Light in August (The Corrected Text) | William Faulkner | Sex and Violence in Old Mississippi

Light in August (The Corrected Text) | William Faulkner | Intersecting lights

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Light in August (T...

	Light in August (The Corrected Text) William Faulkner Vintage International/Random House, 1990 - 528 pages average customer review:based on 77 reviews view larger image
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highly recommended

Sex and Violence in Old Mississippi

This tale of one Joe Christmas in 1930s Mississippi is my favorite Faulkner novel, just behind "Sound and Fury".

Told in a more traditionally narrative fashion than S&F, the book nonetheless drifts back and forth in time, with a similar amount of stream-of-consciousness alternating viewpoints. It reminds me of Tarantino's "Pulp Fiction": plenty of sex, violence, changes in time and viewpoints, as well as extensive use of the n-word.

Mr. Christmas - so named because he was delivered on his adoptive parents doorstep on Christmas day - grows up in Mississippi with an assortmentment of parents, grandparents, foster parents and orphanages and eventually develops into a thief, bootlegger, sex fiend and murderer.

The community around him suspects he has African-American blood, and as a result Joe comes to believe this. He is an outcast from the Mississippi community of Jefferson, but from the way Faulkner describes that community, that might not be a bad thing. Faulkner's Jefferson is populated with bigots, morons, bootleggers and drunks.

In the midst of this morass is a preacher, the Reverend Hightower. (Get the symbolism? High Tower? And Joe CHRISTMAS is 33 YEARS OLD.) In any case, the Rev. Hightower is obsessed by Jefferson's past, in particular a cavalry charge that one of his ancestors led against the Yankees when they invaded Jefferson. His wife thinks he's nuts, especially after listening to his Sunday sermons which aren't about Jesus but about that cavalry charge. She eventually has an affair with a man in Memphis and then throws herself out a hotel window because she's so ashamed of what she's done.

Phew! Hightower withdraws from his congregation to read Milton or whatever. Meanwhile, Joe Christmas has started a bootlegging operation across town, assisted by somebody whose name I've forgotten, but he's knocked up a woman (Lena Grove) from Alabama who has travelled for days to find him. Instead, she finds one Byron Burch who takes pity on her, and is also the only remaining member of Rev. Hightower's congregation.

Meanwhile, Joe CHRISTMAS is having an affair with a Yankee woman named Joanna BURDEN (as in "white man's") who wants to set up a Negro defense fund, with Joe as its political spokesman. Joe refuses to acknowledge his African blood and ends up killing the woman. This angers the local redneck militia (which is strange because they never liked Ms. Burden anyway), and they form a lynch mob to go after Joe.

In the last chapter of the book, a stranger passing through Jefferson in his pickup truck picks up the hitchhiking Byron Bunch and his new companion Lena Grove. "A body do get around," says Lena, as the two leave Jefferson forever. She is oblivious to all that has taken place, and is thinking only of her unborn child and her new companion Byron.

So what is Faulkner saying? That hate, bigotry and human frailty are ultimately redeemed by the simple folk of the world? By the passing strangers who give a ride to those in need? I don't know, because Faulkner wrote without any specific political agenda or philosophical message. Still, this book is an engrossing page-turner for anyone with a taste for reading about human dilemmas that can't be solved by politics or philosophy.

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Intersecting lights

This is not my favorite of Faulkner's novels--I like SOUND, ABSALOM, and DYING more--but it is still a great read. It's a little more linear in plot than the others, which makes for an easier read despite its considerable length. The Hightower section at the end of the novel is a little cumbersome and I think Faulkner might have been drinking a little too much while writing it.

Favorite passage: 'It is because a fellow is more afraid of the trouble he might have than he ever is of the trouble he's already got. He'll cling to trouble he's used to before he'll risk a change.' (Byron Bunch)

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Memory believes before knowing remembers

William Faulkner was concerned with the effects of memory in the construction of one's identity when he wrote one of his most famous work, "Light in August". As such, most of the narrative is a long flashback detailing what has happened to Joe Christmas that defined he as the person he is. Readers can follow the ups and downs in his life and the search of his own identity. There something deterministic in his story, since this man is the result of the environment he was brought up.

Christmas's story is intertwined with two other characters': Lena, a pregnant girl in search of the father of her child; and Reverend Gail Hightower, a former minister that has faced hard times and now is haunted by ghost from the past. But for most of the middle section of "Light in August" Faulkner focus on Christmas that is, indeed, a very peculiar and extremely well developed character.

Compared to other books by Faulkner, such as "The Sound and The Fury" and "Abasom, Absalom", it is an easier and minor work. Here, his devices such as stream of consciousness is not as present as in the other novels. Therefore, reading it is `easier' -as far as reading Faulkner can be an easy task. It is an interesting form of start reading Faulkner for those who are interested and haven't read any yet.

Even tough the structure is not as complex and difficult as "The Sound and The Fury", "Light in August" has tools that are common in Faulkner's style, such as digressions and flashbacks. This is one of the reasons why reading this author requires double attention. Scenes from the past pop up throughout the narrative out of the blue. At the same time, he is more interested in the interior life of his characters, and for the reader understand that, he provides a thoroughly depicted background. Moreover, his prose is poetic and his text laboured.

In his work, Faulkner created another universe that is at the same time a mirror and a microcosm of the South of the USA - and that can be applied to the whole world as well. His characters are trying to get out of this world, but hardly can manage to escape, due to exterior factors, such as racism, violence and so on. "Light in August" is a good example of book that summarizes his interests and provides an unforgettable piece of literature.

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Dark Light in August

Light in August, by William Faulkner, shows the effects of narrow mindedness in the South during the depression. The antihero is Joe Christmas, a man who looks white and can't deal with the racial identity he is assigned under the "one drop" rule. Christmas endures terrible hardships in his youth and these make him into a violent man. After striking down one enemy, he drifts aimlessly for 15 years until he meets a woman who tries to reconcile him to himself. Besides Christmas, there are some appealing supporting characters: a young, uneducated, and unmarried woman who is about to give birth, a hard working man who cares for her, and a ruined minister who observes the others and reflects on their predicaments. Because of its dark themes, this is not a fun book to read, but it has the effect on the reader that Faulkner intended.

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mea culpa, mea culpa, mea culpa

for the longest, i thought faulkner was a bigot. but after reading " light in august," i've changed my stance. maybe he wasn't racist, but he was indifferent about racial issues, which is in some ways, even worse because it shows you don't hold a position. but then again, artists are not expected to save the world; they are not obligated to be politicians or have political views. they don't have to. the artist's only job is to create. he wrote this book in 1930, when a black man merely looking at a white woman the wrong way got him lynched...when black men went to such extremes as crossing to the other side of the street, so a white woman can have the sidewalk to herself... that's how bad it was...it's probably easier now to have an interracial relationship in the south than it was 70 years ago...you'll always have your idiots, but some people just don't care. i would even be bold to say that if blacks and whites in the south don't date each other, it's because they reject each other due to status, financial or intellectual criteria, not color...in most cosmopolitan, southern cities, you could do it...(for some weird reason, floridians don't consider themselves southerners...)

reading faulkner requires a high level of commitment, like marquez or morrison,like a high-maintenance woman, he wants your complete attention; no reading other books. but i had no problem with this one. faulkner wrote poetry and his prose is lush and surreal, with definite strains of stream of consciousness...he was influenced by a lot of french writers like flaubert and proust ( not one to take to the beach!...) and their dna is all over his work...i have also read "sanctuary," the only faulkner novel not set in yokanapatawa county...it's set in memphis....and "intruder in the dust..." you cannot take a southern literature course in a southern college and not read faulkner...i have a better appreciation for his work and him...

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