Finished Sanctuary the other night. I've become a student of Roman Noir and didn't know until half way through that I would be reading another book that falls under that category. What impressed me the most as a work of Roman Noir is that it exposed a structure used in the genre. There's 2 Parts. Part 1 is a "down the rabbit hole" plot device, setting up desperate times with desperate people (Red Harvest and Personville as an example). They act impulsively, irrationally, with often misplaced motives. The Depression serves as a fantastic backdrop for this story, as Davis Grubb lays out it in The Night of the Hunter (published in 1953). Part 2 is about the Consequences of the actions taken in Part 1. Many Consequences suffered are near Act of God, Deus Machina (like the whopper of the ending in The Postman Always Rings Twice by Cain). Postman also plays very clearly with that 2 part structure, which is why I don't think anyone was able to faithfully or satisfyingly adapt it to the big screen, or any screen ftm. Sanctuary really layed out the structure of Roman Noir while I was reading it. And found it very exciting as I was checking off plot points by the 2nd half, and always wondering (on the edge of my seat) what that final chapter would have in store for our cast of characters. Would there be truth sought and justice served? How messy did these characters make their lives and the lives of others around them? A recent Roman Noir I read and loved was Laura Lippman's Prom Mom. Despite its tacky title, Ms Lippman proves that she is a student of the genre. She also wrote a very underrated novel a few years ago called Sunburn, which was such an homage that she invoked James M Cain's writings into her plot (which she didn't need to do. We see you, Laura. We see you.) Great video and wonderful channel, sir! Keep up the good work!
I love this book. Helped me understand Stockholm Syndrome, in myself. I don't think anyone can "touch" the depth of Faulkner regarding the human condition except Dostoevsky.
Good review. I'll have to reread Red Harvest, I have it here. Sanctuary took me a couple get ats to get through, but i did and liked it. Pylon I started once and got distracted. I can now enjoy anything by Faulkner. I've read most. Always reading something by him. Thanks. Oh, I like Go Down Moses a lot, Sound and Fury too and Flags in the Dust; those're my recs.
Great review - I also came to Faulkner late. I read As I Lay Dying, The Sound and the Fury, Sanctuary and A Light in August last year, and I’m reading The Hamlet now. I love Faulkner. And I also don’t believe for a second his claim that he wrote Sanctuary just for the money
So glad you are reviewing Faulkner!! I love him! Sanctuary is my second favorite next to Absalom Absalom, Absalom is just a masterpiece. If you like Faulkner you should check out Cormac McCarthy; Blood Meridian and Suttree is his best but All The Pretty Horses and The Road is his most accessible. Out of your Faulkner reads which one would you say is your favorite? Also I preferred the movie than the book of The Maltese Falcon.
To me Faulker a lot of the time is style over substance, but that's not meant to be dismissive. I've read The Sound and the Fury and Light in August and while I can commend the craft I didn't find the stories all that engaging. But I think I might actually like Sanctuary a bit more since it's more straightforward and has fewer frills. Anyway, good review! ;)
Not only is there this thing about criticizing young people for being irresponsible but there's also this thing about how she got every advantage in life while the woman helping her was screwed over so many times. I really felt bad for her. It kind of reminds me of how one critic talking about Camus' the Stranger said that the Algerians in the story are the other or real strangers. Even though the book ostensibly focuses on Temple Drake(Temple of Dragon? Interesting name, what is the significance of that?), it is really the woman who was so abused in life who is the one who we should sympathize with in my opinion. Also reading it, it really seemed that a bunch of other people raped Temple before Popeye on the first night she was in the house. Very hard to follow as you said. It also seemed that Popeye was black at times.
"...I thought that maybe I would be all right if I just had a hill to lie on for a while - it was that country. Flat & rich & foul, so that the very winds seem to engender money out of it. Five thousand square miles, [Read. More.] without any hill save the bumps of dirt the Indians made to stand on when the River overflowed. ...I just wanted a hill to lie on, you see. Then I would be all right." [-Wm. Faulkner ("Sanctuary")]
Finished Sanctuary the other night. I've become a student of Roman Noir and didn't know until half way through that I would be reading another book that falls under that category.
What impressed me the most as a work of Roman Noir is that it exposed a structure used in the genre. There's 2 Parts. Part 1 is a "down the rabbit hole" plot device, setting up desperate times with desperate people (Red Harvest and Personville as an example). They act impulsively, irrationally, with often misplaced motives. The Depression serves as a fantastic backdrop for this story, as Davis Grubb lays out it in The Night of the Hunter (published in 1953). Part 2 is about the Consequences of the actions taken in Part 1. Many Consequences suffered are near Act of God, Deus Machina (like the whopper of the ending in The Postman Always Rings Twice by Cain). Postman also plays very clearly with that 2 part structure, which is why I don't think anyone was able to faithfully or satisfyingly adapt it to the big screen, or any screen ftm.
Sanctuary really layed out the structure of Roman Noir while I was reading it. And found it very exciting as I was checking off plot points by the 2nd half, and always wondering (on the edge of my seat) what that final chapter would have in store for our cast of characters. Would there be truth sought and justice served? How messy did these characters make their lives and the lives of others around them?
A recent Roman Noir I read and loved was Laura Lippman's Prom Mom. Despite its tacky title, Ms Lippman proves that she is a student of the genre. She also wrote a very underrated novel a few years ago called Sunburn, which was such an homage that she invoked James M Cain's writings into her plot (which she didn't need to do. We see you, Laura. We see you.)
Great video and wonderful channel, sir! Keep up the good work!
I love this book. Helped me understand Stockholm Syndrome, in myself.
I don't think anyone can "touch" the depth of Faulkner regarding the human condition except Dostoevsky.
Good review. I'll have to reread Red Harvest, I have it here. Sanctuary took me a couple get ats to get through, but i did and liked it. Pylon I started once and got distracted. I can now enjoy anything by Faulkner. I've read most. Always reading something by him. Thanks. Oh, I like Go Down Moses a lot, Sound and Fury too and Flags in the Dust; those're my recs.
You hit the nail on the head with this commentary.
Great review - I also came to Faulkner late. I read As I Lay Dying, The Sound and the Fury, Sanctuary and A Light in August last year, and I’m reading The Hamlet now. I love Faulkner. And I also don’t believe for a second his claim that he wrote Sanctuary just for the money
So glad you are reviewing Faulkner!! I love him! Sanctuary is my second favorite next to Absalom Absalom, Absalom is just a masterpiece. If you like Faulkner you should check out Cormac McCarthy; Blood Meridian and Suttree is his best but All The Pretty Horses and The Road is his most accessible. Out of your Faulkner reads which one would you say is your favorite?
Also I preferred the movie than the book of The Maltese Falcon.
As I Lay Dying is definitely my favorite so far, but I really haven’t read many yet. I’ll make a point of checking out Absalom.
I've always loved Faulkner since high school literature class because he's the first author I saw that wrote seemingly chaotically like me.
To me Faulker a lot of the time is style over substance, but that's not meant to be dismissive. I've read The Sound and the Fury and Light in August and while I can commend the craft I didn't find the stories all that engaging. But I think I might actually like Sanctuary a bit more since it's more straightforward and has fewer frills. Anyway, good review! ;)
Not only is there this thing about criticizing young people for being irresponsible but there's also this thing about how she got every advantage in life while the woman helping her was screwed over so many times. I really felt bad for her. It kind of reminds me of how one critic talking about Camus' the Stranger said that the Algerians in the story are the other or real strangers.
Even though the book ostensibly focuses on Temple Drake(Temple of Dragon? Interesting name, what is the significance of that?), it is really the woman who was so abused in life who is the one who we should sympathize with in my opinion.
Also reading it, it really seemed that a bunch of other people raped Temple before Popeye on the first night she was in the house. Very hard to follow as you said. It also seemed that Popeye was black at times.
"...I thought that maybe I would be all right if I just had a hill to lie on for a while - it was that country. Flat & rich & foul, so that the very winds seem to engender money out of it. Five thousand square miles, [Read. More.]
without any hill save the bumps of dirt the Indians made to stand on when the River overflowed. ...I just wanted a hill to lie on, you see. Then I would be all right."
[-Wm. Faulkner ("Sanctuary")]
never stop these, you are doing a great service!