Thursday, March 24, 2011

A Splash of Southern Heat on a Snowy "Spring" Day: Light in August by William Faulkner

cover of the 1st edition
Where: Q-train
Who was reading: A young woman whose eyes remained glued to the page with singular focus. Her face was all bundled up in soft cozy fabrics, among them a floral print scarf and a mulberry-colored wool hat. 
Never having seen a mulberry in the wild... I'm going to come clean and admit that this color description comes from having read one too many L.L. Bean catalog [hangs head in shame].
Faulkner's books tend to resist summary. Nevertheless I would summarily describe this as a characteristically Faulknerian stream-of-consciousness-type-novel that explores themes of race, Calvinism and isolation. Told in three voices, it centers around the character of Joe Christmas: a man who does not know whether he is black or white.
Good thing Faulker wrote it and not my pals over at the L.L. Bean catalog: Confronted with such a crisis of identity they probably would've written "heather gray" and called it a day.

4 comments:

  1. Random trivia like this, Lights In August is one of the novels I have seen the most read by other novels' characters

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  2. Mulberry trees are considered trash trees here in the south because they take over and the climate doesn't support silkworms. The berries start out a pale peach and eventually get to a dark reddish-purple.

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  3. Wow. I feel privileged to have such wise and interesting commentors. On the other hand I feel betrayed by mulberries. They seemed like the stuff of holiday cards: quaint and cheerful. Now I see them for what they truly are: cane toads in native toads' clothing.

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  4. Yup. Total import. They are pretty berries until they stain your porch.

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