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188th out of 598 books
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1,402 voters
The Town: A Novel of the Snopes Family
This is the second volume of Faulkner's trilogy about the Snopes family, his symbol for the grasping, destructive element in the post-bellum South.
Like its predecessor The Hamlet and its successor The Mansion, The Town is completely self-contained, but it gains resonance from being read with the other two. The story of Flem Snopes' ruthless struggle to take over the town o...more
Like its predecessor The Hamlet and its successor The Mansion, The Town is completely self-contained, but it gains resonance from being read with the other two. The story of Flem Snopes' ruthless struggle to take over the town o...more
Paperback, 384 pages
Published
February 12th 1961
by Vintage
(first published 1940)
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I like this second novel of The Snopes trilogy (it can certainly be read as a stand-alone) so much more than the first one, The Hamlet, though it's partly a retelling of the first (the first 1/3 is mostly flashbacks though by different voices, a Faulknerian trait, for sure) but of course more of it's a continuation, told from three viewpoints, to be taken as a sampling of the community. Within the narrating of these three, there is much humor to be found, at least in the first 3/4 of the book, a...more
Mar 28, 2011
Brandon
rated it
4 of 5 stars
Recommends it for:
people from small towns
Recommended to Brandon by:
Jim Hinkle
The communal crisis of The Town's plot is reflected in the nature of its three narrator's: the attorney Gavin Stevens, his pre-adolescent nephew Charles Mallison and entrepreneur V.K. Ratliff.
If anyone ever had any doubts about how much Faulkner intended the town to serve as a character in his work, they might find an answer in the Charles Mallison’s opening to The Town,: “when I say ‘we’ and ‘we thought’ what I mean is Jefferson and what Jefferson thought (3).” Just as Faulkner finds the town...more
If anyone ever had any doubts about how much Faulkner intended the town to serve as a character in his work, they might find an answer in the Charles Mallison’s opening to The Town,: “when I say ‘we’ and ‘we thought’ what I mean is Jefferson and what Jefferson thought (3).” Just as Faulkner finds the town...more
You could certainly read this novel without reading the fist book in the trilogy, The Hamlet, but much of depth of the narrative would not be so deep. The Town was funnier, moved more quickly, and seemed to be an easier read its predecessor - though I don't know if that's because its the second Faulkner book I've picked up after a long hiatus and my mind is re-familiarizing itself with his prose or if its because the story is told alternatively from three different points of view, including VK R...more
Some ghosts, or real people, are going to kill me...but Faulkner is BETTER than Shakespeare...no one gets more in one page (which is what makes him so difficult)...and no one writers purer human beings...no one puts it on paper with more unbridled energy...some of his sentences, about one every three pages, just make you want to give up and crawl back into the womb...
This one is the second in a trilogy, call it The Snopes Empire Strikes Back, about the dark and soulless and anarchic lengths to w...more
This one is the second in a trilogy, call it The Snopes Empire Strikes Back, about the dark and soulless and anarchic lengths to w...more
I wasn’t expecting to like this better than “The Hamlet” but I thoroughly enjoyed it and found it quite moving at the end. I thought the use of narrators to be skillful, and I did not mind V.K. Ratliff or Gavin Stevens the way I normally do. I thought Chick Mallison was a great narrator, speaking as both himself as a child and as an adult looking back on his childhood perceptions. I loved the stories about Montgomery Ward Snopes and Wall Street Panic Snopes and the different ways they do busines...more
The Town is the second book in Faulkner's Snopes trilogy. The Hamlet, 1940, was the first and according to my notes when I read it eight years ago, was very dark and gave me nightmares. The Town is much lighter in comparison, even humorous in parts. I have now read enough Faulkner to feel less of a stranger in his imaginary town of Jefferson and in Yoknapatawpha County.
The Snopes are a family of white trash degenerates who came into the county trading horses. One of them by the name of Flem wa...more
The Snopes are a family of white trash degenerates who came into the county trading horses. One of them by the name of Flem wa...more
This is a much more complex story than we find in its prequel The Hamlet. Told in three first-person POVs, it offers a rounded presentation of perspectives on the slow degeneration of the small Southern town. The child narrator, Charles Mallison, is an especial joy. The humor isn't as wild as in The Hamlet, but the subtlety and its organic growth from the characters only strengthens the story.
Repetitive only because Faulkner recaps some of the incidents that took place in The Hamlet (and also because I already read a couple of sections as short stories), The Town is still exemplary Faulkner -- a story about storytelling about a community's secrets, prejudices, cowardice, greed, and unfulfilled desires.
Jul 29, 2011
Esteban Gordon
added it
After a flat start, I can only say...mesmerizing. Once again mixing straight story telling with... I suppose you could say prose poetry, WF dips one into the southern batter once again. The ending scene alone with the wild, knife wielding Snopes children is worth the read.
Aug 02, 2011
Harper Jean
added it
What can I say - ever since John Olmstead's class junior year I've had a Faulkner problem. This is the second book in a sprawling trilogy about an unvirtuous Mississippi clan from which the urban-legend website Snopes took it name.
Dec 16, 2010
John
rated it
5 of 5 stars
Recommends it for:
those with time to read and digest. Start with The Hamlet
Check out my quizz of The Town.
But if Uncle Gavin was hid somewhere in that ditch too, Gowan never caught him. Better still, Uncle Gavin never caught Gowan in it. Because if Mother ever found out Gowan was hiding in that ditch behind Mr Snopes's house because he thought Uncle Gavin was hidden in it too, Gowan didn't know what she might have done about Uncle Gavin but he sure knew what would have happened to him. And worse: if Mr Snopes had ever found out Gowan thought Uncle Gavin might be hiding...more
But if Uncle Gavin was hid somewhere in that ditch too, Gowan never caught him. Better still, Uncle Gavin never caught Gowan in it. Because if Mother ever found out Gowan was hiding in that ditch behind Mr Snopes's house because he thought Uncle Gavin was hidden in it too, Gowan didn't know what she might have done about Uncle Gavin but he sure knew what would have happened to him. And worse: if Mr Snopes had ever found out Gowan thought Uncle Gavin might be hiding...more
I liked this better than the first book in the trilogy (The Hamlet). It was interesting to hear the story through the voices of 3 different narrators oftentimes one picking up the thread where the other left off.
If you read a Faulkner novel and think he's writing about the South, stop reading Faulkner. If you read a second Faulkner novel and still think he's writing about the South, stop reading.
Probably Faulkner's most under appreciated novel. Highly experimental, yet not acknowledged as such.
Maybe I've read too much Faulkner, too soon, but I felt a little Faulknered-out on this one. Some intriguing scenes of the intricate conflicts between the Snopes and the town, but half a page of parenthetical in the middle of a sentence just became a little too much to bear right now.
Very funny. Tragic in parts. My first Faulkner in ages. There's a lot of satire about chastity and the opinions around it. The language is dense and slowed me down, but was worth the extra effort.
An absolute must for fans of Southern lit.
I am glad that I have found the time to do things like read books and solve crossword puzzles. Keeping the mind spry is important, and there is a point of diminishing returns for studying.
The intricacies unmatched .
Absolutely incredible. Among Faulkner's best.
Again...It's Faulkner...You have to love Ratliff.
A slow starter, but passages that suggest Faulkner's talents didn't diminish after his great run in the late 20s and early 30s. Rest in peace, Eula Snopes.
Maybe too straightforward for Faulkner.
The second in Faulkner's trilogy. This is a classic well worth reading.
Very good. Not quite as good as The Hamlet, the first book in the cycle, which is either my favorite Faulkner or tied for it, but still very good. First time reading this one, I've been looking forward to reading the entire cycle for years. Onto The Mansion.
I think I prefer the first novel in this trilogy, The Hamlet, but still. I don't remember the last time I have more fully believed in a written place.
More coherent than The Hamlet, this novel traces Flem Snopes's quest for respectability in spite of Jefferson and his wife.
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William Cuthbert Faulkner was a Nobel Prize-winning American novelist and short story writer. One of the most influential writers of the twentieth century, his reputation is based mostly on his novels, novellas, and short stories. He was also a published poet and an occasional screenwriter.
The majority of his works are based in his native state of Mississippi. Though his work was published as earl...more
More about William Faulkner...
The majority of his works are based in his native state of Mississippi. Though his work was published as earl...more
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“She was bored. She loved, had capacity to love, for love, to give and accept love. Only she tried twice and failed twice to find somebody not just strong enough to deserve it, earn it, match it, but even brave enough to accept it.”
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164 people liked it
More quotes…
AS I LAY DYING 1975
REIVERS 1970
REQUIEM FOR A NUN 1975
SANCTUARY 1975
SARTORIS 1966
SOUND AND THE FURY 1972
Here's my list since 1970...more
May 15, 2013 11:49am
AS I LAY DYING 1975
REIVERS 1970
REQUIEM FOR A NUN 1975
SANCTUARY 1975
SARTORIS 1966
SOUND AND THE FURY 1972"
Of those,...more
May 15, 2013 11:53am