Customer Reviews

A Fable

5 star:		(10)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(4)
1 star:		(3)

 

 

I must agree that, at times, the experience of reading _A Fable_ is much like feeling one's way through a very dark tunnel. However, there is indeed a light at the end of that tunnel; as with many of Faulkner's works, the individual stories that make up the novel dont come together until the last hundred or so pages. It takes a very patient reader to glean the important details from the beginning and middle of the novel, and to remember those details when they emerge again later in the book. One must also be fairly well-acquainted with Christ's passion in order for a true understanding of the correlation to reveal itself (which, in many places, it didn't for me). Contrary to the book's selling-points, Faulkner is not merely retyping the Christ story in _A Fable_. He's updating a myth (or "fable," if you will), and using his narration to describe humanity's condition in mid-century (cf. many paragraphs w/ 1950 Nobel Prize speech). This is a long, tedious, and fanatically detailled narrative, but a great novel that pays off with a terrific closing 50 pages for the patient reader. Both the new and the acquainted should be prepared for Faulkner at his most brilliant and difficult.

It seems every modernist attempted to write a great work concerning the great war (except fitzgerald, who didnt get to go himself). Faulkner's attempt may be second only to Hemingway's "A Farwell to Arms." "A Fable" is classic, which won the pulitzer prize,has long been overlooked simply because it represents a change from Faulkner'susual subject matter. In reality though, it may be his second greatest work behind "the sound and the fury." THis work is a brillian anti-war novel that looks at wars affects both on soldiers and civilians, and even on religion. A must read for any fan of Faulkner or modernism.

I am not entirely sure why this book recieved some of the lousy reviews it did. This book is brilliant, it requires more from the reader than passive reading, so if you are looking for a story you don't have to think about look elsewhere. Anyone familiar with post-Great War literature will find this book to be par for the course. Dos Passos's "Three Soldiers", comes easily to mind. Don't pay attention to the other reviews, this book won awards for a good reason. If you read the book and find yourself frustrated go back and reread sections. Literature is not always meant to be read in a passive state. This book requires active reading and should not be taken lightly. This book does carry a message about the horrors of war, but also our own individual responsibilty in allowing those horrors to go forward.

At nine o'clock one morning in the spring of 1918, a regiment of the French army - every man below the rank of sergeant - refuses to take part in a futile assault on the German position. Strangely, the German line opposite fails to take advantage of the situation with a counter-attack, and by noon that day no shots are fired along the entire French line. By three o'clock in the afternoon, the entire western front has fallen silent. It emerges that a saintly French corporal, together with his twelve apostles, has been making the rounds of the Allied forces (and apparently the German forces too) spreading by word and deed a gospel of non-violence and universal brotherhood. The troops, it seems, have understood that they can stop the killing simply by laying down their arms. Naturally, this is anathema to the military hierarchies on both sides, who (tipped off by the Judas among the disciples) are already making covert plans to resume hostilities. The generals, after all, have a living to make and a war to run.

"A Fable" is an allegorical novel about the conflicting impulses that exist within each one of us. The French corporal represents man's impulse towards unconditional love and brotherhood; or, to put it another way, he's the "champion of an esoteric realm of man's baseless hopes and his infinite capacity - no: passion - for unfact". Like Jesus, the corporal holds out the light of selfless love to humanity, but he's doomed to suffer the consequences. For within every man, too, lives the desire to get on in the world, an egotism which produces conflict, wars and armies. This impulse - represented in the novel by supreme Allied general, who is the corporal's father and the author of the quote above - will always conquer in the world of brute facts, will always prevail, but the example that Christ and Faulkner's corporal offer to humanity can never be extinguished. "I'm not going to die," says one of the corporal's disciples at the end of the book. "Never."

"A Fable" is a difficult, audacious and profound book. If complex meditations on the human condition are your idea of a good time, give this one a try.

This is what I would say to people considering purchasing his novel, it is not a short review (nor a short novel!) but I hope it is helpful to some of you. Note, I wrote this review prior to reading other folk's reviews, as not to be biased. Note II, please excuse my poor grahmer and spelling, if I could write as well as I could read well...

I've spent the last 5 years studying all of Faulkner's written works, an experience that has been very rewarding personally. For me A Fable was as rewarding a read as any of WCF's other works... but then again I purposely left this novel to the very end of my list of his major novels & short stories and feel that this choice made a big difference in my ability to extract the most from it. I can crank through a "regular" novel in a day or two and most of WCF's novels in twice that time, but it took me well over a year to "read" a Fable (I took a few breaks here and there too. A Fable can be read in a week, but not read well), almost a third of the total time I dedicated to studying his oeurve. I believe that comprehension of Faulkner's unique talents increases geometrically with each of his works read, with 3 or 4 novels representing the point along the learning "S"-shaped curve that is closest to vertical. What to the beginner would seem an incomprehensible and exceedingly challenging read, eventually becomes smooth and extremely rewarding as you get comfortable with WCF's unconventional style and recurring themes. Without having read them, I can guess that the reviews on this page will be mixed or negative... I hope you will consider my experience with this novel as context for these reviews. Had I just happened upon this novel I would not have finished or enjoyed it. It is a rich work but also requires a commitment of time, energy and focus... the plot, time & place, setting, and even narration can change in an instant leading to a tangled and haphazard appearance. There are plenty of WCF fan's that are smarter than I who consider A Fable one of his lesser works, but then again there are other smart folks that place it among his best. It was clearly an important novel for Faulkner personally and I conclude that in the end it was something he looked on with pride.

While all of WCF's works are studies of the human heart, like many authors Faulkner's literary efforts vacillated between commercial enterprises aimed at satisfying his ambitions for financial security and and some degree of fame or recognition, and, at the opposite pole novels he wrote purely out of his need to express himself without much, if any expectation of publication. After all he got a taste of the work-a-day life in his role as postmaster at Ole Miss and despite the need to support a small family his decision to pursue a literary career was sealed the day he left the Oxford post office to discover the artistic community in New Orleans, if not then, for sure a few weeks later when he met Sherwood Anderson and was encouraged to pursue writing. I believe that A Fable was not primarily intended as a commercial endeavor. For example, early in his career he poured his heart and soul into the production of Sartoris (an early novel that would take another 4+ years to be hacked up and later hesitantly released as The Unvanquished by his editors, only to be published in it's original format after his death), a novel that was a commercial disaster and what must have felt like a personal repudiation of his talent (sadly, WCF never received the notoriety or [secondarily] financial success that he deserved while alive... in my view he was a man that was sensitive to the views of others, although no so much as to allow others to stifle his creative expression). Out of the period of intense introspection and frustration that followed this professional tragedy, two of his more celebrated novels, The Sound and The Fury & As I Lay Dying were written in only a few months... obviously not written for mass appeal.

Before you buy this book, think about this; Many of the author's most complex and celebrated works were completed in months. Faulkner took 10 years to write, re-write and perfect A Fable. Many aspects of its production, and additionally the setting and tone of the novel are outliers. Sure, he took a break now and then to, for example, finish off the Snopes trilogy and spent a lot of time in Hollywood during that decade. But if you look at a timeline of his productive career, it is clear that this novel had tremendous meaning and relevance to him... it was a special project. Everyone should ask themselves what they want out of this novel before getting started. If you are looking for just a entertaining book to get lost in, I think you will be very disappointed and probably will not make it through more than a few "chapters." In my opinion, this is a book where each page should be read twice, slowly, and with meticulous attention. Make it easy on yourself and take notes on the characters, narrators, times and places... you will to refer back to them later. Then you should read it again. Taken for what it is, I believe it is one of Faulkner's more touching and meaningful works and one of the most thought provoking novels on the nature of war. I agree with the professional critics that this novel is more dry than many of his other novels (ranging from light, easy reads to very dark novels), such as The Reivers (Faulkner's sense of humor was never a big draw for me, but certain novels like Reivers are a pleasure to breeze through while others are a very dense. Note that the Reivers was published after A Fable), but A Fable has all of the intensity of Absalom, Absalom! (maybe less than Go Down, Moses in my view, but let's just say it is intense). The story of the three-legged race horse is classic Faulkner, and gives you a taste of Yoknapatawpha as well as some lighter reading in an otherwise very foreign setting and dense work. It may also help for readers to understand a bit of Faulkner's personal history before they take this on. War left an indelible mark on his psyche. During the first World War he was not found fit for service with the branch of the US armed forces to which he applied, and joined the Canadian Air Force instead, but never saw combat. I can't help but feel that his development into adulthood during WWI contributed to his desire to tackle this subject. In many, if not the majority of his works, most notably Soldier's Pay, he deals with the subject of war and often with young men's ambition for glory... this novel is no different being set in WWI. In fact, A Fable is rife with themes that run through his other works... themes that and are quickly sniffed out by readers familiar with his works. What makes A Fable special - aside from it's very allegorical/symbolical plot (which may make it one of WCF's most interesting works for literary scholars to dissect, but does not add tremendously in its appeal for me)- is that Faulkner attempts/struggles to distill earlier themes dealing with the human condition to their absolute core then confront his audience with hem... I believe this is a departure from some of his other works in the degree to which he demands his audience to look inward. He crosses a new boundary by challenging our views on courage, human suffering, compassion, the absence of love/compassion, religion, leadership, conflict, social status, and on and on. This is one of the factors that makes the novel great. One weakness, is that some of the characters (especially many military figures) do not feel as real, tangible or human versus those in his other works, although many of them will immediately feel familiar to the reader and pop out of the pages with the same quality of characters in his other works.

In summary, I would recommend taking on a few other WCF novels (The Wild Palms is Faulkner's most under-rated novel, and among his most touching works. It is an easy read, and can be read and enjoyed by WCF novices with ease, especially since -much like A Fable- it is not a part of the Yoknapatawpha series) before diving into A Fable. If you chose to go for it, understand that this is a rich, dense and at times confusing novel that most people will not finish... so take the time to soak in all the richness and remember it is natural to feel lost in the plot in your first read, just keep moving forward a let go of the need to feel centered in the plot the first time around. Then you can decide for yourself if it was worth the decade of effort he sunk into its production.

*****

- CW

You don't read Faulkner as much as you work your way through Faulkner; at least that's my experience. The sentences are often over a page long, the punctuation is highly arbitrary, the spelling is suspect, the words are frequently archaic or unfamiliar (sometimes almost unheard of), the concepts are convoluted, the stories are never straight-forward, and it is often hard to know who he is even talking about at various points. He makes references to literature, myths, the Bible and other things without attempting to hint what he is talking about. This book is Faulkner at his most obtuse and bizarre, and best!. All of this can be very off-putting, but this is just Faulkner being Faulkner!

Why in the world should anyone even read this book? Good question! If you love Faulkner, by all means read it. If you are unfamiliar with Faulkner, give it a shot, but beware! He did win a Pulitzer Prize for the book in 1954, so it is supposed to be good - maybe that's one reason. You're curious about one of the greatest writers of the 20th century, a Nobel Prize winner for literature - that's another good reason.

I really like Faulkner. I've read 6 or 7 of his major works over my lifetime and am never failed to be fascinated by him. (My Faulkner favorite is 'A Light in August', which is also one of my all-time favorites of any book by any author.) I have no idea how his mind can generate the kind moods and slants on things that it does, and I actually like not knowing where he is going. I am fascinated by his use of the language, the crackling dialogue, his exquisitely passionate and elongated style, as well as his brilliant dry humor. Although I am NOT in love with his existentialist outlook, I confess it can make for great stories, some of which are very tall stories as well.

'A Fable' is about WWI, instead of his usual subject, the Old South. Surprisingly, it takes place in France for the most part instead of Mississippi, although an intriguing flash-back takes place in the South. It is about a heroic individual attempt to bring WWI to end by peaceful means. There is a lot of potent Christian symbolism embedded in the story. (Faulkner, I believe, was very familiar with the Bible even though he probably was not a believer.)

Bottom line is that I thought this was a great book, but cannot vouch for its readability. I can only say that, in my opinion, Faulkner being Faulkner is worth the considerable effort if you are willing to go there.

I generally like and admire Faulkner's work, but this novel (or whatever it is) got the better of me. Usually I make myself finish any book I read no matter how difficult, but with "A Fable" I simply couldn't do it (and I've managed the entirety of James Joyce's "Ulysses" and Proust's "Remembrance of Things Past".) I may have a Master's Degree in English, but I still had great trouble following what was going on in the book, much less appreciating what it was trying to say. It's amazing to me that the Pulitzer Prize committee could even manage to get through this thing, much less give it an award. I haven't given up on Faulkner, but for the first time since I was a college undergraduate, I've given up on a book. It took "A Fable" to bring me to my knees.

For some reason, this book gets slogged off as "unreadable" and even irrelevant in the Faulkner canon. I don't get it. Faulkner is almost ALWAYS difficult, his novels usually closer to puzzles than straight narratives. Why has this book been singled out as the height of his obtuseness? If anything, it's an even MORE lucid book than some of the agreed upon Faulkner classics. It's also a brilliant, provocative, dense, and haunting meditation on war and religion and duty and ethics and whatever else W.F. could cram into 500 pages. It's not a perfect book - there are perhaps some too-abstract and off-putting sections (particularly the long background summary of the Old General). But this book is mostly filled with some of the greatest writing of this great writer's career. Another thing: this is NOT a "re-telling of the Christ story in WWI." To think of the book in such terms would be an absurd oversimplification. Yes, that ancient tale plays a major part in this one, and there are parallels drawn throughout, but the Christ story is only one element of this epic fever-dream. This totally unique novel is more like a supernatural/philosophical detective story than a religious parable. If you love Faulkner for more than just the trappings of his Southern landscapes, you MUST read this book. It goes without saying that anybody interested in simple and fluid prose need not bother with Faulkner in the first place - criticizing Faulkner for being "confusing" is like accusing Homer for being "poetic." I don't care how smart you are: you will be confused by Faulkner. But confusion can be beautiful, and human, and even transform into the best kind of enlightenment.

A Fable is Faulkner's thinly disguised allegory of Christ's story in the guise of a mutiny on the Western Front in World War One. In this sense the novel mirrors some of Faulkner's short stories about the Great War. His writing about that conflict had a great deal of grounded verisimilitude. But A Fable contains much of extraneous matter, is a difficult and dense read, and comes in very long 437 pages. This is Faulkner doing all of his tricks. The long, long sentence, the page long paragraph, the dense and tedious plot all but submerged in an ocean of language. Faulkner's work is never for everyone. For A Fable this may be doubly true.

One of Faulkner's finest achievements of almost Dostoevskian intensity, second only to "Absalom, Absalom!", this anti-war novel is a must read for anyone wishing to understand our century.