Some of you have borne witness to my struggle with this novel, in many cases giving assistance in how to read and understand. It is not a particular easy read, but well worth it. I am not sorry to have chosen and read the book. Do I understand it? Probably not, but that may just not be the point to begin with.

As with much of Faulkner's writtings this book is "stream of conciousness", which causes you to have to "get in the heads" of the VOICES. The prime subject of the novel is the Sutpen family, yet much of it is uncovered throught listening to those in the know..INdirectly. Quentin Compson, the grandson of the best and perhaps only friend of Thomas Sutpen, is kind of like an MC in the telling of this story with the voices being first the sister in law, who bitterly hates Thomas S over some insult that she cant or wont bring herself to tell of, except as "he insulted me". In the edition that I read, there was a "list of characters" at the end of the book. That fact alone revealed to me that Rosa was speaking from, not only anger but a certain lack of information, on many of the things she was proporting to illuminate.

The other "voices" were primarily Quentin's father, and finally a document written down by the orginal Compson, as told to him by Thomas himself. The story changes as one "peels the onion" to get to the truth.

Much of the story involves words that I am reluctant, nay unwilling to type down in this reviews as coming from me. They are not "good words" and it is a mark of the time in which Faulkner wrote that they were able to survive, and that the author managed to get an Nobel Prize after writting it. (not for, but subsequently).

The gist of the story lays bare the confused and painful relationship of the rich land owner, "poor white trash" and black slave or recently freed. The orginating impetus for the whole saga seems to have been the fact that a house slave in Virginia was able to instruct a young Thomas Sutpen that he was not allowed to approach the front door. That, in fact, his "place" was in the back. This seems to have been a defining moment in Thomas', and by extension everybody else in the story's life as well. Thomas was a man driven by that memory and the resolution he made to fight that situation by becoming part of the previleged group.

This feeling of being driven lead to very ruthless business dealings, the putting aside of wifes, begetting of children both from "acceptable" women and not, with the offspring of each known about but carefully seperated in many ways, even when living side by side. At the end it resulted in his son killing his potential son-in-law, who just happened to also be his son. Thus the Biblical reference to Absalom and the rape (seduction) of a half sister by a half brother..and the killing of the half brother by the full brother.

Faulkner wrote in a day, and location where Biblical references were probably more readily understood than they are just about anywhere in our day. Also miscegnation (intermingling of those of white and black "blood"), which also fiqures in this novel, was an important issue, not just of the time period of the novel but of the time of the writting (1936).

A ray of hope that came to me on the last page, was when Shreve, a sort of audiance/clarifier (fellow college student) of Quentin Compson's, offers up a theory. In referring to the last remaining "Sutpen"...a grandson of the killed half brother, who was killed more because of the miscegnation than the incest potential. Shreve says of him that that is what will take over the Western continent in the next few thousand years....altought, he says, they will blanche out as they move to the north. That one statement allowed me to see this novel less as a racist carciature of southern life and sensibility and more of a hope for racial healing. The germ is there for a much more "modern" look than one might have imagined for 1936 in the deep south.

This book has been an interesting journey for me. Starting out, I was very frustrated and confused. My first insight was when I recognized Quentin's characterization of Rosa's narrative as "no speak". I may have shared elsewhere that this was very like my own mother and her friends "indirectness". One simply didnt say outright that a child was born to unmarried parents but instead came at it from the side. If a married woman got pregnant by another man, it was simply said that "some think he is a Jones, but he is actually a Smith"..which of course told you all you needed to know.

A second thought came to mind later in reading this book. So much of this book is "stream of consciousness" or to state it differently, inside the head of the teller, that it could be confusing except that I find that it is very like what happens with me at times. For example, I have had two men that were most important in my life. My father that was with me for my first 17 years, and Roy who was with me for my last (to date) 15 out of 16. I have discovered lately that I seem to have consolidated my father and Roy somewhat. Whereas I used to tease that Roy went from being my husband to being my son, I now see it another way. Roy is very reminscent of my father. I think about having one of them here with me....saying as I think we all sometimes do, something like "what do you think of this". and find as I am going throught it that I am not quite sure which one of them I am remembering in this way.

Many times during the reading of Absalom, Absalom, I thought of giving up, it being a given that I could never understand this novel. However, I am glad I fought throught to the end. Perhaps understanding every nuances, and remembering exactly who was who is less the issue that the general feeling of the novel. The getting inside the heads of these various and sundry characters is very revealing, not just about the Old South, but about how minds and thoughts operate.

Hey, there are reviews in other locations, including at Wikipedia. Mine may not be the most scholarly, but it is MY experience with the novel, and that is the intent of this writting. I would recommend to anyone that finds this writting or another intriquing, that they read the book. While you may not be from the south part of the United States, who knows what revelations of your own situation that the book may help you get in touch with.