Questions About Light in August

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John Faulkner explores the question of race in a very interesting way. We never know, and Joe Christmas never knows if he is "negro" (in the parlance of th…moreFaulkner explores the question of race in a very interesting way. We never know, and Joe Christmas never knows if he is "negro" (in the parlance of the book). The supposition that he is / is not black creates very different outcomes for him. The actions and thoughts of those around him continually morph around this question. Although Joe Christmas is constant, his experience is mediated about this one binary.

I'm still piecing together the various actions and characters of the novel and their relationships and meanings to the overall whole. Its a complex, complicated and mesmerizing tale that creates an entire society before our eyes as we read it. Faulkner's descriptions and observations are unusually uncanny, even for him and it uses fairly straightforward language and sentence (unlike his other novels of the period). While he does deploy many Joycean portmanteau words, they are all clear and apt.
This book might be a good one to start with for a first-time Faulkner reader. Its intense, complex but not as difficult (no streams of consciousness, fewer time-jumps) as some of his other works.(less)

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Pamela J Dave, That's a string of four questions. I'll answer the first three. We don't really get the answers, which frustrates readers like my students. But …moreDave, That's a string of four questions. I'll answer the first three. We don't really get the answers, which frustrates readers like my students. But once I explain that the novel stages how the sherrif and townspeople already make up their minds about what they think they know. The novel is an exploration of what we think we know vs what we actually know. Once you entertain that idea, the novel becomes much more interesting and maybe helps you answer your question about Hightower's place in the novel.(less)

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