay Parini who provides some good insights into Faulkner's life and his writings. I'd also read the review written by A.Mason (below). This was one of the more violent and sexual books that I have read of Faulkner. Although I was surprised, I was in awe of his tact and style in portraying these events in a subtly gruesome way that takes the reader off gaurd. The climactic scene of Joe Christmas's undoing was Faulkner at his best. I'd recommend this book to anyone who loves good writing and is fascinated with the tragedy of the post-Civil War southerner.
Wonderful writing, sad and fatalistic story.......2007-02-08
This book was my introduction to Faulkner, based on a suggestion by my well-read aunt.
It is certainly possible to recognize the skill of a writer without necessarily finding the story he tells endearing. That was the case here. Faulkner's prose is often like poetry and his use of the language is unquestionably masterful. He shows his talent not so much in the words he uses - the vocabulary is actually quite plain - but rather in the way he combines those words. Simple adjectives are used to create compelling scenes and even more compelling characters.
Faulkner strikes me as the consummate observer. He doesn't moralize, he doesn't become overwrought, he doesn't offer judgement. He simply observes the way things are, not the way we want them to be, and there is a sense that we are being propelled towards not tragegy but simply reality in his writing.
Light in August is ostensibly about Joe Christmas, a headstrong and mysterious drifter in the 1920s deep South, but surprisingly we aren't introduced to him until several chapters into the book. The book chronicles the intersecting people and events that surround Joe Christmas in Faulkner's fictional town of Jefferson, Mississippi. However, the author introduces us to so many other non-incidental characters that it is often hard to separate the leading from the supporting cast.
If I had to describe the characters in this book in a single word it would be "trapped." There is an overwhelming sense of stuck-ness we get in observing their lives. One does not necessarily get the impression that they saw themselves as stuck and hopeless - indeed many seemed to exist in frustrating ignorance of reality. But for the outside observer to whom Faulkner tells this story using his rich narrative, it is obvious that to a person, every character in this book is indeed on a treadmill. Slavery may be over, but the people that populate these pages are in very real servitude to themselves and their pasts.
The book is a glimpse at the deep South immediately prior to the depression era. We're presented with a culture that still hasn't quite come to grips with life on the other side of the Civil War and racialism is so deeply ingrained that although slavery is no longer law, the caste system it birthed lives on in the arrogant attitudes of the whites and the subservient squalor of the blacks.
The loyalties and alliances and relationships in this book are complex, as are the characters, and more than once I found myself wanting to slap these characters into sense. Without exception, each was their own worst enemy and managed to almost single-handedly sail their lives into the rocks. Although many were admittedly pointed rock-ward via their upbringing, they had ample opportunities to change course but continued sailing directly for the cliffs.
Although I have not yet read other books by Faulkner, I'm told this is the most approachable of all his writing, reading the most like a traditional novel. There is plenty of tension in the story, as the saga of Christmas and the other characters unfolds dramatically. Consequently, most people will find themselves turning the pages in anticipation of what happens next. Faulkner takes the reader on numerous side journeys, showing how the characters came to be what they are, and those characters often share certain aspects of their history in common, not just their present circumstances.
As the book draws to a close, the treadmill keeps turning with characters trudging futilely into the sunset, still stuck in the same ruts in which the beginning of the story found them. I'll say little more. To do otherwise is to risk spoiling the plot.
I can perhaps describe the overall experience here as bittersweet. The writing sweet, but the tale itself thoroughly bitter.
Fine characterization.......2007-02-07
I enjoyed this book much more than I expected. It explores the questions of race thoroughly without hitting the reader over the head with it. The characters seem real, neither demonic nor angelic. The impact of race is ultimately devastating to Joe Christmas and many of the people around him.
Major but Flawed.......2007-01-20
Faulkner's was a self-indulgent, irresponsible, uneven gift. But at his best, as sometimes in these pages, he is a poet and rhapsodist without equal, and we continue to read him. As a rational thinker he was a nullity; he had no practical insights, no social program, no agendum, no framework that could serve as a starting point toward a solution of the problems he so tellingly describes. This became abundantly clear around the time of his winning the Nobel prize for literature, when he disappointed and exasperated followers who were looking to him for guidance as to a beacon. At least Faulkner had the self-knowledge to know that he did not know, did not in fact even want to know. For knowledge was inimical to his art, not-wanting-to-know a precondition for it. That, and bourbon. The bourbon released his inhibitions and silenced his inner editor (its voice had never been loud), unleashing a torrent of words, much of it bilge but some diamonds too. The result in Light in August is an exasperating novel that contains some thirty scattered pages of the highest poetic value and one potentially great character in the person of Joe Christmas. I say this as a man of 54 who has read the book five times in the course of his life, having been introduced to it in high school. Of course I didn't understand much of it then, but its inimitable style and voluptuous confusion have beckoned me back to it.
One is attracted above all by the descriptions of the simple processes of life in all their earthy particulars, the negro cabins, the town lights, the smells, everything rank and dark and elemental. Except for Joe Christmas and possibly Gail Hightower, the characters are all stereotypes, especially the women. Intellectually, there is little of substance in the novel, its appeal is entirely emotional. There is a clean, bracing no-nonsense description of hypermasculine elements and experiences to which Joe seems to gravitate naturally. For instance, of McEachern's harness strap ("clean, like the shoes, and it smelled like the man smelled: an odor of clean hard virile living leather") and Joe's rapt expression when being beaten by it; of Joe's preference for the clean, hard air of men. Given his latent homosexuality, one feels Joe would have done much better as a votary of the strap. But there was a problem. Biologically he was wired for pussy, and no mistake. Even as a child in the orphanage with the dietician he showed this susceptibility: "On that first day when he discovered the toothpaste in her room he had gone directly there, who had never heard of toothpaste either, as if he already knew that she would possess something of that nature and he would find it." He was still too young to understand what Charley was enjoying, but when he came of age he learned that it too, like the toothpaste, was not always sweet ("periodic filth between two moons suspended"). Unfortunately, Joe had no use for the rest of the package and never learned to like and appreciate women as people. This was the root of his troubles with women and by cutting him off from a source of life helped to seal his doom.
Several reviewers have stated that Joe had some negro blood. This is an error and is refuted by the evidence given in the book, although it suits Faulkner (if not Joe) to make Joe out as a possible negro and even to foist him off as one. I think Faulkner's device here, of using the negro as the ultimate symbol of the outcast, is a dreadful mistake, so serious as even to call into question his integrity as an artist and his understanding of his greatest character. Why? Partly because it is too easy, too cheap a shot. It's also overkill, since Joe's alienation has already been powerfully delineated by other, artistic means. But the main, the fatal objection, is that raising the N question does great damage by introducing confusion precisely where the novel demands clarity and restraint -- it entangles Joe's problem of identity with something completely separate and other. This other is a serious communal problem in its own right and certainly should not be abused as a symbol in the way that Faulkner abuses it (neither should the word Christmas). Faulkner is monkeying around with things bigger than himself, things he does not understand, in an attempt to endow his work with a greater significance than he was capable of developing on his own horsepower as a creative writer; this is what I mean when I say he is irresponsible. Joe's problem is in fact his alone. Damaged in childhood and partly cut off from the sources of life, he has to renew and rebuild himself to a degree not necessary to his complacent countrymen, who by virtue of their utter mediocrity are granted automatic membership in small, stultifying, inbred towns like the one in which the action unfolds. Faulkner's punishment is swift and certain -- it is precisely here in the book that he begins to stumble, to overreach for a grand synthesis that isn't there. The performance is increasingly over-the-top until eventually artistic control is lost. He doesn't seem to grasp the limitations of his creations, and the book becomes a stew. Faulkner was nothing if not confused, and here alas the confusion damages the work. Where was that inner editor?
After the murder, a building momentum sweeps the reader on to the end. However, there is no true catharsis and no real tragedy, only an overreaching for a grand synthesis that fails. The reader is struck by the feeling that something has gone wrong, and on going back finds he has been the victim of a swindle. The book closes with that sucker Byron Bunch in tow with his damaged goods in the form of Lena Grove and her bastard infant. Faulkner seems to be saying that in spite of some mistakes, life has returned to its immemorial path. But if this is salvation, one must be glad for Joe that he is safely dead and out of harm's way. Not everyone is cowed by the eternal feminine, and Joe himself would have no trouble giving the Lena Groves of the world what they deserve -- the back of his hand.
So after forty years and five attempts at this book, what of value can I take away? Perhaps some thirty pages of beautiful poetry, and the memory of Joe Christmas. He sought to rebuild and renew himself through the transformative power of hard physical labor and I would like to leave him there, continuing now and forever on the roads he freely chose for himself, that run "through yellow wheat fields waving beneath the fierce yellow days of labor and hard sleep in haystacks beneath the cold mad moon of September, and the brittle stars."
The book for the first time Faulkner reader to start with........2007-01-15
Light in August by William Faulkner is the book for the first time Faulkner reader to start with. The book is very readable. Unlike some Faulkner stories, the story line is easy to follow. His verbosity is not as apparent in this work as in some of his others where lengthy sentences and tangent monologues within the story derail the reader. The plot is more typical than any of his other works. The average reader will appreciate the book and get a hunger to dip into other works by this southern master writer.
Read and reviewed by Jimmie A. Kepler
Average customer rating:
- A Fourteen Way Of Looking At A Blackbird
- Absalom, Absalom
- Unreliable Narrators, Dated Anxieties, An Empire Collapses
- It is a masterpiece, though not easy to understand.
- Like 10,000 cheese cakes
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Absalom, Absalom!
William Faulkner
Manufacturer: Vintage
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
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Light in August (The Corrected Text)
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ASIN: 0679732187
Release Date: 1991-01-30 |
Book Description
The story of Thomas Sutpen, an enigmatic stranger who came to Jefferson in the early 1830s to wrest his mansion out of the muddy bottoms of the north Mississippi wilderness. He was a man, Faulkner said, "who wanted sons and the sons destroyed him."
Customer Reviews:
A Fourteen Way Of Looking At A Blackbird.......2007-04-17
This is a dark, convoluted, complex novel written in a stream of consciousness text that can easily confuse and scare the casual reader away. For the serious reader who is willing to put the time and effort into this work of art you will not be let down. First, however, you must read The Sound and the Fury (SAF). If you work your way through that novel and you "get it" and love it, then Absalom is a absolute must. But be prepared. T.S. Eliot once said of the book that it communicates before it is understood. Typical Faulkner. It takes some fortitude and a little background. Let me help with a little background. For starters, The title comes from an the Old Testament (2 Samuel 13). Absalom, one of David's sons kills his brother Amnon for raping their sister Tamar. Hence the title and a clue. The book is full of clues and in a sense can be taken by the reader as detective story full of mystery and revenge, suspense and gothic drama. This is the story of Southern tradgedy and the fall of the House of Sutpen. The central character is Thomas Sutpen who is the fountainhead of the southern, self-reliant man seeking to reach the American dream through creating a grand design of dynasty. To pass his dynasty on to his eldest legitimate son is part of the design and part its downfall. The story takes place before, during, and after the Civil War and issues such as race, miscegenation, class, economy, worker's rights, women's rights are all spun into the story that is a portrait of Southern realism. The story is told by four narrators: Quentin Compson (from SAF), Quentin's father, Quentin's roomate Shreve, and Miss Rosa Coldfield. Quentin however is the central narrator and by reading SAF one can better understand the issues facing Quentin and the reason he struggles so much with this story. Absalom is very much the story of Quentin's hatred for the bad qualities in the southern country that he loves. Much of the story as told by Quentin and Shreve is purely imaginative construction of what could have been as they
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