Oprah's Book Club 2005 Summer Selection a Summer of Faulkner: As I Lay Dying/The Sound and the Fury/Light in August [Paperback]

Three of Faulkner's greatest novels re-packaged to take advantage of Oprah Winfrey's massive promotion. As we know, Oprah has so much street cred she could propel a shopping list to the top of the best seller list, so let's see what she can do for Faulkner, a writer who has sometimes been criticized for relying on stereotyped depictions of black characters. And at least two of these three novels face that explosive issue head on. In THE SOUND AND THE FURY, the multiple neuroses of the (white) Compson family are always being counterposed to the nurturing and loving family of (black) Dilsey and the rest of the servants. No matter what awful thing happens to one of the Compsons, Dilsey will always be hugging them to her bosom and singing plantations spirituals to cheer them up, ignoring her own systemic arthritis the better to give them the love and affection their own parents don't know how to dish up.

In LIGHT IN AUGUST, the racial identity of its protagonist, Joe Christmas, is a contested site, for no one knows if he's black, white, or what. Commentators have often associated Joe with Jesus Christ (right down to the same initials) and his posture of martyrdom can still bring your heart into your throat, it's a very harsh look at Southern life at the beginning of the last century and Faulkner doesn't shy away from cruelty. He does show that patience and love do overcome almost any obstacles, or at any rate they wear down the obstacles to the degree that they transmogrify into something else. But was he counselling patience for black people, telling them to go slow in their struggle for civil rights? Like any modernist text, LIGHT IN AUGUST is ambiguous and does not give up its answers very clearly.

AS I LAY DYING, which takes the narrative form of THE SOUND AND THE FURY and explodes it further, is not as direct as the other two books in terms of its navigation of black and white relations in the US. AS I LAY DYING is more private, less social, more of a lyric meditation on family and the great cavern of death. No one yet has bettered Faulkner in his ability to enter into the heads of so many disparate characters and this book might be the tour de force of all time. Even the mother (dead when the book begins) speaks from beyond the grave, almost as a ghost might, but a ghost still attached to her own body, as her boys trundle her coffin from one far place to another. (Like Lena Grove's journey in LIGHT IN AUGUST.)

I'm happy Oprah is doing this! Maybe she can get Jonathan Franzen on her show and he could explain how THE CORRECTIONS is really a post-modern re-make of the Compsons. The truth is that most US novelists, and many writers from overseas, owe a huge debt to William Faulkner. Even those who don't know it yet. He is a fact of our landscape, like the weather.

No American author--not even Melville--has the potential to alter human consciousness as profoundly as Faulkner. The "bait" may be sensational plots, seemingly grotesque characters, and Southern Gothic settings, but the reward is knowledge of the innermost workings of the mind, of both the self in the world and the world of self. Faulkner is as advanced, as universal, as human as any author on the near side of Shakespeare.

Oprah's three selections are inarguably indispensable though not sufficient to a complete understanding of Faulkner's vision. Some readers may wish to start out with something lighter--for example, the short stories that are anthologized in introductory literature courses ("Rose for Emily," "Barn Burning," "That Evening Sun," and "The Bear"--short edition). And for those readers who jump right into the novels and survive the challenge of Faulkner's syntax, jump cuts, and stream-of-consciousness technique, there yet remains his masterpiece: "Absalom, Absalom!"

In reading some of the previous reviews, I see there are a number of readers who either dismiss or condemn Faulkner in no uncertain terms. Just give him a chance and your undivided attention. I've witnessed high school students with little to no interest in reading come to life after participating in and constructing the meanings of "The Sound and the Fury." For those who have doubts that the pay-off is worth the effort, I'll offer a glimpse of the rewards. Here are the areas where Faulkner has affected me most deeply and indelibly:

1. History and the personal sense of the past. The present is always "filled" with the past and hence cannot be understood without a willingness to own the past--all of it. On the other hand, many of Faulkner's characters remain entrapped by the past, simply unable to escape their imprisonment in a dream gone bad, or in a "magnificent idea" (the Grand Old South) that was tainted from the very beginning.

2. Gender. Faulkner probes into the recesses of human consciousness, men and women. His strong women characters outdo his strongest men in wisdom, resilience, and stoic backbone. And just at the moment when we think we've got one of his characters figured out, he removes another layer of the outer persona, repeating the process until finally we've arrived at the inner sanctuary of a desire so ineffably private and intense that it's as if the mystery of human personality itself has been bridged.

3. Race. It's everybody's business, as no author has made clearer. A reader who has completed these three novels along with "Go Down Moses" and the crucial "Absalom, Absalom!," is unlikely to see race and color as before. Every reader must "earn" the insight for themselves, but for Faulkner "blackness," pure and simple, equates to "humanness." Color is less a marker than part of the human condition. To insist on a pure ethnic or racial strain is to invite "incest," Faulkner's metaphor for the terminal disease of racial pride and segregation.

4. Language. This area is the most elusive for the general reader, but for Faulkner language is not only medium but subject and substance. "In the beginning was the Word and the Word was made flesh." For Faulkner, language is what distinguishes humans from all other creatures. It's not merely a "tool"; it's human consciousness itself. Paradoxically, one of his most "alive" characters, Addie Bundren ("As I Lay Dying"), hates words because they seem inadequate to represent her desires. The very expression of those desires refutes her aversion to words; in fact, the very force of her words (the language of a dead woman!) controls all that transpires in her story.

If this is your first conversation with Faulkner, I almost envy you. Don't be surprised if it's not your last.

As an English Lit graduate, and aspiring writer, I have to admit that I took a step back when I saw this selection as Oprah's Summer Reading. Faulkner is not exactly the writer you take to the beach to read in snippets between sunscreen applications and frisbee tosses.

In my opinion (which probably isn't worth much to anyone except myself), Faulkner is quite possibly the most brilliant writer this country has ever witnessed. I have read too many of the reviews on Amazon that claim Faulkner's novels have no "plot". But any writer knows that plot is only one element of writing (and probably the least significant element). Too many contemporary novels (and movies...and TV shows) have nothing but plot. Faulkner's work fully realizes the most important elements of a beautiful story...character and ideas. Don't expect too much action in these books. Then again, are our lives defined by our daily actions, or how we feel about them? Faulkner's novels are about the inner lives of his characters, not their inane movements from one place to another.

I must admit that I think Oprah made a mistake with this choice. I am going to predict that 90% of the people that purchase this collection won't make it past page 20 of THE SOUND AND THE FURY. However, if you want to know what GREAT literature tastes like, take a chance.

Faulkner is the difference between fiction and Literature. While fiction is meant to entertain, Literature offers itself as a challenge to our cultural and personal beliefs. If you're looking for something like THE DAVINCI CODE (breathtaking chase sequences with paper-thin characters), this collection is not for you. But if you're bold enough to take a look at an authentic slice of America's past, Faulkner's the real deal. He's not easy, but what of great value is?