84. The Unvanquished by William Faulkner
OPD: 1938
format: 260-page paperback
acquired: March (from Faulkner House in New Orleans) read: Dec 17-23 time reading: 8:40, 2.0 mpp
rating: 4
genre/style: Classic short stories theme: Faulkner
locations: Yoknapatawpha, county, Mississippi
about the author: 1897-1962. American Noble Laureate who was born in New Albany, MS, and lived most of his life in Oxford, MS.

My 13th book by Faulkner, and by far the easiest to read. It’s kind of like a break. It’s more a boy’s story, and it has a touch of a Huck Finn quality, with a black and white bond boy bond. The race aspect has serious issues but also has a warmth and intimacy within a not very warm environment.

Within Faulkner's Yoknapatawpha books, this is the story of the first Bayard Sartoris, who came of age during the American Civil War. Too young to fight, he stays home with his grandmother and their house slaves, while his father goes off to fight. But when the book opens, the Union troops are into Mississippi. During the first story Bayard and his black childhood friend Ringo, a slave, work together to shoot down a Union scout. They kill only a horse, and the Union soldiers are gentle about it. But so begins this complicated view of the war from the losing home front.

The prose is simple, always in Bayard's own voice, but stories are nicely worked out, wandering and paced, and they address a lot of interesting aspects of the war - the Union burning of towns and fine houses, the freed slaves wandering en masse towards who knows where, the sense of loyalty in some slaves, like Ringo, and the sense of injustice in others. Also Women confederate soldiers, and a sense of the outlaw violence as the war ends. Biographers say it's hard to know Faulkner's sources or accuracy of this era that he happens to bring to life. It's not clear how much is imagined or might have come from local lore. But it's an interesting picture regardless.

These are also nicely plotted stories, with the penultimate story capitalizing on everything before and ramping up the tension and sustaining it. This book is, perhaps, a good introduction to Faulkner.

2024
https://www.librarything.com/topic/365030#8705265 ( )

Great collection of short stories that are exciting and fun to read. Bayard grows up as the stories proceed, and so the stories become slightly more critical of the South, but it is mostly the difference between what the characters do and how the reader reacts that reveals the critique. Also, this novel features Drusilla Hawk, one of my new favorite women of modernist lit. ( )

Great collection of short stories that are exciting and fun to read. Bayard grows up as the stories proceed, and so the stories become slightly more critical of the South, but it is mostly the difference between what the characters do and how the reader reacts that reveals the critique. Also, this novel features Drusilla Hawk, one of my new favorite women of modernist lit. ( )

Great collection of short stories that are exciting and fun to read. Bayard grows up as the stories proceed, and so the stories become slightly more critical of the South, but it is mostly the difference between what the characters do and how the reader reacts that reveals the critique. Also, this novel features Drusilla Hawk, one of my new favorite women of modernist lit. ( )

Great collection of short stories that are exciting and fun to read. Bayard grows up as the stories proceed, and so the stories become slightly more critical of the South, but it is mostly the difference between what the characters do and how the reader reacts that reveals the critique. Also, this novel features Drusilla Hawk, one of my new favorite women of modernist lit. ( )