LIGHT IN AUGUST by William Faulkner. A walk with the Lost and Hopeless 

I have only dabbled in the first few pages of this novel, hoping to return to it someday, but much of my initial interest was spurred by the fact that this is the favorite novel of my single favorite film critic, Jonathan Rosenbaum (born in 1943), a native of small-town Alabama but educated in Vermont and New York, and lately the lead film critic of the 'Chicago Reader', that paper's city being his home for over the last thirty years.

For the past four years I read Light in August every August. As Shelby Foote said “The more you read it, the more you can see how he does it.” I found some new revelations in it again, just this August. Thank you for your love of this piece of mastery.

My local book club is reading Light in August after initially trying The Sound and The Fury and rejecting it is too difficult for Faulkner initiates. I will say up front that Faulkner can write a beautiful sentence that will literally stop me in my tracks - he is so amazing in his use of the English language. This book is bleak and difficult and yet now that I'm done I can't stop thinking about it. I do find it interesting that we never know for sure (and I think Faulkner never made it specifically clear) whether Joe Christmas has black blood or Mexican or is of mixed race at all. The point is that in America at the time it didn't matter, the suspicion was enough to set the course of your life. What a tragic character .... On the other hand, Hightower seems to be the other main character but gets much less attention. I found his character to be very confusing and yet emblematic of another major theme of Faulkner's which is "The past is never dead. It's not even past."

“Memory believes before knowing remembers. Believes longer than recollects, longer than knowing even wonders.” So many good passages in Light in August. Faulkner was such a master in telling nonlinear stories. Over the years, I’ve come to appreciate the later Faulkner works, such as Intruder in the Dust and a Fable, but this novel will always have a special place in my heart. This story just had such a good slow burn aspect to it, and you can really feel how each scene and sentence drive towards the atmosphere of this story.

You do make this sound like a great story. I lived in the southern USA for 18 years and can imagine it in the 30s being so much worse than it is even now. Very familiar with the whole fundamentalist Baptist attitudes, and I think the southern states have so much material for great stories.

Loving the new intro and the fade-out on the intro; cool stuff! 😀 I sorta liked Light in August. It was definitely grotesque enough to hold me, although some of it I thought went a little over the top. The characters were pretty good though, and Joe Christmas really was something else. The writing was all over the place though. (He actually used the phrase "small little houses" at one point, lmao. 😂) Still, easier to understand than some of Faulkner's other books, amirite? 😆

Such a brilliant novel.

Love this book - faulkner is the man, man

Hey Noah, I have just recently finished Light in August and was searching for a good review of this book (there aren't many out there) and i appreciated what all you had to say. I would like to ask what you thought of the symbolism with Joe Christmas (JC) to that of Jesus Christ. I believe Faulkner denied this at some point but personally I found too much throughout the story fir it to be happenstance. I'm glad I stumbled onto your channel and I plan to check out more of your vids. I am a hardcore reader of the classics and I see you have many videos discussing such. 📚😊

Powerful stuff. I have a copy just waiting for me to read it.

I have Light in August. :)