Intruder in the Dust by William Faulkner


finished 10/20 ......... 20th century US .......... rating 7

I was hugely disappointed in rereading this book. I read it first a couple summers ago and enjoyed it for a Faulkner but figured I was missing something so wanted to reread it at some point. One of my reading groups is reading it next month so now I got the chance. There was nothing more than I got the first time and what I missed was mostly some political statements about how the North should butt out of the business of the South (for a variety of reasons). There was more too, about cars and women and the atomic bomb. All this made the book somewhat choppy.

The other reason for disappointment was that I don't think those wonderful Faulknerian sentences should be used on chase scenes. They just seemed out of place - clumsy, labored.

The story was still there. Lucas Beauchamp and Miss Haversham were still there. Chick got confused in my mind with Harper Lee's Scout although that's a somewhat different story - the similarities are striking.

This is a very poor Faulkner.

Posted: Mon - October 20, 2008 at 07:24 PM        

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