This is my fourth book of Faulkner's, and the least challenging. It is a series of short stories set around the Civil War and its aftermath in Mississippi. As with other books, there is humor, although not everyone would appreciate it. What I appreciated was the telling of the issues of race from a southern perspective. Although brutal, it does give insight into what was supposed to happen to slaves when emancipated, given the fact that all they were given was their freedom. Like Twain's famous work, Faulkner does use the N-word throughout, which may offend many. It is interesting just how the word is used by the narrator's friend, Ringo, himself African American. I'm not really sure just how to judge this book, as it was unsettling - not for plot, but more for the undercurrents of change in the South that Faulkner expresses in these tales. I would say this, it seems like an honest treatment of a white southern boy, himself flawed, as we all are by our surroundings.
3 and a 1/2 out of 5.