Intruder in the Dust. [Paperback]

William Faulkner (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: August 1972

The story of an elderly black farmer arrested for the murder of a white man and threatened by a lynch mob in America's Deep South. A characteristically Faulknerian tale of dark omen, its sole ray of hope the character of a young white boy who repays on old favour by proving the farmer's innocence.

--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Product Details

• Paperback: 247 pages
• Publisher: Random House Inc (T) (August 1972)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0075536625
• ISBN-13: 978-0075536628
• Product Dimensions: 7.5 x 4.5 x 0.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 6.4 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 3.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (48 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #9,633,716 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

20 of 22 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Bill's Whodunit, December 30, 2002

By 

sweetmolly (RICHMOND, VA USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Intruder in the Dust (Paperback)

"Intruder in the Dust" wraps a fine mystery around and through a story that could only happen in Faulkner country, yet is a timeless monument to man's stubbornness, stupidity and honor. Mr. Faulkner enfolds his prose around you like kudzu and makes you part of his world.

In a small Mississippi town in 1948, black Lucas Beauchamp is wrongfully arrested for shooting white Vinson Cowrie in the back. Sixteen-year old Charles Mallison owes Lucas a debt of honor incurred four years ago. Lucas hires Charles' cynical uncle, Gavin Stevens, to defend him. The most pressing matter is not Lucas' guilt or innocence; it is keeping him from getting lynched before he is arraigned. Lucas is a nightmare of a client. He is stubborn, stiff necked and proud. He dresses like an old time plantation owner and neither owes nor accepts favors from anyone. Uncle Gavin is trying to save Lucas' neck while Charles is trying to clear him. Gavin laments that Lucas would be easier to keep alive if "he would just ACT like a n----r." This Lucas refuses to do. There is body snatching, graveyards at night and some thoroughly frightening characters to liven up the journey.

Another reviewer mentioned "drunk on his prose," and it is a very apt description. It works best if read aloud; you will find Faulkner's rhythm and make it your own. The long sentences don't trouble if you just let his prose carry you along. Mr. Faulkner thinks any southern woman over 35 years old is a secret Amazon of quiet strength and fortitude, which makes for interesting characters, but is a little hard on credibility. There is long section on how "outsiders" (read "Northerners") have interfered and thereby delayed integration. However true or false this may be, it slowed the story down and seemed tacked on.

"Intruder in the Dust" is not generally ranked with "premier" Faulkner ("Light in August," "Absalom, Absalom!"), but it stands on its own as a fine read and certainly is one of his best post-WWII books.
-sweetmolly-Amazon Reviewer

23 of 26 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A near-classic, May 18, 2000

By 

Tim Weber (Iowa) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Intruder in the Dust (Paperback)

No it's not one of Faulkner's "big four" (the classics "The Sound and the Fury," "As I Lay Dying," "Light in August" and "Absalom! Absalom!"), but "Intruder in the Dust" is certainly in his next tier of top novels, and is the one book that can fly in the face of the "he never wrote anything great after World War II" way of thinking. I enjoyed this book immensely. Yes, the sentences tend to be extremely long and the book is slow to get going, but find Faulkner's rhythm and stick with the story; you'll be glad you did. As always, the highlight is Faulkner's beautiful use of language, which always towers over whatever story he's writing and whatever flaws you may stumble upon along the way. This story of a black man wrongly accused of murder doesn't always go where you think it will or even where you want it to, but somehow it works brilliantly. Faulkner throws in his take (apparently) on how the South should handle civil rights on its own -- not really necessary to include and a small flaw in the book, I think. But stick with it, get drunk on the prose and enjoy an underappreciated work from a master. This relatively short book will be over too soon.

15 of 17 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Southern mystery, Faulkner style, October 15, 2004

By 

A.J. (Maryland) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Intruder in the Dust (Paperback)

After twenty years of writing experimental fiction and Hollywood screenplays, Faulkner seemed destined to create a novel like "Intruder in the Dust"--a noir-ish mystery set in Yoknapatawpha County, Mississippi, that incorporates his signature prose style into a continuing commentary on race relations in the South. The premise of the accusation of a black man for the murder of a white man may seem too facile, but the novel does not rely solely or even primarily on plot-driven intrigue; it is the criminal aspect only as it relates to the prevalent social attitudes that generates interest.

One day a local white man named Vinson Gowrie is found shot to death, and a black man named Lucas Beauchamp is arrested at the scene and charged with the murder. In this part of the country at this time in history, a black man who is even suspected of murdering a white man is in danger of being lynched, especially by people like Gowrie's relatives, who are from a particularly rough and bloodthirsty enclave living in an area called Beat Four.

The story is told in the third person but from the viewpoint of a white boy named Charles "Chick" Mallison, who in the past has tried to befriend the solitary but kind Beauchamp and is convinced of his innocence. With the help of his uncle Gavin Stevens, a lawyer who decides to represent Beauchamp, his black friend Aleck Sander, and an elderly spinster named Miss Habersham, Chick investigates the matter and discovers, unsurprisingly, that there is more to the case than initially meets the eye.

This sounds like generic pulp detective stuff, and indeed there is not much to say about the plot except that it involves a lumber scam, quicksand, a false grave, and a real culprit who is not too bright; but what makes this novel worth reading is the insight it gives about how easily in this milieu a black man can conveniently take the heat for a white man's crime, regardless of provability of guilt, and the ethical implications that arise from this situation. There is a particular manner in which the characters communicate with each other that reveals this information, conveying Faulkner's sublime sense of the range of personal moralities.

Faulkner has several narrative modes at his disposal, and the one he chooses here is similar to that of "Absalom! Absalom!", employing impossibly long and syntactically deformed run-on sentences that compress copious visual detail into quickly moving scenic impressions. This technique could annoy many, but for those who know how to "read" Faulkner, it may be accepted as a characteristic part of the package. I'd place "Intruder in the Dust" somewhat below "Sanctuary" as an aesthetic achievement, but I still commend it as satisfying, like that tasty last bit of dessert after a full meal.