"Light in August" by William Faulkner

I have definitely read my share of Faulkner.  I've read "The Sound and the Fury," I've read "Sanctuary," and I've read many, many more besides.  I wouldn't even be able to name many of the Faulkner novels I've read, since they've all blended together in my mind.  I know I've read "The Unvanquished," but I wouldn't be able to differentiate this novel from "Go Down, Moses."

Faulkner is one of the great American novelists, and he is my second favorite after Herman Melville.  If you haven't read him, you should really give him a try.  His books can be demanding, and often require an extraordinary amount of concentration, but odds are that you won't be sorry you made the attempt.  Sometimes it can be hard to figure out exactly what is going on in his stories ("Spotted Horses" is an excellent example), but I don't think Faulkner was ever obscure for the sake of obscurity alone.  He was an artist, and he knew that the straightest path between two points is not always the most human way of getting there.

I believe "Light in August" was one of his later novels.  It follows the exploits of Lena, a young, pregnant girl walking all the way from Alabama to Faulkner's fictional locale of Jefferson.  It also follows the doings of Joe Christmas, a "foreign-looking" southerner of negro ancestry.  The book explores race relations in the American South, and also, at times, gets downright weird.

I can't say that this was one of my favorite Faulkner novels.  It doesn't hold a candle to "Go Down, Moses," but even Faulkner's less impressive novels still put most other books to shame.  If you've already read his more famous books, I would recommend this one.  It's shorter and less confusing than some of his other novels, and it still has a lot to say.