| Title | : | Absalom, Absalom!: The Questioning of Fictions (Twayne's Masterwork Studies) |
| Author | : | |
| Rating | : | |
| ISBN | : | 0805780718 |
| ISBN-10 | : | 9780805780710 |
| Language | : | English |
| Format Type | : | Hardcover |
| Number of Pages | : | 178 |
| Publication | : | First published January 1, 1991 |
Absalom, Absalom!: The Questioning of Fictions (Twayne's Masterwork Studies) Reviews
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Have been reading a handful of these in conjunction with rereading the novels. In general, these are solid studies that go beyond a mere introduction to the text in question. This one, for instance, places Absalom, Absalom! in the broader contexts of Faulkner's career as well as Mississippi social history. To that extent it is a boys' own bumper book of Yoknapatawpha. Parker pushes forward to review salient schools of thought about the novel, however. He is particularly strong on the kinds of ironies revealed by the novel's various narrators who, in a sense, create the story Faulkner tells. Parker usefully contrasts this novel with The Sound and the Fury. That earlier text seems to invite multiple re-readings, in an endlessly unfinalizable engagement with the text. Parker argues, rightly I think, that Absalom, Absalom! resists being an echo chamber of itself, that re-readings lead to 'a story', albeit one rich with layered ironies enabled by Faulkner's strategic, intentional withholding and slow revealing of information. A very useful study of the novel that offers a reading, not just an introduction.
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About one of my favorite books - this book to be read in chunks since I can't read it straight through.
