Rating: 
Summary: The Deep South
Review: This was my first approach to Faulkner, and a very satisfying one, though experts advise on NOT starting with this one, as it is one of the most complex and obscure of his novels. However hard to read, it is very rewarding, since Faulkner's prose is so intense, dark and realistic. Clue after clue, the reader puts together the pieces of a nightmarish puzzle, a story of ambition, sin, revenge, envy, hard work, disappointment and tragedy. Indeed, it reminds of a Greek tragedy, one that takes place during several decades, in the torrid scenery of the Yoknapatawpha county in the American Deep South. The story is totally phantasmagoric; it is the account and the reflection of the diverse -and improbable- narrators, who imprint their own passions and longings as they build the story. The Sutpen saga is a journey of madness and perversion, close in its own way to Russian classical stories. Just as in Greek tragedy, the main character is Fate. The most disturbing aspect of this novel is the ambiguity which characterizes the narrators. Thomas Sutpen is a man of humble origins in the Appalachians, a man who has suffered rejection and discrimination. But he is terribly strong-willed and so he travels to the South looking for fortune. He dreams of building an empire and a dynasty that will prevail and avenge him for his misfortunes. He arrives at Yoknapatawpha and buys some land, which he, by virtue of hard work, turns into an emporium. But he is also a dark and violent man, who rejects his first wife and son for having black blood in their veins, an action that will come back to haunt him. The main narrator is Quentin Compson, the son of a neighboring family, who years later recounts the story to a roommate in Harvard, so building a parallel story of drama and death. Even if it is a challenging read, it is much worth it, since Faulkner develops a very powerful narrative with a strong prose and a great gift to create moods and sceneries. It leaves you with the sensation that you have read an epic of grand proportions, a "War and Peace" with much war and little peace, without balls nor nobility.
Rating: 
Summary: To complex
Review: Absalom Absalom it a very complex book..It's very difficult to understand because Faulkner switches narrators so many times in the book. I had to flip back numerous times so i could remember who said what..If your up to a challenge then this is the pefect book for you however it wasn't for me..If you do choose to read this book, keep a dictionary handy..
Rating:
Summary: Excellent literary work
Review: Granted, William Faulkner is an acquired taste. I believe it was Sherwood Anderson who said he didn't mind Faulkner living with them (in New Orleans) just as long as he didn't have to read his work. But don't be mislead by that statement, for while Mr. F. is an acquired taste, he's well worth the effort you have to put in. Like anything in life that's rewarding, it doesn't come easy. Yes, his sentence structure is bizarre and yes, he uses the "stream of consciousness," sometimes ad nauseaum, but if you study him, his works, his life, you'll see that he's miles ahead of all of us. Which brings me to this book: Absalom is not one of this author's easiest reads if you're starting out with one of "Bill's" books. Sanctuary or As I Lay Dying are probably easier to take. But Absalom, along with Light in August, are his greatest achievements. If you're a fan of Southern Literature, Faulkner is probably the highest you can go. That said, there are others out there that are more accessible. Works like Conroy's Prince of Tides or McCrae's Bark of the Dogwood (Dogwood was even compared to a cross between Faulkner and Sedaris, if you can imagine that!). Still, I would highly recommend this book to anyone. Read it--you'll be better off when you're finished.
Rating:
Summary: Nearly impenetrable but rewarding in its own way
Review: I like Faulkner and I like difficult books (partly because I can't resist the challenge, it certainly can't be to impress people because then in that case it would be a miserable failure) so in that sense this was definitely right up my alley. My previous exposure to Faulkner's novels (Sound and the Fury, Light in August, As I Lay Dying) left me with enough of a sense of his style that I figured I could tackle just about anything he wrote. This novel seriously tested that idea, although I enjoyed the novel immensely. As usual, it's about the South, telling the story of Thomas Sutpen, a fellow who comes out of nowhere to build a great big mansion on a large plot of land that he basically steals and then proceeds to attempt to build some sort of legacy for himself, which in true tragic fashion he ends up sabotaging and destroying not only himself but the futures of his descendants as well. Sounds straightforward? Ha! The story is seen through the eyes of Quentin Compton (last seen in the Sound and the Fury, I think) whose grandfather was present for most of Sutpen's antics. Essentially the story is a series of monologues, really really really long monologues as various people recount Sutpen's history at various moments, some of which they were witness to and some they're just recounting. Faulkner uses dialogue to brilliant effect, retelling events from a bunch of different perspectives but leaving the reader to figure out the motivations, although it does tend to ramble a lot, which helps it develop a rhythmic effect but also can be annoying when the same character basically restates the same bushel of sentences several times in the course of a few pages. Everything is told out of order, but Faulkner obviously had a plan to what fit where since it builds to a sort of dramatic conclusion. This is a novel where the reader has to do a lot of the work though, not only are the dots only laid out and not connected but because the story is told through other people, there's always the question of narrative reliability and how good peoples' memories are. The writing tends to veer towards sharply toward the realm of sublety when recounting important events, a post-modernism trademark which means that unless you're one of the those truly rare careful readers or just an incredibly perceptive person you are going to miss stuff in this book almost guarenteed, while reading it you can almost hear a voice in your head cackling "Ha, you aren't going to get this on the first try, buddy!" . . . try reading the scene where Sutpen dies and tell me what you picked up on all of that on the first shot. However the scene is marvelous and spine chilling in its pacing and description and I went back and read it a few times just to let it sink in. There's also a timeline in the back for those who want to cheat, it definitely puts everything into perspective, but in the case of this book it's the execution that's important. And yes, the ending is as gut wrenching as you've heard, one of the most memorable endings of any American novel ever. I can't claim this as Faulkner's masterpiece, it's probably his best work from a technical standpoint (Sound and the Fury wasn't as integrated as this, although As I Lay Dying comes close) and its difficulty dilutes some of the initial emotional impact moreso than his other novels but if you have any interest in his work, this is one of his key novels.
Rating: 
Summary: Boring Overblown
Review: This book is vastly too long, too repetitive and too boring. Faulkner doesn't know when to stop. ANY book by Capote is better than this!
Rating:
Summary: The Emporer's Clothing
Review: Imagine a line drawn in red dust. A stick dragging through creates mounds on either side that are too small to appreciate. Then the men: people, a conglomeration of classes and sexes, with race usually being white, walking on either side of the line. Then they are standing, yelling curt insults and blasphemies at each other.
...This sad situation best describes critical appraisal of William Faulkner and his novels. I find myself one of his supporters, though to tell the truth I understand why others don't like him and I can understand their aversion to him. First of all, it isn't that they are less intelligent than Faulkner fans, (V. Nabokov, one of the best literary minds of the 20th century, hated Faulkner's works and called them "Corn Cobb Chronicles") or that they don't understand the plots. The problem differs for each, and once again I can't blame them.
...Unnecessary Difficulty is the most often complaint, in fact its the only complaint I can think of off the top of my head. Let me start by saying this book is at heart a mystery story. Quentin Compson is about to go to college, but before he does, Ms. Rosa Coldfield, now nearing the age of ninety, begins telling Quetin a story about a man who tried to create a dynasty in the south before the Civil War. This first part of the story begins Quentin on a quest to find out just what happened to him, and what motivated him.
...This is Straight-forward enough, given that each source he goes to (Rosa, his father Jason, and his Canadian room mate) have differing personalities and motivations. So there is in fact little challenge to those that can think for themselves about what will happen in the book. So, what can Faulkner do? Simple, the same pompous style that would become the bane for readers for years to come can be utilized here as an artistic tool that provides simultanously the theme and the mood for this great novel. Those that can keep this in mind may come out with a sense of awe when they finish those final words and the inherent revelation that was staring them in the face the whole time.
...What effect does all this acheive? A sense that the book we're reading becomes a strange work of art both modern and ancient. A sense that the weight of our book comes from it's pulp and the dust that had settled on it. The first effect is Bafflement, then Embattlement, and finally Beauty.
Rating: 
Summary: This Review Sucks, So Don't Read It.
Review: I originally had written a fairly negative review of Absalom, Absalom--and William Faulkner himself, for that matter--but, unqualifiedly scorned him without reading his other novels--mainly The Sound and the Fury, which, actually, turned out to be an excellent novel. Anyhow, I have not since reread Absalom, Absalom, but I can very well wager that it is not quite as bad as I claimed it to be. That being said, you should probably stop reading this review now, because I will most likely not mention Absalom, Absalom again or will say anything very interesting to you. Faulkner has a rather inpenetrable writing style--complicated and involved sentences and large descriptions. I will still say that I am more prone to enjoy the simple and unadorned styles of Franz Kafka, in particular, but, if Faulkner's brain functions in such a way, it would be unfair of me to hold that against him. So, anyhow, I apologize to those I offended with my original review--my brain was unacquainted and I was only fifteen years old when I read the novel. I thought I was cool, you know, saying that Faulkner was a pretentious idiot--it made me feel smart. Anyway, I am passed such feeble attempts at intelligence now and, though I don't really know about Absalom, Absalom, The Sound and the Fury is very good and is definitely worth reading, though it is quite difficult. All right. Goodbye.
Rating:
Summary: A nice feel to it
Review: Absalom, Absalom! is the story of a legend and the people who tell it over and over again. In September 1909, 20-year-old Quentin Compson goes to visit Rosa Coldfield, an older woman in his hometown of Jefferson, Mississippi. Miss Rosa has summoned him to listen to her version of the legend of Thomas Sutpen. That same night, Quentin goes over the story again with his father, Mr. Compson, who tells the story from a different perspective. Five months later, when he goes to Harvard, he reinvents the story with his roommate, Shreve. In 1833, Thomas Sutpen came to Jefferson and built, without any help but his own wild, superhuman will, an enormous mansion on 100 acres that he swindled from an Indian tribe. With a band of foreign slaves and a French architect, he raises the house and cultivates a plantation. Within a few years he is one of the richest single planters in the county, and he marries the daughter of a local merchant (Rosa's older sister) and has a son and daughter, Henry and Judith. The two children grow up with privilege yet the knowledge that the town resents and despises their father. Henry goes to the University of Mississippi in 1859, and becomes friends with a worldly older student named Charles Bon. He brings Bon home for Christmas and holidays, and soon it is assumed that Bon will marry Judith. But Sutpen recognizes Bon as his own son--the son he abandoned when he discovered that his first wife had black blood. He follows Bon to New Orleans to be sure of this fact, then tells Henry that they cannot be married because Bon is actually Judith's half-brother. Henry refuses to believe his father and will not abandon his friend. They quarrel; Henry repudiates his birthright and leaves. For four years, while the Civil War rages, Henry tries to convince himself that Charles Bon and Judith can be married even if it means incest. He has almost justified it to himself when Sutpen (a colonel for the Confederate Army) calls his son to his tent and tells him that Charles Bon must not marry Judith. Not only is he Judith and Henry's half-brother, but Charles Bon also has black blood. This information repulses Henry in a way that even incest does not. When Charles Bon insists on marrying Judith anyway, goading Henry to do something about it, Henry shoots Charles Bon as they walk up to the gates of Sutpen's Hundred. Then he disappears. Sutpen returns home after the war to a ruined dynasty and a devastated plantation. Determined to start over again, he first tries to marry Rosa Coldfield, then takes up with Milly, the 15-year-old granddaughter of a poor white squatter on his property. Increasingly impoverished and alcoholic, Sutpen insults Milly after she bears his child. Furious, her grandfather kills Sutpen that very day in 1869. After she tells Quentin her version of the story, Rosa asks him to accompany her to Sutpen's Hundred, where Clytie (Sutpen's daughter with a slave woman; she is now in her late 60s) still lives. Clytie has been hiding Henry Sutpen there for four years while he waits to die. Quentin and Rosa discover this when they go to the estate after midnight. Rosa returns to the house three months later with an ambulance for Henry, and Clytie sets fire to the house, killing herself and Henry. No one remains of Sutpen's dynasty but Jim Bond, a mentally-impaired man of mixed blood.
Rating:
Summary: Lost...indecipherable...
Review: Although I acknowledge the fact that Faulkner is a brilliant author, and Absalom, Absalom! is a cornerstone book of American Literature, I simply cannot digest it because it is so complex and cryptic in its language. I'm actually an English major in college, so if I can hardly get through this book then I wonder what the less-hardcore literary types make of it. Perhaps this purported gem can be more readily appreciated at the Graduate School level...or by someone with exceptional literary prowess...I can hardly get past the dizzying details to the larger picture...
Rating:
Summary: Faulkner Is What He Is
Review: When you pick up this book, you just have to realize that you are reading Faulkner and leave it at that. This book has a decent story but the book is so caught up in itself that the story doesn't really move. Faulkner drags on in this book like a football player who runs from side to side but never upfield. He does a lot of work but never gets anywhere.
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