Rate this book

Clear rating

1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars

The Wild Palms

3.86 of 5 stars 3.86 · rating details · 1,546 ratings · 128 reviews

In this feverishly beautiful novel—originally titled If I Forget Thee, Jerusalem by Faulkner, and now published in the authoritative Library of America text—William Faulkner interweaves two narratives, each wholly absorbing in its own right, each subtly illuminating the other. In New Orleans in 1937, a man and a woman embark on a headlong flight into the wilderness of illi...more

Paperback, 304 pages

Published October 31st 1995 by Vintage (first published 1939)

more details... edit details

Get a copy:

More…

Friend Reviews

To see what your friends thought of this book, please sign up.

Lists with This Book

The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain

Fried Green Tomatoes at the Whistle Stop Cafe by Fannie Flagg

Best Southern Literature

247th out of 600 books — 1,404 voters

Book Titles Based on Lines from the Bible

21st out of 183 books — 35 voters

More lists with this book...

Community Reviews

(showing 1-30 of 2,793)

filter | sort: default (?) | rating details

Aug 09, 2010 Eddie Watkins rated it 4 of 5 stars

Charley Patton's 2-part song "High Water Everywhere" is about the same flood portrayed in this book. This little factoid, realized after I finished the book, made me swoon.

I couldn't finish the book the first time I tried, as I was in college and still thought in the back of my head that my girlfriend and I could just drop out and "live on love". The impossibility of this strategy so hammered home in this book really frightened me at the time, but instead of finishing the book and learning my le...more

5 likes · like · see review

Mar 07, 2013 Ginny rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Grandioso.
La singolarità della struttura, unita al virtuosismo dello stile, rischia di mettere a dura prova il lettore meno paziente.
Tuttavia se si entra nel meccanismo e ci si lascia prendere dal ritmo solenne e dal realismo visionario di queste storie, ci si rende conto di trovarsi di fronte a un’opera insolita e di grande valore.
I due romanzi che la compongono, narrati a capitoli alterni, si snodano parallelamente percorrendo luoghi e tempi diversi.
All’apparenza non hanno nulla in comune,...more

7 likes · like · see review

Jun 17, 2012 Aprile rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Lievi anticipazioni (non più comunque di quanto appaia nel risguardo)
Generalmente prima di iniziare un nuovo libro, lo sfoglio, lo soppeso, ne leggo il risguardo - per la precisione - lo rileggo. La prima lettura era già avvenuta all'acquisto ma questa nuova è fondamentale per le precedenze, mi deve colpire in quel momento particolare in modo da indicarmi il libro da iniziare. In questo caso, però, tale lettura è stata nociva. Mi ha distratto dal godimento spontaneo del testo. Il lettore viene a...more Lievi anticipazioni (non più comunque di quanto appaia nel risguardo)
Generalmente prima di iniziare un nuovo libro, lo sfoglio, lo soppeso, ne leggo il risguardo - per la precisione - lo rileggo. La prima lettura era già avvenuta all'acquisto ma questa nuova è fondamentale per le precedenze, mi deve colpire in quel momento particolare in modo da indicarmi il libro da iniziare. In questo caso, però, tale lettura è stata nociva. Mi ha distratto dal godimento spontaneo del testo. Il lettore viene avvisato che i racconti sono due, ben distinti e paralleli, con nulla in comune. Allora questa è una sfida: vuoi non trovare un filo conduttore? E si cercano le somiglianze rischiando di perdere la poesia dell'onda del fiume che risucchia e lo sferzare delle palme al vento. I conti con la Natura sono sempre dovuti, la sfida dell'uomo è impari, soccombe. Fortunatamente la scrittura di Faulkner è così bella, è così una bella scrittura che fa dimenticare la volontà di indagine e ci si abbandona al suo ritmo. Progressivamente si riescono a comprendere le motivazioni delle persone - non personaggi - incomprensibili al primo approccio. Quando si legge l'ultima pagina, non si sente la necessità di capire perché Faulkner abbia alternato un capitolo di una storia con il capitolo dell'altra, è evidente che ciò che le lega è la contrapposizione della volontà dei diversi protagonisti: nascita/ristabilire un vecchio ordine di cose nel primo racconto, aborto/cambiamento nel secondo. Il fallimento è comunque comune ad entrambi. Leggetevelo, leggetevelo il rammarico del forzato nelle ultime parole del libro, e il dolore di una vita sprecata, prima e dopo, del dottorino... Ignoranza e immaturità, queste le colpe, alleggerite dal solito senso dell'umorismo di Faulkner: come si può non ridere a pag. 246?
E questa è la prima cosa tradotta in parole, misere, da quando ho chiuso il libro pochi minuti fa, molte frullano nel cervellino, ma le tengo per me, Faulkner non può essere raccontato, è uno spreco, va annusato in prima persona.
1956, Mississipi 1897-1962 (less)

1 like · like · see review

Aug 21, 2009 Matthew rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: new-orleans-louisiana

There he is, the Old Man, the river that is something of a deity in the American South. The muddy water that threatens and nurtures and has a will and a force that can not be predicted or tamed, even in our time.

In this book you have a prisoner struggling against the whims of the Mississippi. Convicts are enlisted to rescue stranded peasants. A tall convict is asked if he can row a boat, he says he can, probably because he doesn't know what he is promising. The point is made that this convict al...more There he is, the Old Man, the river that is something of a deity in the American South. The muddy water that threatens and nurtures and has a will and a force that can not be predicted or tamed, even in our time.

In this book you have a prisoner struggling against the whims of the Mississippi. Convicts are enlisted to rescue stranded peasants. A tall convict is asked if he can row a boat, he says he can, probably because he doesn't know what he is promising. The point is made that this convict alive in 1927, has plowed, lived on, and eaten from land irrigated by this river all of his life but sees it for the first time only after he is already grown and served many years in prison. That revelation is startling, but it must have been true of many in that time and place. And that river, which he has in his blood, is threatening him from the moment he sets down on its surface in his little rowboat.

In this book you also have a man and a woman discovering a threatening love, and you could say that love is threatening them the moment they set down upon it in their little bodies. They are in New Orleans (a city built on the run off of the Old Man) in 1937. Their story opens the book and Faulkner's sentences have a strong current of their own. The words he uses flood your senses and you have to be a swift paddler to keep from being overturned or dashed against some obstacle (inevitable, and not so bad). These two don't actually float around on the river (they go to Wisconsin, Illinois and Utah instead)but like the convict, the river is in their blood.

The two lovers have a threatening love because it is one great blinding demand, with no concern for civilized life. No marriage, employment, or child can survive it. They accept the violent demand of this love with a thrilling lack of experience. And the two personalities that Faulkner reveals in the lovers are the ideal vessels for such a love. A young medical student, in debt from birth and a remarkable woman of decisive action and words.

The tall convict has his woman too, he takes her into his boat, a stranded woman great with child, and they search for any mercy they can along the river. The convict is so ignorant of everything outside of his prison that his common struggles against the elements become like dazzling mythology. Faulkner makes you feel the suffering of the convict, who really becomes no wiser in his adventures, but what he has is the stamina of the long-suffering prisoner. Eventually he is hunting for ancient reptiles with a Cajun of the Atchfalaya. You can imagine how puzzling and scary this would be to someone who never heard of alligators or Cajuns, largely because Faulkner dispenses with all conventions of perspective and lets you feel the story from many angles.

A very unique and remarkable book. I never knew Faulkner was capable of this. Thanks to Steve Harris for getting me interested in reading this.(less)

2 likes · like · see review

Aug 06, 2012 Ricardo de Almeida Rocha rated it 5 of 5 stars

Faulkner. Cada século tem escritores que são seus arautos. O começo do século 20, a decadência de uma forma de vida, absurda, atrasada, injusta, não irá se transformar, pelo fim oficial de um de seus maiores emblemas, o preconceito racial oficial, numa era melhor. Antes o quadro se torna paradoxal e a perspectiva mais sombria. As soluções que restam talvez sejam os pontos altos das grandes obras desse autor. Em Santuário, a volta do advogado para casa, depois de experimentar a liberdade pelo mun...more Faulkner. Cada século tem escritores que são seus arautos. O começo do século 20, a decadência de uma forma de vida, absurda, atrasada, injusta, não irá se transformar, pelo fim oficial de um de seus maiores emblemas, o preconceito racial oficial, numa era melhor. Antes o quadro se torna paradoxal e a perspectiva mais sombria. As soluções que restam talvez sejam os pontos altos das grandes obras desse autor. Em Santuário, a volta do advogado para casa, depois de experimentar a liberdade pelo mundo, é a um tempo patética e quase gloriosa. Como se ele tivesse conseguido o mais importante, sobreviver e, ao sobreviver, aprender o que não sabia e com isso ser um homem menos espetacular mas mais realista e, portanto, útil, tanto à irmã (cujos sentimentos intensos são tão incestuosos quanto o paterno em relação a Little Lee e todavia se mantém puros por se manterem numa dimensão dominada pelo bem, num mundo, como diria a única Lou Salomé, “onde o incesto não seria pecado”. Em Luz em Agosto, é a peregrinação de Lena em busca de seu suposto amor, que termina por encontrar tudo menos amor onde imaginava, mas todavia deflagra em Byron sentimentos de altruísmo que determinaram igualmente o final da história daquela menina viajante e grávida. Num e noutro caso há o melhor do homem não redimindo o mundo sujo ao redor, mas dando-lhe um certo alento. Mas nada como em Palmeiras Selvagens. Os embates interiores do protagonista afetam tudo, a amante, o marido, o puritano, a prática mulher do puritano, o policial, as filhas. “Isso é demais, há um limite para tudo! Normas! Para a fornicação, o adultério, o crime e o que ele queria dizer era Há um limite para tudo a menos que alguém se torne Deus que sofreu assim tudo que satã era capaz de conhecer!” A frase determina o romance. Editado originalmente junto com um segundo romance curto, O velho, esse Palmeiras Bravas, na única edição que não partilha mas domina de ponta a ponta, sem as alternações convencionadas pelo próprio Faulkner, é de fato impartilhável. Ao falar de amor, destrói a “honrabilidadehonorabilidade”. Ao falar de filhos, destrói a noção de que seja algo para qualquer casal de seres humanos de sexos diferentes. Ao falar de dinheiro, vai muito além de consumo capitalista. Reduz dinheiro a subsistência, que se torna tudo de que um casal deve precisar, e mesmo assim, e mesmo assim... Portanto, a célebre última frase é apenas a coroa da majestade que dominou as duzentas páginas anteriores: se eu me tornar nada, todo o recordar deixará de ser. . E pensou: Entre a dor e o nada, portanto, eu escolho a dor. Mas o nada é tudo. E a dor pode ser insuportável. (less)

like · see review

Apr 25, 2011 Kay Wright rated it 2 of 5 stars

I'm an Faulkner addict, slogged my way through Abaslom, Absalom, and fell in love with Light in August. When our bookclub decided to each do a classic, I found this early piece that I had missed during my quest to read all Faulkner. (I got into the early Hollywood junk and gave up but that's another story.) If I Forget Thee Jerusalem, which was published as the Wild Palms over WF's objections, is two stories that never intertwine. I had read one of them, the convict who rescues the pregant woman...more

1 like · like · see review

Mar 21, 2010 terrycojones rated it 4 of 5 stars

It wouldn't be fair to give this a 3, so I've gone for a 4. I'm stingy with my stars (precisely for you, dear reader) because I find little value in reviewers who give everything a 5.

Wild Palms lies somewhere between good and brilliant. There's a nice amount to think about, mainly a contrarian relationship between an ill-starred couple trying to be together against the odds, in the face of a society in which the odds are already stacked against them - even without their unconventional choices. T...more

like · see review

Nov 22, 2009 Rick rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: fiction

Two tales told in alternate chapters, one of which is titled “The Wild Palms,” the other “Old Man.” Faulkner’s preferred title for the novel, If I Forget Thee, Jerusalem was over-ruled by his publisher. “The Wild Palms” tells the story of a young doctor and his artist girlfriend who abandon their previous lives (he an intern, she a wife, mother and bohemian hostess) to nurse a romantic passion that won’t blow out in the winds of societal respectability and expectations. The protagonist of the “O...more Two tales told in alternate chapters, one of which is titled “The Wild Palms,” the other “Old Man.” Faulkner’s preferred title for the novel, If I Forget Thee, Jerusalem was over-ruled by his publisher. “The Wild Palms” tells the story of a young doctor and his artist girlfriend who abandon their previous lives (he an intern, she a wife, mother and bohemian hostess) to nurse a romantic passion that won’t blow out in the winds of societal respectability and expectations. The protagonist of the “Old Man” is a convict working with other convicts as part of a post-hurricane flood rescue effort. The storm’s levee-released waves topple him from his boat and in the surging current his fellow convict is rescued by a low hanging tree and, believing it true, reports back that the Old Man drowned. However, instead he is adrift for days and days, rescuing one of the people he was sent to rescue, a pregnant woman, and seeking at all costs to return to his chain gang. Harry and Charlotte, “The Wild Palms” refugees, don’t ever seem that happy or sure of themselves as they flee New Orleans for Chicago, Utah, and ultimately a Gulf Coast beach. Their freedom is fenced by poverty that results from a refusal to earn a proper living but it’s a proper life they are fleeing, refusing to compromise in any way that reduces them to “husband,” “wife,” or “professionals.” It is also fenced by their own isolation, not just from others but from each other. Their rebellion seems more pathology, a desperately adolescent, spoiled teenager running away from home, than a principled, intellectual rebellion against the traps of bourgeois comfort.
The convict is also the victim of a romantic notion of rebellion, acquired as a teenager by reading dime novels about train robbers. His first attempt lands and keeps him in jail, where, over the decades, he has learned to survive in a highly restrictive environment. His sudden, unasked for freedom worries him greatly. He wants nothing so much as to return to the chain-gang the flood carried him away from. The two tales take place about a decade apart, the convict’s travails in 1927 when a great hurricane flooded the Gulf coast; Harry and Charlotte during the middle of the Depression, making their abandonment of security more reckless. The two stories are each compelling and you root, as readers of great tales are wont to do, for better outcomes for all. Life, however, delivers the outcomes that derive from the choices we make within the circumstances we find ourselves; generally, as Faulkner knows, not as we planned or hoped.
Faulkner is one of our finest writers, deeply insightful and a brilliant stylist, as gifted as Twain with dialect and nature. The tart dialogue between Harry and Charlotte, between Charlotte and her husband, and the husband and Harry, bristles with authenticity, even when the attitudes and instincts they represent are alien to the reader. The vivid descriptions of New Orleans, Chicago and Wisconsin in winter, Utah mines, and the barren cabin on a desolate Gulf beach are evoked with painterly attention to moody detail. Like Twain or Dickens much of The Wild Palms begs to be read aloud. Because it is Faulkner there are sentences that race and ramble unaided by commas or other punctuation, sentences that compel you to find their rhythm in the rush of words and the confusion of possible meanings. But these are, for Faulkner, relatively infrequent and less wild and daring than say those in Light in August. The reader doesn’t need to work as hard but the rewards are not as great either. The Wild Palms is perhaps second tier Faulkner but that would make it first tier for virtually anyone else.(less)

1 like · like · see review

Mar 16, 2013 Victoria Young rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: southern-gothic

The two novellas that together make up Wild Palms (aka If I Forget Thee, Jerusalem) are at first glance quite different stories: The first (Wild Palms), featuring an idealistic unmarried couple striving to live an authentic, passionate life, meanders all over America from the Gulf Coast to Chicago to the Colorado mountains; the second (Old Man) is closely anchored to the geography of the Mississippi Delta and provides a convict's insight into the disastrous flood of 1927. Where Wild Palms is an...more The two novellas that together make up Wild Palms (aka If I Forget Thee, Jerusalem) are at first glance quite different stories: The first (Wild Palms), featuring an idealistic unmarried couple striving to live an authentic, passionate life, meanders all over America from the Gulf Coast to Chicago to the Colorado mountains; the second (Old Man) is closely anchored to the geography of the Mississippi Delta and provides a convict's insight into the disastrous flood of 1927. Where Wild Palms is an earnest and tragic story of lovers resisting conformity and bourgeois society, Old Man highlights the absurd powerlessness of the individual pitted against the forces of nature.

The two tales are, however, connected thematically and engage in a kind of antiphonal call-and-response, each examining opposing sides of the same conceptual coins. Both plots are preoccupied with pregnancy and the female body- while one story depicts its female romantic interest struggling to maintain her independence from the procreative functions of her body with dire consequences, the other shows its sole female character as defined entirely by her gravidity, devoid of sexuality, but birthing life in the midst of desolation. Incarceration is another common theme: on the one hand Faulkner creates a convict moving heaven and earth to return to his penitentiary, on the other, you have a man swept into prison by bad luck and circumstance. Interestingly, both protagonists do at various moments consciously choose incarceration, if for very different reasons.

Where Faulkner is concerned, narrative voice is often at the forefront, but I think that is a less important feature in this work than his other novels. The use of stream of consciousness is quite minimal, and both stories rely more on omniscient 3rd person perspective than Faulkner's usual character driven and introspective point-of-view narrations. The narrative structure however, is quite tightly manipulated to highlight contrasts in the two plots, and uses chaptered 'cuts' to balance the romantic intensity of the first story with the physical trials of the second.

Although it's easy to be caught up in the personal drama of Wild Palms, I think Old Man actually is the more powerful of the two. The imagery is starker, the plot more tightly written and focused on something more fundamental, more interesting than a romantic relationship, and the absurdist irony there in its ending is subtly but brilliantly done.(less)

like · see review

Mar 27, 2011 Belen added it · review of another edition

¡¡¡Leído por Jose María Pou!!! Jo. Qué manera de leer, madre mía. Qué gozada.

Vale, ya está. Uno de los mejores libros que he leído ultimamente pero el que más me ha echo sufrir con diferencia.

Son dos historias que se intercalan sin que tengan nada que ver la una con la otra. Aunque una de ellas tiene mucha más intensidad y duración.

Leerla es como ver una película de cine negro descarnado y despiadado, llena de frases y conversaciones lapidarias y no lógicas del todo.

La historia principal va de u...more

like · see review

Dec 28, 2012 Mat rated it 5 of 5 stars

Greatest Faulkner book I have read so far! Fan-bloody-tastic. I liked this even better than Absalom! Absalom! And it was much easier to follow.

The Wild Palms is a novel which actually consists of two different stories. Faulkner decided to interweave two different stories to build each respective story more towards its climax. Faulkner actually wanted to call this novel If I Forget Thee, Jerusalem but his editors insisted on calling it The Wild Palms, the title of ONE of the two stories in this n...more

1 like · like · see review

Apr 26, 2009 Richard rated it 4 of 5 stars

The continuing saga of my traipsing (at long last) through the genius of Fualkner.

What carries this book the most is the imagery - in here are some of the most mesmerizing descriptions of landscape (possibly some of the most amazing known to human history). The description of a land covered in flood is awe-inspiring, to both character and reader alike. In this one we have two separate narratives that revolve on love and the nature of man and woman with a young doctor who falls in love with a mar...more

like · see review

Oct 20, 2009 Isis added it

Shelves: class_reading

My mother asked me what I thought of it, and mentioned that she thought it sounded kind of "steamy" from the GoodReads summary, so this started out as a comment on her comment and then turned into a general commentary/review so I thought it would make more sense to just make my official comment lol.

I thought it was excellent. there's not really a lot of explicit sex in it, so i wouldn't call it steamy so much as "shocking" in the context of the times. there's a mention of using a douche, there'...more

1 like · like · see review

Feb 07, 2013 Amanda Roa rated it 4 of 5 stars

This is a story, in fact two juxtaposed stories, about flawed people blundering through life, fate against them, misdirected values, inevitable outcomes, all told via stream of consciousness prose for which Faulkner is famous. This is the second Faulkner novel I have read, both of which after reading a biography of his life. He was a complex, conflicted man, full of ideation and of dubious morals. Once I allowed myself to get in sync with the cadence of Faulkner's style of writing, I fell in lov...more

like · see review

Jun 16, 2012 Jeremy Hauck rated it 2 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Between the needlessly strange structure--two novels with no direct connection to each other told in alternating chapters, both of which use frames--and the language--a distant third narrator writing in extremely lengthy sentences left too long on the boil, with dialogue that often sounds like old Hollywood speak ("Do it, Jack. Just do it. It's no good, see?"), it's no surprise that Wild Palms is not part of the Faulkner canon. And really the Wild Palms portion of the novel, which deals with Har...more

like · see review

Apr 10, 2012 Elizabeth rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: fiction

I’m not sure where to begin when talking about The Wild Palms. Perhaps by clarifying that The Wild Palms is the publisher’s chosen name for If I Forget Thee, Jerusalem, Faulkner’s preferred title, and that it is also one of two intertwined stories in the book published under that title. A friend insisted that I read it, that it would probably become my new favorite book, but that I also might want to throw it against a wall when I finished. As usual, he was annoyingly right.

The Wild Palms was my...more

like · see review

Aug 09, 2009 G. rated it 1 of 5 stars · review of another edition

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here. I struggled through the majority of this book.

That's not to say that I didn't admire and relish the challenge of reading the long, rambling and complex sentences. I actually liked this aspect of the style of the novel. I also appreciated the over-riding themes contrasting between 'Old Man' and 'The Wild Palms'; it definitely gives you plenty to chew on.

What I didn't like was how blatant Faulkner was about these themes and ideas. There was something which grated on me in the way he would employ...more I struggled through the majority of this book.

That's not to say that I didn't admire and relish the challenge of reading the long, rambling and complex sentences. I actually liked this aspect of the style of the novel. I also appreciated the over-riding themes contrasting between 'Old Man' and 'The Wild Palms'; it definitely gives you plenty to chew on.

What I didn't like was how blatant Faulkner was about these themes and ideas. There was something which grated on me in the way he would employ at the same time vagueness and uncertainty (i.e. in 'The Wild Palms', what Harry and Charlotte had exactly done, why she was calling him Rat, what did she mean?) with long-winded explanations (i.e. Harry relaying the whole meaning of his life to McCord). I would have preferred to have one or the other; oddly enough, considering how difficult the book is to actually read , I ended up feeling like I was being spoon-fed the subtext.

Another irritation: maybe I'm wrong - I don't know much about Faulkner apart from this book - but I got the distinct impression from the way he described the convict's work that Faulker himself had never done a day's hard labour in his life. Who else would be able to say that the convict 'forgot how good it is to work'?

After struggling through most of the book, I stopped exactly 5 pages before the end. I couldn't be bothered. But, again through determination, I picked it up after a two week break and read the last 5 pages. Funnily enough, I actually liked the ending. It felt like the only bit of the whole book which rung true. Apparently this book was born out of Faulkner's own heart-ache. I can imagine that the final words of 'Women, shit' came straight out of his own emotions at the time, and reveal the reason why women barely get a look-in throughout the whole book.

Some of my dislike of the book is probably my own fault. There is nothing more aggravating than having to look up a word in the dictionary every few sentences. Still, I'd like to lay some of that blame on Faulker for being gratituously verbose.

I suppose that is what defines my rating of 'The Wild Palms'. It is not a one-star book. But according to Good Reads' rating system, I had to choose that option because it means 'didn't like it'. If I could, I would have chosen 'good book - didn't like it'. (less)

like · see review

Apr 22, 2010 Ethli (w-p) rated it 2 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: novel-fikcja

Nie czuję się odpowiednią grupą docelową, są pewnie tacy, którym pasowałoby to dużo bardziej. Ewentualnie mi kilka lat temu, mając tych lat 17 czy 20...

często powracające zdanie (głownego bohatera): nie jestem tu nikomu do niczego potrzebny; częsta nuda i nieskończona pustka. wybrane jako lepsze od monotonii, od mieszczańskiego schematu bytowania-trwania w czasie-życia bez życia.
więc skoro nie jesteś potrzebny tu, zrób coś, znajdź się tam,gdzie jesteś potrzebny! marazm znany mi kiedyś, ale dziś...more

like · see review

Oct 11, 2009 Traci rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: novels

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here. This book deserves a re-reading, not because it was the most spectacular or most compelling piece of writing I've ever encountered, but because for a generous portion of the novel, I was laboring under the misconception that the plots of the two stories--"The Wild Palms" and "Old Man"--connect.

On the one hand, "The Wild Palms" is about Harry and Charlotte, a young doctor and a married woman who battle madly for Love uncomplicated by societal obligations or expectations, who do whatever they can...more This book deserves a re-reading, not because it was the most spectacular or most compelling piece of writing I've ever encountered, but because for a generous portion of the novel, I was laboring under the misconception that the plots of the two stories--"The Wild Palms" and "Old Man"--connect.

On the one hand, "The Wild Palms" is about Harry and Charlotte, a young doctor and a married woman who battle madly for Love uncomplicated by societal obligations or expectations, who do whatever they can to escape convention and respectability, at the cost of their reputations, their comfort, and yes their lives. Interwoven with this plot is the story of the tall convict, which takes place ten years earlier, and his encounter with the Mississippi River as it overflows its banks and floods the entire landscape. The tall convict accidentally escapes on a skiff when he is supposed to be rescuing people from the flood, and though he rescues a pregnant woman (who soon gives birth), he is swept away before finding his other charge. "Old Man" follows the tall convict as he tries to surrender, to get back to his life in prison, while simultaneously and begrudgingly taking care of the woman and her baby.

I kept wanting the tall convict to appear in Harry and Charlotte's story, or vice-versa, but that never happened, and it wasn't until the very last chapter, an installment of "Old Man" in which the tall convict tells his fellow inmates--to whom he has finally returned--about an old sweetheart that abandoned him in prison for another man, that I realized how the stories had been resonating against each other the entire time.

So when I re-read this novel--and I think it is a novel--I want to be looking for vibrations between:

* the Love that Harry and Charlotte must constantly, humanly, try to reinforce and reinvigorate & the Old Man, the wild and powerful river that overcomes both the levees and the law

* how Harry and Charlotte do everything they can to avoid becoming complacent & how the tall convict returns to prison because prison is the only life he has ever known

* the way that the convict is both burdened by and obligated to the woman and her baby & how this relationship is somehow related to the first woman that broke his heart

* how something, Love or the River, can lead you somewhere, no matter how much you rail against it

* freedom from society's expectations of a man and woman & freedom on the water

Really, I think you need to get to the final two chapters to really see how "The Wild Palms" and "Old Man" connect. I think you need to see Harry, standing in his prison cell, watching a man and woman live isolated and free on an abandoned ship surrounded by water. I think you need to hear the tall convict talk about his first love and I think you need to hear him say, in a last line that hits you like a ton of bricks: "Women, shit." I think you need to get to the end to understand the beginning, and I think to get the full impact of this novel, you need to read it again.(less)

like · see review

May 25, 2012 Teng rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: school

I'm only giving this book 3 stars even though it's by Faulkner, because it was a complete drag to read. I mean, it was painful. That said, I still liked the twist at the end, it was wicked and unexpected (ok, it wouldn't have been totally unexpected if I really thought about it), and the twist really enliven the book. And since the twist doesn't come until near the end of the book, I don't feel the book picks up the pace until the end either. Also, I have a feeling this is just Faulkner's writin...more

1 like · like · see review

Feb 21, 2010 Cynthia rated it 2 of 5 stars

Oh my !!! What did I get myself into ??? I decided to read this book as it was one of Julia Robert's favorite picks from Oprah's book club site. I have never read anything by William Faulkner and probably will not again. His sentences ramble with scarce punctuation, and left me re-reading segments to better understand what he was trying to say. I felt his writing was confusing and a real challenge to read.

Yes! There were two stories here - "The Wild Palms" and "The Old Man". I guess you might sa...more

1 like · like · see review

Jul 09, 2010 Julia Boechat Machado rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: us-literature, wanna-buy, tingle-of-the-spine, punch-in-the-stomach, 1930s

Um dos livros mais conhecidos de Faulkner, em parte pela frase "Given the choice between the experience of pain and nothing, I would choose pain." Formado por duas novelas entrelaçadas.

2 likes · like · see review

Sep 18, 2012 Wingedbeaver rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: 48-in-2012

I’ve come to find that I tend to read as two different people, the writer and the reader. What each of these personalities likes and appreciates in a novel can be completely different. The reader is looking for plot and character, a fun story with interesting characters that pulls me into the book and prevents me from putting it down. The writer is looking for technique and word use, a well structured sentence or paragraph with deep description and intriguing word choice that leaves me in awe....more
I’ve come to find that I tend to read as two different people, the writer and the reader. What each of these personalities likes and appreciates in a novel can be completely different. The reader is looking for plot and character, a fun story with interesting characters that pulls me into the book and prevents me from putting it down. The writer is looking for technique and word use, a well structured sentence or paragraph with deep description and intriguing word choice that leaves me in awe. In a few very rare occasions there is a novel that appeals to both the reader and the writer, but usually if the reader is enthralled the writer isn’t all that impressed and if the writer is in awe the reader is left with a headache. There is no doubt that William Faulkner is an author that appeals solely to the writer in me because the reader struggled with every minute I spent with Wild Palms.
It was obvious from the first page that Faulkner was an author writing on a different plane then most I am use to reading. His style is very stream of conscience, with long complicated sentences and flowery word choice. One can’t breeze through a Faulkner sentence. You need to take it slowly, soaking in every word and punctuation, because it won’t end where it started, nor will the journey be a straight line. In Wild Palms, he seems to have thrown a parenthesis into every sentence, breaking the flow of thought to jump around in time and story. It’s a technique that makes the novel hard to read and enjoy, but one that forces you to read closely and pay attention to every thing that occurs. It’s something the writer in me can’t help but admire. Reading someone like Faulkner as a writer can prove to be a slightly depressing exercise, because I know I will never be able to write a story with such a sense of art.
I’ll admit, I’m far from a fan of the stream of conscience style of story telling, yet I found Wild Palms to have more for the reader in me then anything written by Virginia Wolfe. As much as Faulkner makes you work, there is something more accessible in this novel then I have found in most stream of conscience stories. It may have been painful, and it may be a while before I choose to tackle another Faulkner novel, but nothing in Wild Palms made me swear off his work. It certainly isn’t for the faint of heart, but there are enough enjoyable moments to give him another try. If you are looking for light fun fare, Faulkner will never be for you, but if you are looking for a challenge, a story that you may admire more then enjoy, give Wild Palms a try.(less)

like · see review

Jun 03, 2012 George Edema rated it 3 of 5 stars

I bought this as If I Forget Thee Jerusalem from the Auburn bookstore on a whim, a strange Faulkner whim. It is pretty much two completely separate stories that alternate chapters. They are so different (one about a couple at a house on the beach and the other about a prisoner and a pregnant women on washed down the Mississippi in a great flood) that they set each other off in relief. But other than that I don't see any reason they are woven together. The flood story is memorable and interesting...more

like · see review

Jul 10, 2012 Mimi rated it 4 of 5 stars

This is an early Faulkner, really two stories told with one chapter telling the first story (The Wild Palms), the next chapter the other story (Old Man), etc. The book was originally titled If I Forget Thee, Jerusalem which only makes sense if you understand what that means, I don't. It's the kind of writing that I appreciate from Faulkner, often one has to just keep reading until you understand what is going on, because it's not all that clear, but you do finally and are rewarded. It is a fever...more

like · see review

Aug 09, 2009 Mazel rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: roman

prix nobel de littérature 1949
*

C'est le roman de Faulkner où la souffrance atteint peut-être sa plus grande intensité : l'histoire tragique des deux amants est l'une des plus douloureuses qu'il ait écrites, et la mort de Charlotte Rittenmeyer, « le personnage féminin le plus déchirant de Faulkner », devient un récit poignant.

Le titre est tiré d'un psaume qui rappelle la captivité des Juifs à Babylone. Ce thème de la captivité, de la privation de liberté, littérale ou métaphorique, est central d...more

like · see review

Jan 24, 2013 Corinne Wasilewski rated it 2 of 5 stars

My book jacket says The Wild Palms is really two stories, contrasting two different kinds of love. Charlotte and Harry sacrifice everything for love only to lose it. The tall convict gives up everything to get away from love.
I don’t agree with this analysis. To me, the book compares a so-called "free" life with a disciplined, duty-bound, commited life.
In Wild Palms, Harry gives up a promising career as a medical doctor to run away with a married woman. In The Old Man, the tall convict unwittin...more

like · see review

Mar 22, 2011 Jeff rated it 4 of 5 stars

By no means my favorite Faulkner book, but still pretty amazing. I did seem to get lost more in the stream of consciousness than I have in other Faulkner novels. I need to ruminate on this novel for a while. The interlacing of the two unrelated narratives was both unique and sometimes bothersome. Bothersome only because it's unclear what the purpose is. Obviously both are about relationships, incarceration, and the true meaning of freedom, but how much does one story influence the reading or und...more

like · see review

Apr 26, 2013 carrie rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

This is a very famous flood that is referenced in many novels, this book is referenced in the book my boyfriend was reading just after I finished this one. That book is: "Hellfire: The Jerry Lee Lewis Story" by Nick Tosches

What eloquence. I can't wait to read more faulkner. His sentences were mesmerizing in length and thought and still this small novel tied two stories together so well. Like the flooded tributaries of the Mississippi, so is this book on my mind.

Its theme of struggle the current...more This is a very famous flood that is referenced in many novels, this book is referenced in the book my boyfriend was reading just after I finished this one. That book is: "Hellfire: The Jerry Lee Lewis Story" by Nick Tosches

What eloquence. I can't wait to read more faulkner. His sentences were mesmerizing in length and thought and still this small novel tied two stories together so well. Like the flooded tributaries of the Mississippi, so is this book on my mind.

Its theme of struggle the current. are some of my favorites to read, but this book accomplished it so well in a raw and courageous brilliance. It uses some of the same beautiful ideas of freedom that i admired in jack kerouac's novels, but this is less poetic.

some quotes:

"we were too busy; we had rent and support a room for two robots to live in."

"I was in eclipse" "I was outside of time." "I was still attached to it, supported by it in space as you have been ever since there was a not-you to become you, and will be until there is an end to the not-you by means of which alone you culd once have been--that's the immortality-- supported by it but that's all, just on it, non-conductive like the sparrow insulated by its own hard non-conductive dead feet from the from the high-tension line, the current of time that runs through remembering, that exists only in relation to what little of reality we know, else there is no such thing as time."

"It was like the instant of virginity, it was the instant of virginity: that condition, fact, that does not actually exist except during the instant you know you are losing it..."

"If Jesus returned today we would have to crucify him quick in our own defense, to justify and preserve the civilization we have worked and suffered and died shrieking and cursing in rage and impotence and terror for two thousand years to create and perfect in man's own image; if Venus returned she would be a soiled man in a subway lavatory with a palm full of French postcards--"

"...it was the mausoleum of love, it was the stinking catafalque of the dead corpse borne between the olfactoryless walking shapes of the immortal insentient demanding ancient meat."

"... if They were to let us beat Them, it would be like unchecked murder and robbery. Of course we can't beat Them; we are doomed of course; that's why I am afraid."(less)

like · see review

Mar 20, 2013 Eddy Allen rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: fiction-and-westerns

In this feverishly beautiful novel—originally titled If I Forget Thee, Jerusalem by Faulkner, and now published in the authoritative Library of America text—William Faulkner interweaves two narratives, each wholly absorbing in its own right, each subtly illuminating the other. In New Orleans in 1937, a man and a woman embark on a headlong flight into the wilderness of illicit passion, fleeing her husband and the temptations of respectability. In Mississippi ten years earlier, a convict sets fort...more

like · see review

« previous 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 … 93 94 next »

new topic
Discuss This Book

topics	posts	views	last activity
what's going on at the end	3	45	Mar 29, 2009 05:26am

combine
Other Editions (38)

More editions...

Genres

Classics

19 users

Literature > American

10 users

Novels

7 users

Gothic > Southern Gothic

6 users

Literature

4 users

American > Southern

4 users

American > Americana

3 users

Literary Fiction

3 users

Literature > English Literature

2 users

Academic > School

2 users

See top shelves...

Readers also enjoyed similar books

About William Faulkner

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...

Books by William Faulkner

More…

Share This Book

Facebook Twitter Your website

Trivia About The Wild Palms

No trivia or quizzes yet. Add some now »

Quotes from The Wild Palms

“Given the choice between the experience of pain and nothing, I would choose pain.” — 414 people liked it

“Love doesn't die; the men and women do.” — 32 people liked it

More quotes…

title link	preview: The Wild Palms
avg rating	preview: The Wild Palms Goodreads rating: 3.86 (1546 ratings)
small image	preview: click here [close]
med image	preview: click here [close]
BBCode	[url=http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/146559.The_Wild_Palms?utm_medium=api&utm_source=blog_book][img]http://d.gr-assets.com/books/1333578869l/146559.jpg[/img][/url] [url=http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/146559.The_Wild_Palms?utm_medium=api&utm_source=blog_book]The Wild Palms by William Faulkner[/url]

The Wild Palms

Friend Reviews

Community Reviews

Share This Book

Share This Book on Your Website