A review by carringtonshaw
A Rose for Emily by William Faulkner
dark
mysterious
reflective
tense
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
The next in my schooldays short story reading. Of course I had not forgotten this one. How could one ever forget an ending like that? It has haunted me all my life.
But it had been a long time since I had read Faulkner, and I have so much left to read. (I'm working through the short stories on my list first, and then I will go back to read the others in the collections I recently acquired.) I had forgotten how masterfully he puts you inside a sleepy Southern scene. I had forgotten other details, like the way the townspeople just let Emily do her thing, including (in the case of the pharmacist) letting her get away with murder. There is also a reference to a young man Emily had hoped to marry. The book straight-up says, "He liked men" and mentions the men he hangs out with and how he is not the marrying kind. I definitely did not realize, as a child, that this meant he was gay. That went completely over my head. I even wonder now if those lines were removed from the versions we read in school back in the '90s--it wouldn't surprise me. And we certainly never discussed that aspect. It surprises me, looking back, to find such a blatant reference to homosexuality in such an old book, because I feel like it was demonized so much in Faulkner's day that even mentioning it would be a brave choice.
And no matter how many times I read that ending, it never gets any less forceful. It's like a cold shower every single time.
But it had been a long time since I had read Faulkner, and I have so much left to read. (I'm working through the short stories on my list first, and then I will go back to read the others in the collections I recently acquired.) I had forgotten how masterfully he puts you inside a sleepy Southern scene. I had forgotten other details, like the way the townspeople just let Emily do her thing, including (in the case of the pharmacist) letting her get away with murder. There is also a reference to a young man Emily had hoped to marry. The book straight-up says, "He liked men" and mentions the men he hangs out with and how he is not the marrying kind. I definitely did not realize, as a child, that this meant he was gay. That went completely over my head. I even wonder now if those lines were removed from the versions we read in school back in the '90s--it wouldn't surprise me. And we certainly never discussed that aspect. It surprises me, looking back, to find such a blatant reference to homosexuality in such an old book, because I feel like it was demonized so much in Faulkner's day that even mentioning it would be a brave choice.
And no matter how many times I read that ending, it never gets any less forceful. It's like a cold shower every single time.