Julia_98@bookwyrm.world reviewed Absalom, Absalom! by William Faulkner
A Story That Pulled Me Down Into Its Roots
4 stars
Reading Absalom, Absalom! felt like trying to understand a storm by studying the debris it left behind. William Faulkner tells the story of Thomas Sutpen through tangled voices, shifting memories, and competing explanations. As I moved through the novel, I felt both challenged and strangely compelled, as if each retelling pushed me deeper into the soil of the Sutpen family’s past. The structure demanded patience from me, but it also rewarded me with a feeling of discovery every time a detail snapped into place.
The rise and collapse of Sutpen’s grand design, built on ambition and blindness, made me uneasy. I could feel the strain of a man trying to construct his own destiny without considering the lives he would break along the way. The voices of Quentin, Rosa, Mr. Compson, and Shreve layered the story with doubt and emotion. I often found myself shifting my own judgment as …
Reading Absalom, Absalom! felt like trying to understand a storm by studying the debris it left behind. William Faulkner tells the story of Thomas Sutpen through tangled voices, shifting memories, and competing explanations. As I moved through the novel, I felt both challenged and strangely compelled, as if each retelling pushed me deeper into the soil of the Sutpen family’s past. The structure demanded patience from me, but it also rewarded me with a feeling of discovery every time a detail snapped into place.
The rise and collapse of Sutpen’s grand design, built on ambition and blindness, made me uneasy. I could feel the strain of a man trying to construct his own destiny without considering the lives he would break along the way. The voices of Quentin, Rosa, Mr. Compson, and Shreve layered the story with doubt and emotion. I often found myself shifting my own judgment as their perspectives collided. In those moments I felt the weight of history pressing against personal memory, blurring the line between truth and interpretation.
The South in the novel felt haunted. Its traditions, silences, and wounds shaped every character, and I reacted to that heaviness with a mix of sadness and frustration. The racial and moral implications of Sutpen’s actions stood out sharply. They shaped the tragedy more than any single decision he made. As I followed the unraveling of his legacy, I sensed how tightly the past can cling, even when everyone wants to escape it.
By the time I closed the book, I felt drained but more alert to how stories can fracture when too many people try to hold them. Absalom, Absalom! left me with the lingering awareness that understanding a life, or a nation, requires facing the shadows it would rather hide.