A review by habeasopus
A Fable by William Faulkner
3.0
This one was tough. First the subject matter is bleak and brutal with no humor to speak of and not much in the way of human kindness or decency to lighten the cruelty and deception that runs through this whole novel. Yes there is seriously dense and impressive prose and more irony than you can truly digest, but Faulkner by this point was pretty self-indulgent and what editor was really going to rein him in?
He pretty much said to the reader, “Hey, I’m taking you for a ride. Strap in, and if you can’t keep up, I don’t care.” Half the time I had go back up five or six pages to figure out who was talking or which of 256,349 possibilities “he” was referring to. Faulkner never really known for being easy to follow or signposting his pronouns, but particularly tough in this book.
All that said it was quite powerful in a super sad way and I found myself falling into and looking for signs of the allegory.
He pretty much said to the reader, “Hey, I’m taking you for a ride. Strap in, and if you can’t keep up, I don’t care.” Half the time I had go back up five or six pages to figure out who was talking or which of 256,349 possibilities “he” was referring to. Faulkner never really known for being easy to follow or signposting his pronouns, but particularly tough in this book.
All that said it was quite powerful in a super sad way and I found myself falling into and looking for signs of the allegory.