ABSTRACT
But the story and the characters are not revealed in any conventional fashion. Mr. Faulkner is still experimenting with form; and this is presumably a healthy sign, indicating that he is not yet finished as a novelist and is not likely to be finished for some time, despite the major artistic defects of his two previous books, Light in August (the formal structure of which does not stand the test of rereading) and Pylon
(which is probably the worst of Mr. Faulkner's novels). For this new book, Mr. Faulkner has adopted a strange device: the story is revealed only as it takes form in the understanding of Quentin Compson...• [summarizes Quentin's role, that of 'a Special Listener', and suggests Faulkner's difficult style may obscure the story to the point of being a fault]
Moreover, when Quentin's roommate tells Quentin all over again the parts ofa story which Quentin himselfmust have told to the roommate, then the process seems a little ridiculous. It cannot fail to call to mind the device by which inexperienced dramatists make their exposition of antecedent action, those tense moments in which a husband reminds his wife that they have been married for five years and now have two children.
