read 43 classics

It amused me to be reading Light in August during the month of August. Finished in September.

I do think William Faulkner was the greatest American novelist.

However, I don’t think Light in August was his best work. It begins with a bit of a “butler’s introduction”: we are following a pregnant woman who’s on the road searching for the father of her baby. And I found myself so drawn into her story that I was disappointed when the storyline shifted and began following two other characters—the runaway father and a co-worker of his. The storyline shifts again, and it becomes clear that the novel really is the co-worker’s story.

When the pregnant woman gives birth to the baby, Faulkner writes it like a stereotype. When the novel opened, focused on her, she was a rounded character, but at this midpoint when the baby is born, it seemed to me that Faulkner didn’t care about her.

And the story comes back to her in its last chapter, like a bookend, which was at least somewhat satisfying.

I got a little impatient with the novel in the last few chapters. Particularly the second to the last, when Faulkner has one of the characters alone, reflecting on his family’s past and on the recent events that make up the plot of the novel. To begin with, in my personal taste, I think scenes like this where one character is alone reflecting on his/her life rarely are that interesting. And then also, if we needed to know this backstory for this character, I wish Faulkner would have woven these details into the novel earlier. Saving them up for the second to the last chapter? I just didn’t care that much.

So, I am counting this as a classic, but if you want to read Faulkner, I would recommend The Sound and the Fury or another work. 16 months ago

I started reading Middlemarch in March, and finished at the end of July. This is a looong novel, and I don’t feel embarrassed to say that it took me four months to read it. In recent years I’ve had several people recommend this novel to me, and now having read it, I completely understand why. Middlemarch is excellent. Every one of the main characters is given a completely rounded point of view. 18 months ago

In junior high school, when we had to read Of Mice and Men and The Red Pony, I hated reading Steinbeck. In adulthood, I have gained an appreciation for his vision (part Jungian, part social reformer (like Dickens or Victor Hugo)) as well as his writing style.

The Grapes of Wrath was excellent and definitely I can understand why it has stood the test of time. The month of June here where I live was record-breakingly hot and dry, a good time to read about the Dust Bowl. And while our current recession is not as bad as the Great Depression, I felt like I could identify with the Joad’s hard times (not literally, but imaginatively). I read it in one month’s time, and it felt like it read too quickly! 2 years ago

Ship of Fools had a slow start, but I came to really love it as the story progressed. (You can read my review of it under the goal Do the 2009 TBR Challenge.) 2 years ago