I have something to admit to the HTH audience that I have kept to myself for sometime and really only Mel knows this. I have only read about 20 Faulkner short stories and now only one novel. (Audible Gasp!) Several years ago, one of my many arch-nemesis' (The Oprah Book Club) came out with the Summer of Faulkner set and it seemed like beloved William was everywhere, but I didn't see anyone buckled down and actually reading it, which added insult to injury for me. It did however sell a lot of copies for the grandchildren of Faulkner. I was complaining about the whole situation and Mel gave me some tough love. She listened to my rantings as she so patiently does and then asked in her quiet way, how much of Faulkner had I really read? The answer was not very much save the very popular short story, A Rose for Emily, that we all read in 10th Grade American Literature. So, I did what every bibliophile does, I used my nearest Barnes and Noble gift certificate and bought the whole set of William Faulkner novels put out by the Library of America. And I also picked up the two, comprehensive short story collections that have been published. And there they sat for the next four years. I would read a few short stories here and there and then tell myself that I'm not ready to read a novel yet. That changed about two months ago. I was finished with a book and looking for something next when I decided to pull the proverbial trigger, I grabbed the first Faulkner edition which contains his main works from the years 1926-1929 and began to read. The first book in the edition is his first published novel, Soldier's Pay.
Soldier's Pay is William Faulkner's first publish novel, but not his first published work. The Marble Faun, a collection of poems, was his first real published work of note. The novel was written in 1926 long before he became the pillar of American Literature that he has become known as. The story in short is about Donald Mahon, an American soldier who had gone to England to become an RAF pilot during the First World War before America entered the conflict. He gets shot down and terribly injured. His family is told he is dead, but then is shipped home from a foreign hospital. The novels begins with a group of very rowdy America soldiers who have missed the conflict all together due to the length of time it takes to train an army and the fact that America was only involved in WWI for a very short amount of time. (This same thing happened to a young, William Faulkner and F. Scott Fitzgerald). The soldiers are riding back home on a train and giving the porters a very hard time. On this train, we meet two of the main character's, Joe Gilligan, a regular infantry soldier, and Cadet Lowe, a pilot who never saw action and is severely depressed about it. As they make their way across the country and back home to their respective homes, they run into a helpless, wounded pilot (Donald Mahon) and a young, beautiful widow, Mrs. Powers, who they both fall madly in love with. And they all decide to escort him and help his family out as they try to welcome their son, who is a shadow of the man he used to be, back into their lives. The rest of the novel is the story of their trip, their arrival to Mahon's home and town, his father's reaction to get back his shell of a son after he was thought dead, the town's reaction to his return when their other sons did not, and finally the drama that entails when it becomes known that he (Mahon) was engaged to a young, and seemingly promiscuous Miss Cecily Saunders, who is no longer interested in Mahon now that he is damaged goods. The novel does contain several secondary characters, like Januarius Jones, who is an easy one to love to hate, but the main story sticks with the primary characters.
This is not a strange story, but rather one that many young Americans experienced because America at the time was practicing the Isolationist Doctrine, believing that if we just left everyone alone and dealt with our own domestic problems, then no one would bother us or the world at large. (Sound familiar?) If you've ever watched every girl's second favorite movie Pearl Harbor, a young Ben Affleck does just this very thing during the Second World War because America had gone back to being an Isolationist country and wanting to stay out of any conflict and once again deal with just our own domestic problems then everyone will just leave us alone. This experience, the one of becoming an RAF pilot, is one that Faulkner knew well because he did the same and is able to write about it with vivid detail.
This novel was not an easy read. Often times, I would have to read a section several times before I understood exactly what was happening and to whom. It is written very similarly to how Fitzgerald's first, This Side of Paradise, is in that it is goes from mental thoughts to dialogue and real time actions, past, present and future all at once and then contains poems and letters dispersed throughout. To be honest, I almost gave up on it several times, but am so glad I did not. It was not particularly a great read. However, the ache of the father in beholding his injured son (This was Donald, my son. He is dead.) was so vivid and raw that it brought me to tears several times and the frustration of Gilligan with everyone's reaction to the war, to Donald, and finally to him is one that is echoed in many of the American writer's of the 20's and still feels fresh if you listen to a returning soldier from Iraq or Afghanistan. And lastly the need to feel like you are worth something and doing something that matters was also very strongly written through the character of Mrs. Powers. And her ache for the soldier she married on impulse due to his shipping off and then the loss of him so shortly afterwards is also very strongly written.
Books like this aren't fun to read, but that is exactly the real reason for literature is it? I feel I learn so much about writing and America just by reading them. I would suggest reading this because I feel you will also learn as I did. It will also let you follow Faulkner's progression from the timid writer of poems to the master craftsman that he would become (or so as I've heard).
Happy reading and now onto his second novel, Mosquitoes,
David
Soldier's Pay is William Faulkner's first publish novel, but not his first published work. The Marble Faun, a collection of poems, was his first real published work of note. The novel was written in 1926 long before he became the pillar of American Literature that he has become known as. The story in short is about Donald Mahon, an American soldier who had gone to England to become an RAF pilot during the First World War before America entered the conflict. He gets shot down and terribly injured. His family is told he is dead, but then is shipped home from a foreign hospital. The novels begins with a group of very rowdy America soldiers who have missed the conflict all together due to the length of time it takes to train an army and the fact that America was only involved in WWI for a very short amount of time. (This same thing happened to a young, William Faulkner and F. Scott Fitzgerald). The soldiers are riding back home on a train and giving the porters a very hard time. On this train, we meet two of the main character's, Joe Gilligan, a regular infantry soldier, and Cadet Lowe, a pilot who never saw action and is severely depressed about it. As they make their way across the country and back home to their respective homes, they run into a helpless, wounded pilot (Donald Mahon) and a young, beautiful widow, Mrs. Powers, who they both fall madly in love with. And they all decide to escort him and help his family out as they try to welcome their son, who is a shadow of the man he used to be, back into their lives. The rest of the novel is the story of their trip, their arrival to Mahon's home and town, his father's reaction to get back his shell of a son after he was thought dead, the town's reaction to his return when their other sons did not, and finally the drama that entails when it becomes known that he (Mahon) was engaged to a young, and seemingly promiscuous Miss Cecily Saunders, who is no longer interested in Mahon now that he is damaged goods. The novel does contain several secondary characters, like Januarius Jones, who is an easy one to love to hate, but the main story sticks with the primary characters.
This is not a strange story, but rather one that many young Americans experienced because America at the time was practicing the Isolationist Doctrine, believing that if we just left everyone alone and dealt with our own domestic problems, then no one would bother us or the world at large. (Sound familiar?) If you've ever watched every girl's second favorite movie Pearl Harbor, a young Ben Affleck does just this very thing during the Second World War because America had gone back to being an Isolationist country and wanting to stay out of any conflict and once again deal with just our own domestic problems then everyone will just leave us alone. This experience, the one of becoming an RAF pilot, is one that Faulkner knew well because he did the same and is able to write about it with vivid detail.
This novel was not an easy read. Often times, I would have to read a section several times before I understood exactly what was happening and to whom. It is written very similarly to how Fitzgerald's first, This Side of Paradise, is in that it is goes from mental thoughts to dialogue and real time actions, past, present and future all at once and then contains poems and letters dispersed throughout. To be honest, I almost gave up on it several times, but am so glad I did not. It was not particularly a great read. However, the ache of the father in beholding his injured son (This was Donald, my son. He is dead.) was so vivid and raw that it brought me to tears several times and the frustration of Gilligan with everyone's reaction to the war, to Donald, and finally to him is one that is echoed in many of the American writer's of the 20's and still feels fresh if you listen to a returning soldier from Iraq or Afghanistan. And lastly the need to feel like you are worth something and doing something that matters was also very strongly written through the character of Mrs. Powers. And her ache for the soldier she married on impulse due to his shipping off and then the loss of him so shortly afterwards is also very strongly written.
Books like this aren't fun to read, but that is exactly the real reason for literature is it? I feel I learn so much about writing and America just by reading them. I would suggest reading this because I feel you will also learn as I did. It will also let you follow Faulkner's progression from the timid writer of poems to the master craftsman that he would become (or so as I've heard).
Happy reading and now onto his second novel, Mosquitoes,
David
