Which faulkner should i read first

Another recommendation is Tobacco Road. This is a book that will give you insight into the minds, hopes, fears, and outlook of the people Faulkner and O'Connor put out there for you to observe.

If you haven't read it already in high school or college lit, check out "A Rose for Emily. Two narratives told in parallel, although it isn't set in Y. I plan on rereading it, especially with my Faulkner A to Z handy, since it has nice summaries. I'm currently reading Absalom, Absalom! I think there's something to be said for reading Faulkner along with some sort of handy "aid," even if it's nothing more than an online chronology.

There's a useful reading aid that I found online for Absalom! Another useful tool is simply to find a list of Faulkner's characters. As was mentioned, Faulkner was writing about several generations of an intertwined community, so family names recur, but also the same people are used in several novels or stories.

A good list of his characters can be found there. Having said that, some people will prefer to just jump into the reading and see where it takes them. There's plenty to be said for that approach as well. However, I've found that many people give up on Faulkner because they get frustrated with him, and some of these reading aids might be useful in that case to get over that initial confusion or frustration. As I Lay Dying is my favorite as well. That book stayed with me for a long time after I read it.

Where to start? Despite its conventional trappings, it has the style and intense characters one will encounter in more experimental and labyrinthine works. Where not to start? Absalom, Absalom! For those wondering how to approach Faulkner, This is a very helpful article. It doesn't suggest what to read but it does have some good suggestions as to how to read Faulkner.

I think there are a number of writers who owe some thanks to Faulkner. And then there is Cormac McCarthy. I would also suggest Marcel Proust -- long sentences, history of "place," twisted family histories, class, race, etc. Proust might be more of the influence on Fauilkner though. As I Lay Dying. Sep 29, PM. Jan 01, PM.

Light in August is my favorite. Jan 04, PM. Kellie wrote: "Hi Southern Fiction fans! So i thought i'd join your group to find out if anyone has any suggestions for a goo It is from his great period, yet it is accessible for someone who hasn't read Faulkner.

Jan 08, PM. Jan 11, PM. Good Luck. My take on O'conner flannery, I assume : Bunkum. The first time i ever read an author that i thought deeply dislikes the characters the author is writing about.

Feb 02, AM. Probably because I held antipathy to anything that was assigned, I didn't particularly care for it. Later, in college, I was assigned Absalom, Absalom! Blown away by that, I continued with Go Down, Moses because I was excited about the multiple-narrator format.

Only then did I pick up As I Lay Dying -- which makes me wonder if I would have liked it as well if it had been the one I had started with. Eventually I got around to The Hamlet which brought me back to the characters of "Barn Burning" and made me glad I had read it in high school. I almost feel as if it's a needed prequel to the Snopes trilogy, and it is such a powerful story in its own right, as I now realize.

A Rose for Emily or the frequently and unjustly sneered at Sanctuary could be your gateway drug to Faulkner. Then give Light in August a try. And if you want all this and more, you are a. Start with Light in August. The narrative is not completely linear and there is some stream of consciousness sprinkled in there, but you should be able to follow the story with minimal effort.

Think of it as training for the puzzle-solving activity Faulkner will demand of you later. In the meantime, get acquainted with Yoknapatawpha, the fictional Mississippi county in which Faulkner set most of his novels, and get a sense of his favorite themes. Almost everything Faulkner has to offer stylistically and thematically is present in this book: humor, gore, suspense, wonderful descriptions.

Make a note of the parts you liked best. They're a pretty good indicator of which Faulkner novels you're likely to enjoy. Take a detour through The Unvanquished. Quentin Compson is even described at one point as not a being, but a "barracks filled with stubborn back-looking ghosts. The Unvanquished also introduces several Yoknapatawpha families. If any of them catches your eye, look up their books next. Let the language flow over you; let the story come to you on its own terms.

It most likely will, at least in its general lines. Revisit it then and savor it fully. Would it help if you were already used with this style, say from making an additional detour through the shorter As I Lay Dying?