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ApocalypseSpokesman t1_ixtauz7 wrote

This was perhaps my least favorite read of my entire life.

I absolutely hated it.

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yeetedhaws t1_ixuyuvy wrote

The dark humor got me. The auger scene in the beginning and the ending of the book just seem gratuitously cruel. I know some people love dark humor but it was too much for me!

Otherwise I can appreciate the book for what it is and what it does. Gorgeous writing and interesting topics but just not handled in a way I personally enjoy.

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ApocalypseSpokesman t1_ixv3xm8 wrote

>Gorgeous writing and interesting topics

I see people say things like this, but I don't get it in even the smallest sense. I found the writing to be execrable. Inane and pointless. Reading it I felt that Faulkner was pointing a pen of disdain at his audience. As if to brag to his fellows, while thoroughly drunk, "See what drivel I can set down in print, and they'll lap it up, the dogs they are!"

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A_Powerful_Moss t1_ixvs1ip wrote

Out of curiosity, what’s your fav book you’ve ever read? Also, I trenchantly disagree with your take on Faulkner, but to each their own.

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ApocalypseSpokesman t1_ixw74iv wrote

I can't answer what my favorite book ever was. Not like "ooh, there's so many," just like I usually don't keep track of them in my mind that way.

One recent read that struck me very favorably was The Death of Ivan Ilych.

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yeetedhaws t1_ixxlt8o wrote

Oh see I hated the death of Ivan Ilyich, to me it was extremely dry and straight to the point. I didn't even really understand why it was written because the point was so straight forward/I didn't have to really think deeper to understand it.

Faulkner is on the opposite end of the spectrum, he writes through implications and pastoral descriptions. I still remember the chapter where the daughter went to get an abortion and her little brother waited outside. The reader isn't directly told what's happening but we all figure it out in a way that a careless writer wouldn't have been able to pull off. Same with the ending and dad getting his new teeth, the reader can imagine what happens next and what happened leading up to it without it being explicitly explained.

It's definitely written in a way that looks clumsy but that makes the relevant information that much more hard hitting.

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ExcitedStone t1_ixx4ubu wrote

Have to agree with you. Not sure how he is put in the same category as McCarthy or Melville. Did you find any of his other books worth reading?

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ApocalypseSpokesman t1_ixzhzba wrote

I read another of his books, it might have been The Sound and the Fury.

I don't remember details but I remember not liking it much.

It wasn't anything like the feeling of angry disgust I got from As I Lay Dying, though.

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