ichirofakename's review against another edition
4.0
Reread this pair of stories because of the weather. One story takes place during the 1927 Mississippi flood, when the river was 60 miles wide. Exciting. The other is a young couple on the run trying to figure out life, unsuccessfully. Depressing. Recommended; excellent gateway to Faulkner. Get ready for som LONG sentences, and don't expect many commas.
saralynnburnett's review against another edition
4.0
I enjoyed Faulkner’s The Wild Palms more than I thought I would! Between the two narratives in this bifurcated novel I was so there for ‘Old Man’ in which the Great Flood of 1927 is portrayed through an escaped convict in a small boat with a pregnant woman. If you want a shocking/not shocking (because America) rabbit hole of historical information. google a timeline of the flood and then consider the injustices of Hurricane Katrina a near mirror of it. Also: the prison industrial complex / forced free labor by inmates that is still occurring today (who do you think is packing all that hand sanitizer right now and washing hospital gowns?)
Jesmyn Ward once said on reading Faulkner: “I was so awed I wanted to give up. I thought, ‘He’s done it, perfectly. Why the hell am I trying?’ But the failures of some of his black characters—the lack of imaginative vision regarding them, the way they don’t display the full range of human emotion, how they fail to live fully on the page—work against that awe and goad me to write.”
I love that, that literature speaks to each through the ages whether in correction or admiration. Reminds of how Land of Love and Drowning was in part Tiphanie Yanique’s answer to the portray of the Virgin Islands seen in Don’t Stop the Carnival.
Jesmyn Ward once said on reading Faulkner: “I was so awed I wanted to give up. I thought, ‘He’s done it, perfectly. Why the hell am I trying?’ But the failures of some of his black characters—the lack of imaginative vision regarding them, the way they don’t display the full range of human emotion, how they fail to live fully on the page—work against that awe and goad me to write.”
I love that, that literature speaks to each through the ages whether in correction or admiration. Reminds of how Land of Love and Drowning was in part Tiphanie Yanique’s answer to the portray of the Virgin Islands seen in Don’t Stop the Carnival.
tamyans's review against another edition
challenging
emotional
funny
sad
tense
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.5
nikiforova's review against another edition
3.0
I am conflicted about this one, hence 3 stars.
I picked it up because it was mentioned in Godard's film A bout de souffle, where a female character quotes the famous lines: “Given the choice between the experience of pain and nothing, I would choose pain.”
These words are from "Wild Palms", which makes a half of the novel. It tells a story of two lovers who gave up everything to be together. Although the premise given in the first chapter was quite intriguing, I really didn't care much for this story.
What I did love was how Faulkner describes the character vs. nature conflict. The freezing Utah mountains, wild palms shaken by the tail of the hurricane, smell of the sea. And of course the great Mississipi river flood of 1927 described in the second novel of the book "Old Man". It is beautifully-written (I did have to use dictionary a lot though!). Definitely going to re-read.
I picked it up because it was mentioned in Godard's film A bout de souffle, where a female character quotes the famous lines: “Given the choice between the experience of pain and nothing, I would choose pain.”
These words are from "Wild Palms", which makes a half of the novel. It tells a story of two lovers who gave up everything to be together. Although the premise given in the first chapter was quite intriguing, I really didn't care much for this story.
What I did love was how Faulkner describes the character vs. nature conflict. The freezing Utah mountains, wild palms shaken by the tail of the hurricane, smell of the sea. And of course the great Mississipi river flood of 1927 described in the second novel of the book "Old Man". It is beautifully-written (I did have to use dictionary a lot though!). Definitely going to re-read.
estevens315's review against another edition
3.0
“Love and suffering are the same thing and that the value of love is the sum of what you have to pay for it and anytime you get it cheap you have cheated yourself.”
“If memory exists outside of the flesh it won’t be memory because i won’t know what it remembers so when she became not then half of memory became not and if became not then all of remembering will cease to be. -Yes, he thought, between grief and nothing i will take grief.”
The old man ⭐️
What really ruined the this was the old man story - personally that wasn’t as good as the wild palms story which i completely adored. This was a particularly slow book with zero plot ( which wasn’t necessarily a bad thing. ) The ending of the old man story in particular: it was just boring?? I hate to criticise this but on the blurb it states that he falls in love with the woman. They hardly interacted properly and he never even thought about such feelings towards her. I could not for the life of me understand what was going on, one second he was in prison, the next somewhere new. I couldn’t get into this story.
wild palm ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
Oh but charlotte and Harry
“If memory exists outside of the flesh it won’t be memory because i won’t know what it remembers so when she became not then half of memory became not and if became not then all of remembering will cease to be. -Yes, he thought, between grief and nothing i will take grief.”
The old man ⭐️
What really ruined the this was the old man story - personally that wasn’t as good as the wild palms story which i completely adored. This was a particularly slow book with zero plot ( which wasn’t necessarily a bad thing. ) The ending of the old man story in particular: it was just boring?? I hate to criticise this but on the blurb it states that he falls in love with the woman. They hardly interacted properly and he never even thought about such feelings towards her. I could not for the life of me understand what was going on, one second he was in prison, the next somewhere new. I couldn’t get into this story.
wild palm ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
Oh but charlotte and Harry
ebonymae123's review against another edition
3.0
“Love and suffering are the same thing and that the value of love is the sum of what you have to pay for it and anytime you get it cheap you have cheated yourself.”
“If memory exists outside of the flesh it won’t be memory because i won’t know what it remembers so when she became not then half of memory became not and if became not then all of remembering will cease to be. -Yes, he thought, between grief and nothing i will take grief.”
The old man ⭐️
What really ruined the this was the old man story - personally that wasn’t as good as the wild palms story which i completely adored. This was a particularly slow book with zero plot ( which wasn’t necessarily a bad thing. ) The ending of the old man story in particular: it was just boring?? I hate to criticise this but on the blurb it states that he falls in love with the woman. They hardly interacted properly and he never even thought about such feelings towards her. I could not for the life of me understand what was going on, one second he was in prison, the next somewhere new. I couldn’t get into this story.
wild palm ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
Oh but charlotte and Harry
“If memory exists outside of the flesh it won’t be memory because i won’t know what it remembers so when she became not then half of memory became not and if became not then all of remembering will cease to be. -Yes, he thought, between grief and nothing i will take grief.”
The old man ⭐️
What really ruined the this was the old man story - personally that wasn’t as good as the wild palms story which i completely adored. This was a particularly slow book with zero plot ( which wasn’t necessarily a bad thing. ) The ending of the old man story in particular: it was just boring?? I hate to criticise this but on the blurb it states that he falls in love with the woman. They hardly interacted properly and he never even thought about such feelings towards her. I could not for the life of me understand what was going on, one second he was in prison, the next somewhere new. I couldn’t get into this story.
wild palm ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
Oh but charlotte and Harry
jenna0010's review against another edition
3.0
While Faulkner's prose heaves with lush, violent beauty, I found this narrative fragile, fumbling, and not quite adhering at the seams. There was something not as sturdy at work here, which is perhaps telling of all its concerns with containment and control, rivers bursting, female flesh and its leakiness, with criminality, corruption, rotting structures, aborted futures.
unclerooibos's review against another edition
3.0
A novel unlike Faulkner's others in that it takes place in many locations across America. Not as gripping as some of his other works.