Book Review
Jun. 15th, 2011 08:56 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
kenjariFlags in the Dust
by William Faulkner
This somnolent novel is one of Faulkner's earlier works. It follows the final decline of the Sartoris family in the two years after WWI. The story centers around Miss Jenny, the long-widowed matriarch of the family, her much younger friend Narcissa Benbow, her elderly nephew Bayard, and his grandson Bayard. While the older two have learned to live comfortably with the way the Civil War and its aftermath haunts them, the younger Bayard is still struggling with his experiences in World War I.
Flags in the Dust is not driven by plot, it is driven by character and the evocation of a place and its changing way of life. There's only the thinnest of overarching narratives, yet the book remains compelling and vivid. Faulkner's prose is beautiful and seductive, making the book a pleasure to read. My only complaint with the book is that here Faulkner treats his African American characters and their relationships with each other and the white characters in a stereotyped, simplistic, and too often derogatory way. I don't recall this being the case in the two later novels I've read, so it was kind of surprising as well as disappointing.
by William Faulkner
This somnolent novel is one of Faulkner's earlier works. It follows the final decline of the Sartoris family in the two years after WWI. The story centers around Miss Jenny, the long-widowed matriarch of the family, her much younger friend Narcissa Benbow, her elderly nephew Bayard, and his grandson Bayard. While the older two have learned to live comfortably with the way the Civil War and its aftermath haunts them, the younger Bayard is still struggling with his experiences in World War I.
Flags in the Dust is not driven by plot, it is driven by character and the evocation of a place and its changing way of life. There's only the thinnest of overarching narratives, yet the book remains compelling and vivid. Faulkner's prose is beautiful and seductive, making the book a pleasure to read. My only complaint with the book is that here Faulkner treats his African American characters and their relationships with each other and the white characters in a stereotyped, simplistic, and too often derogatory way. I don't recall this being the case in the two later novels I've read, so it was kind of surprising as well as disappointing.
