some of them were young, and they drank and gambled on Saturday night, and even went to Memphis now and then. 'some of the other workers were family men and some were bachelors and they were of different ages and they led a catholic variety of lives, yet on Monday morning they all came to work with a kind of gravity, almost decorum. I have not read his entire canon, but this book would be a better starting point than The Sound and the Fury or Absalom, Absalom! ( ) I think it requires a breadth of life experience to appreciate his work. I tried reading Faulkner when I was young, but most of it flew over my head. It requires a certain maturity to assimilate the metaphors, religious allegory, and complexities inherent in this story. This novel is mostly dark, violent, tragic, and sad, with only a faint flicker of hope. Faulkner uses unusual pairings of words, running them together to create vivid images. It sounds convoluted but it really works well in keeping the reader’s interest. The storyline goes forward and backward in time fluidly, catching the reader up on what has been missed after focusing closely on what happens to one specific character. It focuses on one character, then shifts to another. The book is written in third person omniscient. Themes include the search for identity and how individuals are oppressed by racism, patriarchy, and religious zealotry.

The plot centers around a criminal act of murder and arson. Byron Bunch is a nondescript, poor, hardworking, quiet man whom no one notices. Joanna Burden, now living alone on a large property, is part of an abolitionist family that has been ostracized for years by their rural southern community. Gail Hightower is a disgraced reverend who is plagued by his family’s past and his wife’s scandalous death. Lena Grove is in an unwed pregnant young woman looking for the father of her unborn child. He is searching for his place in the world. Joe Christmas is an orphan who is abused as a child and believes he is of mixed racial ancestry but has no proof. They are viewed as outsiders because they do not adhere to social norms.

Published in 1932, this classic American southern gothic novel, set during Prohibition, follows the intersecting lives of five people not following a traditional path in life.

Light in August by William Faulkner