Goodreads Mobile | see what your friends are reading

Aug 21, 2007

Ryan rated it:

This is considered one of Faulkner's more accessible books. He said he wrote it "just for the money". It is easier to read than many others. My problem with Faulkner is, he makes me feel dumb. I have trouble following his narratives, always have. Sometimes he can go for several pages of dialog between two characters and never refer to the identity of the person speaking. Is this deliberate? Anyway, I only had trouble with one part of this book. There is a character named Red w More...

3 comments like (5 people liked it)

Nov 02, 2009

Hambonebro rated it:

I am into writing my second book. The plot is semi-developed. I like it like that because depending on how the characters come to life a lot of flexibility is required. My stories
shape up best when I can inhabit the characters and identify with what makes them tick and as of last week things were moving slowly.

The reason may be because unlike my first one, “Humpty Dumpty Was Pushed” where one of the subjects featured was the world of hip hop, which I was completely familiar wi More...

0 comments like (2 people liked it)

Aug 08, 2007

Selena rated it:

This was my first Faulkner (I know I know!) and maybe not the best choice for a first impression. In book club I learned it was considered a "pot boiler" and was one of his best sellers, probably because of the sex and booze included. (But not sexy sex in case that intrigued you). I'm told that of Faulkner's work, this is a more plot driven novel, although our group agreed not the most pleasant of plots. That said, the writing gives the reader a strong sense of place, and many passa More...

1 comment like (1 person liked it)

Feb 07, 2008

angrykitty rated it:

this book made me hate reading just a little bit. i had to read this in a college lit course, and the prof even explained in the beginning how this was a book that faulkner put out just to make some quick dough. man does it show. it's just a really lame book, and i forever lost respect for that particlar prof for assigning it....and he continued to live up to my lack of respect in every other class i took from him (bad grade on a first draft of a mark twain essay....changed the main topic ove More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Dec 17, 2009

Celisa rated it:

I think The Sound and Fury and Absalom, Absalom are great books; Sanctuary is a good book. That's why I said I'd recommend Sanctuary to those already familiar with Faulkner. That said, on the other side of the coin, Sanctuary could be like Faulkner with training wheels, as I think the strong plot helps carry readers along despite his obfuscatory style. There aren't as many beatiful lyrical passages in Sanctuary as in The Sound and Fury and Absalom, Absalom either (assuming I'm remembering correc More...

0 comments like (2 people liked it)

Nov 29, 2011

Maduck831 rated it:

“There was a mirror behind her and another behind me, and she was watching herself in the one behind me, forgetting about the other one in which I could see her face, see her watching the back of my head with pure dissimulation. That’s why nature is ‘she’ and Progress is ‘he’: nature made the grape arbor, but Progress invented the mirror.” (14-15) “You’re not being tried by common sense,” Horace said. “You’re being tried by a jury.” (128) “I could even tell her I had a puncture,” Horace said. More...

0 comments like

Jul 16, 2011

Lazy Writer rated it:

Extremely strange. I had never read anything by Faulkner but decided I probably should, because having a Lit degree but only being able to quote contemporary supernatural P.I. noir novels is probably frowned upon by the more academically oriented literature fan. The description was brilliant yet extremely repetitive at times. In some paragraphs he will use the same word or phrase more than three times, and I'm not sure if it was to drive a simple point home or just because he preferred the phras More...

0 comments like

Dec 05, 2009

Martin rated it:

Wow, I never knew Faulkner could be like this. Considered his potboiler, this is extreme southern gothic. There is incredible imagery that amounts to lewd posturing that could easily have been done in comic book form, such as a fat sweaty man peeping through a keyhole while the villian, never without his hat, silently lights a cigarette and, standing over him, edges the flame closer and closer to the man's sweaty neck. Every description reaches to be as wretched as possible. Faulkner can sti More...

0 comments like

May 28, 2009

Brandi rated it:

this was the first faulkner book that i didn't come away from feeling like i'd just witnessed some of the grossest human behavior ever, which is weird knowing that this book does, in fact, contain some of the grossest human behavior. the "hard-boiled detective" element of the story sort of glossed it over for me, making the book feel like a film more so than a nasty faulkner riddle.

my initial reaction has since changed.

there are many, many ways to look at the c More...

0 comments like

Oct 23, 2011

Belen added it

Otra vez Faulkner. Todo un reto, me lo tiene que leer Fernando. Ver veremos, dijo un ciego, nunca mejor dicho.

Travesura realizada.

Me cuesta mucho no poner spoilers, si alguien, incompresniblemente lee esto, por por favor, que tenga cuidado.

Me ha encantado. Recién lo acabé estaba dispuesta a jurar que era el mejor libro que había leído en mi vida. Ahora ya lo voy situando en mi escala pero me sigue gustando mucho.

Sigo dándole vueltas a una cue More...

0 comments like

Mar 07, 2009

Dan rated it:

i have mixed feelings about this novel.

first and foremost, faulkner is an amazing stylist. it feels like i slip off into an alternate universe each time i read him. faulkner doesn't tell stories; he creates climates. there's something earthy and visceral about his language, and it was interesting to see it applied to pulpier material than i'm used to (i've only read the sound and the fury and as i lay dying otherwise). a fairly thick plot is lurking beneath all of sanctuary's style, More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Jan 24, 2010

Kellyreaderofbooks rated it:

It's almost hard to describe what this book is about, without giving away spoilers. Sanctuary starts off with a well-to-do man from the city stumbling across a ramshackle farmhouse where moonshine is being made. From there, the story spirals off to include Temple (a rich and popular teenage girl), Mrs. Goodwin (the moonshiner's common law wife), and Popeye (a deranged misfit). Their paths continue to cross as the book goes on; sometimes for good, sometimes for bad.

Faulkner is fast be More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Jan 01, 2010

Nelson rated it:

Well I found Sanctuary to be a great novel, even though the author claims in the introduction that the work is a 'potboiler' (a piece written solely for financial gain). This southern gothic tale moves between backwoods Mississippi farms and a decadent Memphis underworld during the prohibition period. An idealist lawyer trying to correct injustice, a shady underworld sociopath, a beautiful well bred college girl caught with a bad crowd, a corrupt state senator and hillbilly moonshiners are just More...

0 comments like

Nov 28, 2011

Longfellow rated it:

Temple Drake, college girl from a well-to-do family, gets herself in trouble by going on a date with an older townie. The townie’s alcoholic tendencies lead them to a house hidden away in the woods where an illegal whiskey operation (Sanctuary is set during Prohibition) is headquartered. The house is inhabited by a few men and one woman, an ex-prostitute who is now “married” to one of the men. Things go wrong and only get worse for Temple, as she is first raped and then put up in a brothel in a More...

0 comments like

Jul 14, 2010

Nate rated it:

A vicious little story of civic (in)justice and sociopathic psychology. This was written and rejected just before As I Lay Dying and by Faulkner's own admission, it was conceived purely as a lurid moneymaker, as horrifying to the public as possible. Perhaps it was upon revision before its eventual 1931 publication that this grew from potboiler into its incisive, bitter social commentary and obfuscating fractured narrative path. Honestly, much as I'm struck by the Selby-like blackness of the form More...

0 comments like

Sep 21, 2010

Kelsey rated it:

I will be the first to admit that any book of Faulkner's is not an easy read. But I will be the first to protest that the complexity and complication characteristic of his books make them a worthwhile read. This is definitely true of this book. It tells the story of Miss Temple Drake, a privileged girl who faces actual trouble for the first time when she is stranded on a farm homestead. Here she falls victim to the villainous men that live there, changing her forever into a different girl. This More...

0 comments like

Aug 04, 2011

Mazel rated it:

lecture accompagnée avec Grain de sel,
merci Natalia.

C'est Sanctuaire qui valut à Faulkner sa réputation d'auteur ténébreux et scandaleux. L'écrivain n'a-t-il pas tenu à inventer, selon son expression, "l'histoire la plus effroyable qu'on puisse imaginer" ? En réalité, il s'est inspiré d'un fait divers, survenu dans un night-club de la Nouvelle-Orléans : le viol d'une jeune fille avec un "objet bizarre", devenu un épi de maïs dans le roman, suivi d'une étrang More...

0 comments like

Jan 12, 2009

Steve rated it:

This book is underrated. Sure, the first 100 pages are pretty bad. But after that it actually sounds like Faulkner.

This was his popular AND critical breakthrough careerwise. Sure, he has much better novels. But they didn't catch on the way this one did? Why?

This is an exciting book. While it is not mind-blowing like The Sound and the Fury, it is a page-turner in the style of many of today's popular thrillers. The chapters are short (31 chapters in 310 pages), and each on More...

0 comments like

Mar 29, 2011

Vonaire rated it:

Okay, so this was my first Faulkner. It won't be my last, but moving forward, I now am prepared for his style of writing. I'd be lying if I said I wasn't confused at first - there were times I had no idea what was going on! He doesn't explicitly state anything, he writes more in innuendo, therefore, I had to read certain sections multiple times.

That being said, once I caught on to his writing style, the story started to unfold, and what a disturbing story! The characters were som More...

1 comment like

Sep 21, 2009

Kristen rated it:

Faulkner himself describes this story as "horrific" and I have to agree. Cast with characters bent on no other motive than pure evil, Temple Drake, a southern belle and college socialite, is introduced to the underworld of bootlegging by her drunkard boyfriend Gowan. She is kidnapped by monster/demon/man Popeye and kept in a brothel in Memphis. Written in 1931, it amazes me that this book was ever published simply because of the subject matter. Faulkner departs from his usual stream of More...

0 comments like

Mar 07, 2010

Steve rated it:

Part of my re-reading of Faulkner project. I may write more later, but I revisited this one shortly before joining Goodreads. Anyway, basically Faulkner does noir. And he does it very well. One of the most disturbing books in American Literature. A genre book that is so much more. Ever been somewhere you didn't want to be? With bad people giving you the Eye? If you ever want to recapture that creepy feeling, this is the book for you. As Temple Drake, a major character in the book puts it: " More...

3 comments like (3 people liked it)

Jul 28, 2008

Jessica rated it:

Interesting characters, but a lot of the book seems to be implied. I defer, I guess I am not able to properly infer.

1 comment like (1 person liked it)

May 30, 2009

Patrick marked it as to-read

I read 'Sanctuary' by William Faulkner-the book is brutal and in turn horrifying-especially the brutal rape scene. You would never know the true horrors of being bent over and having someone violates your very body and destroy your soul unless you read the scene of Popeye's evil deed.
Your body is abused, degraded, and in grotesque pain, and then you hear the voice behind you go:

I am Popeye the sailor man
I yam what I yam
And that's all I yam

(Toot! Toot!) More...

0 comments like

May 05, 2011

Patti rated it:

Read all Faulkner's books on my list here for my senior these class with Jonis Agee at the College of St. Catherine's. Since I read them all so close to one another they kind of blur into each other. What I can tell you is that what Faulkner does with language is mysterious, amazing and yet completely intuitive. Whatever conversations he heard in that little post office in Oxford, Mississippi that allowed him to repeat, recycle and create in such a unique and colorful manner I can only imagine. More...

0 comments like

Dec 27, 2009

Lynn rated it:

I just finished, and am now reading again to try to fill in some gaps, which is SOP for Faulkner, at least in my hands. A fourth star could follow, though it will not rise to "As I Lay Dying" or "Go Down, Moses." Well written, if you think any Faulkner is well-written, with unusually conventional punctuation, and captivating, though the references to light and shadow could have been left at the exit door of "The Sound and the Fury." Much of the obliqueness was pr More...

0 comments like

Dec 06, 2011

Nemesis rated it:

Un pugno nello stomaco

E’ il mio primo incontro con Faulkner, per anni “c’ho solo girato intorno” incuriosita dai commenti positivi che ho sentito e letto nei suoi confronti e ora mi sono finalmente decisa a compiere il grande passo.
La mia scelta è ricaduta per forza di cose su “Santuario”(avrei voluto iniziare dal suo capolavoro, “l’urlo e il furore” ma, che ci crediate o no, non sono riuscita a reperirlo, qui dove abito è uno dei tanti autori sconosciuti ai vari bibliotecari More...

0 comments like

Mar 21, 2010

terrycojones rated it:

It pains me somewhat to only give Sanctuary 3 stars, because it deserves 3.5. Goodreads needs a more fine-grained rating system.

Sanctuary has a pretty good reputation amongst Faulkner lovers, but I didn't enjoy it as much as I'd hoped I would. The main interest/value for me here was in the various small linkages to other parts of Faulkner's menagerie, like the slimy Clarence Snopes, the glimpse of the cuffed Darl Bundren (from As I Lay Dying) being taken away to the madhouse, Miss Re More...

0 comments like

Jul 10, 2008

Michael rated it:

It's probably been said about Sanctuary many times before considering Faulkner's own admission of writing the novel for dough and then salvaging what he could of it in the rewriting stage, but here is a clear case of mood over story. Texture and atmosphere are clearly in evidence in his signature impressionistic depictions of the sordid and sultry South, but the characters just don't come through -- it's as if adjectives have been padded onto a paper thin account of rape and kidnapping and the f More...

0 comments like

Jun 20, 2008

Chris rated it:

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here

0 comments like

May 08, 2008

Cory rated it:

I must say that Sanctuary is so far my favorite Faulkner novel. This may seem weird to people who know Faulkner, as it was considered my many (and said by WF himself) that this was his most commercial book and was made so he could break into the more mainstream audiences. I however do not believe this and find that it is another cause of a brilliant author playing down a novel that may not be as poetic and elegant as their other novels, but better in ways that may seem "commercial" or More...

1 comment like (2 people liked it)

reviews