I just finished this novel. It was my first experience with Faulkners' fiction. I have since purchased 8 more of his "Mississippi" novels. When Faulkner describes shade he names the exact trees making the shade: locust, gum, cypress, oak, pine, birch, willow. He does the same thing with flowers. I reread whole pages several times awed at Faulkners' power to describe. His characters are complex and distinct. He is able to write dialogue of several characters so clearly you feel like you are a fly on the wall observing. The descriptions of civil war antics of long dead relatives are hilarious. I can't believe this book is out of print. I can't believe it has taken me so long to discover America's greatest author.

Faulkner scares readers. Before I read, re-read and loved "Light in August," I had tried books like "Absalom, Absalom" and "The Sound and The Fury" countless times only to get bogged down in the convoluted grammar and personal symbolism as well as the dialogue. For some reason, when I was ready to really read and concentrate, it was certainly not easy, but it was a great, distinct pleasure....one that has stayed with me. Faulkner is, as novelist and essayist Ralph Ellison calls him, "...the greatest artist the South has produced."

This Modern Library compilation of some of Faulkner's short stories is a perfect place to start to read this author, or to keep returning for his keen insights into the heart and nature of the Southerners he created from the Southerners he knew. There are thirteen stories here and they include one of Faulkner's most famous, "A Rose For Emily" a tale of great love and, perhaps, necrophilia. My personal favorite, depressingly sad though it is, is "Dry September" which tells of the extreme violence not only of small town whites to blacks but of whites to whites. Every one of these superb stories is a gem, masterfully written. Most were intended for magazines and so are much more straight forward and "simple" than the novels.

My only complaint and it is with Modern Library, is that, except in two cases, we are not told when Faulkner wrote the stories nor when they were published. Even so, HIGHLY RECOMMENDED.

A must have book for the MRI technologist that is new or is seasoned. Written so you understand it, a must have for the registry.

This study explores Faulkner's view of time, history, and historiography as well as his work's connection to the historical novel. A revised version of this book will be published by International Scholars Publications later this year.

The cover art, "Wanted Poster No. 17" by Charles White, drew me again and again into the depths of this book. It shows a black woman with her hands on the shoulders of a small black boy. Beside them are the first names and ages of faceless persons as they might be shown on a list of slaves to be offered at an auction. The faces of the woman and boy are very human and sensitive as if they are about to speak of what they have seen and heard.

Philip M. Weinstein, Alexander Griswold Cummins Professor of English at Swarthmore College, begins with his own Southern upbringing by a black woman. The love felt for that black woman was not enough to lead him into some enlightened knowledge of her (or even a visit to her home)until 23 years after her death! Her sister said, when he entered her home, "I've been waiting 23 years for this visit."

When Faulkner writes about Dilsey in "The Sound and the Fury" he is drawing upon the experience he had of being raised by a black woman. Dilsey never expresses personal doubt or pain or need. For such was Faulkner's experience of Callie Walker who raised him. He had no concept of the other world in which she lived and moved and had her being.

Likewise, Morrison has her blind spots. When she seeks to render the white Bodwin in "Beloved" she gives a strong but limited portrait, "a limited but precious truth." As Bodwin is about to enter the house where he was born and has not been in 30 years he thinks merely about the unbearable heat, his toy soldiers and watchless chain. These are nearly his last thoughts in this life were it not for the abortive attempt on his life by the confused Sethe.

The limited portraits by Faulkner and Morrison remind us of both the important contributions they have made to our understanding of their experiences and the need for other pieces of the human puzzle. The last word is not said in having said so much that is gripping and true.

Weinstein calls us to a humility that says where we are without the arrogance of thinking we have said/watched (or heard/seen) it all.

It is too bad that the first novel "The Hamlet" is not included (it appears in an earlier volume of this excellent series of The Library Of America) with "The Town" and "The Mansion" in this wonderful tale of growth and maturity of the outcast Snopes clan to a Snopes family of civic prominence. The three novels need to be read in their order to feel the strength of uneducated and poor individuals struggling for opportunities to better themselves, successfully, to claim the privileges of wealth that only the aristocracy of landowners enjoy. This is the new Yoknapatawpha County of automobiles and areoplanes. The old wilderness of the bear hunters was long ago paved over for speed. "The Reivers" is a long hearty laugh at innocence in a whore house. Told from a boy's viewpoint, the action is very adult and funny as adults pursue their urges for sex and gambling. The horse race is a fine piece of sustained Faulkner writing. Buy this book. It is a keeper.

For anyone interested in William Faulkner, this book is far better than any of the other biographies on the market. By illuminating the organic society of the South that is mirrored in Faulker's works, the author has added significant depth to the historical understanding of this great author's works.

An essential part of the Faulkner collection.

Anyone with a interest in Faulkner's works, should enjoy listening to this wonderful recording of the man himself. As close to Faulkner as you can get. A rare gem.

This is one of the most original books of criticism ever to focus on William Faulkner. Baker interprets Faulkner's work in a completely fresh and untraditional way by paralleling the author's intentions and accomplishments with such other "traditional" post-colonial writers as Chinua Achebe, Sean O'Casey, Ngugi wa Thiong'o, and Salman Rushdie. While this work will prove useful for those academics looking to "read" and "teach" Faulkner from a new perspective, it will also prove useful to those readers located outside of academe since Baker provides a cogent overview of the dominant issues and themes of post-colonial theory.

I would strongly recommend this book to anyone who enjoyed any of Faulkner's works or is interested in learning about Faulkner and his writings. My English teacher lent me his copy of this book, and I must say that it is very informative and interesting, at least in the parts I have read. I am waiting to read the sections concerning certain books that I have yet to read until I read them. Fundamentally, this book helps you get at the root of some of Faulkner's works that you may not be sure you understand as well as you'd like to or would like to know a bit about before you begin reading.