Rating: 
Summary: Hard Core Faulkner
Review: Albeit a strong assertion, this book is among the most brilliant works in English... ever. I have read it for pleasure as well as for a graduate-level course, could read it another dozen times before I die. It's not appropriate for anyone's first Faulkner, ahem, most likely, as it is a prequel of sorts to the likewise fantastic _The_Sound_And_The_Fury_ (a complex and absorbing saga as well). It is a challenging read and best consumed when the palate is somewhat attuned to the conventions of Faulkner's other work: Y-- County [I still don't even try to spell it.], the cultural and psychological topography of the American South, family history and Civil War and Reconstruction--eccentric characters and epic, labyrinthine skeletal closets. Even if you've never read Faulkner in particular, it will certainly offer plenty, though it might take some time to understand how everything you see as a breathtakingly rendered detail likely refers to something huge that has happened or will happen. But get it and read it no matter--start with another one if it doesn't work for you, then come back to it.As an engaging novel, this book delivers. The language is rich with a seldom-rivaled vocabulary and a knack for tangible descriptions. The characters and plot are complex and the stuff of novels. As with other novels, there's more than you can digest, so you get lost in whatever you follow easily, turning back to earlier chapters when you get interested in something you weren't paying attention to before. Characters whose imposing shadows loomed over SF are here, and those whose tragedies consumed your attention in SF are supporting players in a sense. The result of reading both of these is an appreciation for every supporting character's story. No matter where you are in your appreciation of Faulkner, you will appreciate the fabric of the book, rich in texture and detail. Those reviews that deal with the plot are guaranteed to leave something out. The words and writing are critically acclaimed since your parents were in school. The examples of how a war can raze an entire culture's edifice of identity are compelling, each person's doom and curse being common among her kin and her countrymen: ghosts and sex and violence and cruelty, gut wrenching drama to challenge any soap opera or miniseries or movie. There are themes and studies aplenty within the nightmare realm of Faulkner's masterpiece.
Rating: 
Summary: Mixed feelings here.
Review: I am glad to have read Absalom, Absalom!. The unknowable story of Thomas Sutpen and his doomed progeny is haunting, the heavy gothic atmosphere is effective, and I'm certainly not likely to forget it any time soon. On the other hand, I have to say, by no means did I actually enjoy the process of reading Absalom, Absalom!. The Sound and the Fury, Light in August--those I actually got pleasure out of reading. Absalom, Absalom!, I did not. I won't deny that there is some brilliant writing on display here, the sort of thing that makes you pump your fist and shout "yeah! Go William!" (c'mon, I know I'm not the only one--'fess up), but more often than not, the prose just seems convoluted and tangled, for no other reason than that the man wanted to display his virtuosity. More often than not, this does not work, and sometimes it actively damages the novel. Regard, for instance, the following passage: "...because I had learned nothing of love, not even parents' love--that fond dear constant violation of privacy, that stulification of the burgeoning and incorrigible I which is the meed and due of all mammalian meat, became not mistress, not beloved, but more than even love; I became all polymath love's androgynous advocate (117) Yes indeed: polymath love's androgynous advocate. Faulkner would seem to be going for the 'bad prog rock lyrics' effect here. Even if you can figure out what this is supposed to mean, the fact remains: it looks damned silly, a clear case of complexity for complexity's sake. Sometimes less is more, Bill. So no, slogging my way through three hundred pages of this stuff was not an enjoyable task. And yet, for some reason, it really does stick with you, as previously noted. I'm still not sure I'd recommend it, though. I suspect that if it's your first Faulkner, it will also be your last. If you have read others of the man's works (both of the aforementioned novels come highly recommended by me), and you have a high tolerance for literary self-indulgence, you may find it worthwhile, but I would take all the rave reviews on this site with a grain of salt: everyone likes the feeling of pride that comes from finishing a book like this, but we shouldn't let that blind us to its very real faults.
Rating:
Summary: Haunting
Review: Faulkner's "gothic" novel Absalom, Absalom! is truly a masterpiece. Haunting images of the antebellum South and the decay of Southern tradition create a profound portrait of the trouble that Southerners must face when confronting their identity. Faulkner redefines the role of the narrative in American literature, telling the story of Thomas Sutpen from so many vantage points that the novel can be viewed as an allegorical representation of history. This novel so vividly evokes the "ghosts of the past" that cling to us that it almost seems as if Sutpen was standing next to you.
Rating:
Summary: "Some desolation more profound than ruin"
Review: He came from the far mountains of Appalachia, trudging down range after range till he reached the rich, fertile lands of coastal Virginia to grow up poor, in a shack, with less dignity than even a house slave of that distant, fecund time when imagination ruled more than facts, when he (a boy) could dream of fame and fortune in the legendary West Indies and, daring, hoping, actually set sail for such fabled isles to wrest, by courage and by native cleverness, the position he saw before him, dancing unreachable before his potent desire that later, in Mississippi, on a hundred square miles of swamp with only his own brute strength and a band of rough slaves, would carve out a plantation in the old, genteel Southern style, a style that he embraced as an outsider, who was never accepted, never allowed in to the circle of locals-even pelted with vegetables and threatened with arrest when he dared to marry a local girl-because he had formerly trudged down those far blue mountains, bore some resemblance to white trash, but worst of all had not been born among them (the folk of Yoknapatawpha County, renowned in American literature these many decades) and so having dared, having fought over the years to ensure his progeny a place at the top, was brought down, utterly destroyed, by early deeds, and by racial separatism, which in that faroff day, was considered more important than incest. Well, folks, if you can stand many more sentences more daunting than my above miserable effort, if you like Jackson Pollock in art, you will love ABSALOM, ABSALOM !, one of the great novels of American literature. It is a thick dreaming; figures looming up through the dark, redolant masses of verbiage, marked, even scarred by inevitability, but veiled in mystery, awful conclusions to be revealed just around the corner---on the next page perhaps. Jackson Pollock's best paintings pull the viewer in, the depth is astounding, the effect stunning. Faulkner's novels, at their best, are the same. That intense, magic splatter of words turning into a flood. The tales of doomed aspirations, "currents of retribution and fatality", the corruption, violence, and murky destiny of crocodilian proportions lying in wait for the craftiest, most potent striver. Faulkner's plots seem to be predictable-and they are in terms of unhappy endings-but the twists remain fascinating, the ways in which you learn them, always impressive. There is nobody like Faulkner, who can weave tales of family disasters, hubris, incest, and racism that appall and amaze at the same time. He is truly one of the great novelists of world literature and in my humble opinion, the best ever produced by the USA. P.S. The racial images and language of this novel are unpleasant. Faulkner wrote before the days of political correctness and his words can be ugly. I took this in the same vein as "Merchant of Venice" or other historic literature that uses stereotypical images. Faulkner knew that racism was the curse of the South, and perhaps he extended it to the whole country, but he portrayed the South as it was, not as we would like it to have been.
Rating:
Summary: Do Not Be Afraid to Read Faulkner
Review: Having read the other reviews, I found I made a big mistake - Absalom Absalom was the first William Faulkner book I had read. But--I prepared thoroughly for my reading of this classic by studying a brief outline of the book but excluding that information would give away any of the intricate threads that Faulkner wove throughout the book. Then, while reading I imagined either Shelby Foote or the woman who narrated To Kill a Mockingbird with their southern accent reading the novel to me. Doing this, I was able to have a mind set for the stream of conscienceness in which Faulkner wrote. By doing all this, I enjoyed this book immensely. It is a tightly woven fable of the rise and fall of a demon-man, his children, and the betrayal of the family along with the rise and fall of the Southern plantation system. It also is a better novel than the early Uncle Tom's Cabin in it's denunciation of slavery.
Rating:
Summary: Faulkner's best novel
Review: I consider ABSALOM ABSALOM to be Faulkner's greatest work. This heavily experimental novel is difficult to read but the technical virtousity is so impressve and combined with the compelling stories of the decline of the Supten family and the narrator.Quentin Compson,and his own insecurities and obsessiveness of the decline of his own family make it an intense and pignant read.The Suptens and,by implication, the Compsons are symbols of a dcadent deterioratng old rural south that cannot relate to the changes the modern world forces upon them. This is one of a small list of truly great American novels.
Rating:
Summary: Intense Southern Gothic
Review: Absalom, Absalom! is Faulkner's great novel of the rise and fall of the Sutpen dynasty and a great allegory of the rise and fall of the Old South. It should be noted that first of all this is probably Faulkner's greatest and most difficult work. The book told through three interconnected narratives tells the life story of Thomas Sutpen. The story parallels the rise of the Old South. The narratives are not straight forward and present a constant challenge to the reader. But if the reader does not close the book in despair the rewards are great indeed. The mood of the storytelling alone is worth the price of admission here. The long flowing sentences are marvels and testaments to Faulker's skill as a writer. The narrative drive makes reading the book almost like reading Greek tragedy. We gets views of Sutpens life from several townspeople and also across generations. This is the first book that I've read in a long time that made me feel like I had accomplished something when I finished it. You don't so much read this novel as you become lost in it. Jump in get your feet wet and prepare for some of the most intense Southern gothic that you are ever likely to read.
Rating:
Summary: Tell Us About The South, Mr. Faulkner
Review: A California author with my debut novel in its initial release, I have always been facinated by ABSALOM, ABSALOM! I realize I'm an easy mark for this book. My Southern roots run deep, though my mother's side of the family. She grew up in a small town in Alabama, and I've always read Faulkner, to some degree, to gain insights into my late mother's life experiences and background. I believe ABSALOM, ABSALOM! is William Faulkner's strongest work, but there are many works that one could claim is his strongest. He is the greatest American writer of all time. ABSALOM, ABSALOM!, on one level, deals with the story of Thomas Sutpen and his attempt to build a dynasty on Sutpen's Hundred. Sutpen was born poor,and he dreams of greatness. He establishes a plantation. He desires sons to carry on his legacy, yet his sons impact his life in unexpectedly tragic ways. On another level, Faulkner deals with the issues of race, exploitation, and slavery. Sutpen's first wife has black blood. His son by this woman, hence, has black blood. Sutpen repudiates both and that repudiation comes back to haunt him. On a completely different level, Faulkner deals with Quentin Compson, a grandson of one Sutpen's friends, who uses this story to reconcile himself to his past, his life, and his history while he is a student at Harvard. And ABSALOM, ABSALOM! keeps growing deeper and deeper with significance on top of significance atop significance. Better books have been written in human history--perhaps three or four.
Rating:
Summary: Sutpen's design
Review: Sutpen's design in Absalom, Absalom! is to strike an egalitarian blow against dynastic society. When he is fourteen years old he knocks on the front door of a mansion and is told to go to the back door. He and his family are poor and just down from the mountains, the many class distinctions of southern plantation society stun him. He forms a life design that he will aquire all that southern plantation owners have, slaves, riches, mansion, wife, sons, and then when some nameless stranger comes to his door in the future, instead of sending him around to the back door, he will take him in and free him and his descendants from "brutehood" as he puts it. The problem is that along the way to this goal he runs over people or whatever gets in the way, the end doesn't justify the means.
This is Faulkner's most difficult novel. He experiments with characters becoming part of telling the story, in fact most of the story is told through four characters, Miss Rosa who was sister in law to Sutpen, Mr. Compson whos father knew Sutpen, and Quentin and Shreve who are college roomates and speculate and imagine parts of the story in their cold, cold room deep into one winter night. Fictions within fictions and well worth the perseverance it takes to read this fine classic novel.
Rating:
Summary: Faulkner's Most Ambitious Novel
Review: Read this and you will prove to yourself why Faulkner won the Nobel Prize in Literature. Absalom, Absalom! is his most ambitious novel not only continuing his remarkable experimentation with style and narrative form but also seeking to unravel the complexities of southern history. This novel pushes the limits of story telling in order to expose the deeply ingrained racism of southern identity. A real challenge to the reader, we must listen carefully to the echoes that run throughout this labyrinthine tale. Any person who considers themselves literate must read this book. My advice is read the first ten pages aloud to get the style and form and after that it will be clear sailing. And well worth the effort.
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