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Two Soldiers

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Abandoning the style which shapes many of his novels, with their complex narration, their use of stream of consciousness, and their unexpected shifts back and forth in time, William Faulkner here tells a clear, unambiguous, and warmly human story of a Mississippi farm family's response to the bombing of Pearl Harbor. The two Grier brothers--an unnamed narrator, who is eight, and his older brother Pete, who is twenty--listen to a neighbor's radio on the night that Pearl Harbor is bombed and the country becomes embroiled in World War II. The narrator is too naive to know where Pearl Harbor is, or even what an ocean is, but he adores his older brother and through him comes to understand what nobility means.

Pete decides to enlist. His father, the other "soldier" in the story, is strongly opposed to this. He himself waited to be drafted until the final days of World War I, and he spent only a few reluctant months in the service--in Texas. Pete, however, feels an obligation to serve his country, the same kind of obligation he feels toward his land, the ten acres his father has given him. His father, always behind in his chores and his farm work, does not understand his son's motivation, though the young narrator is proud of his brother's sense of service. The mother, also opposed, recognizes that serving is the right thing for her son to do, and, through her tears, she helps him pack.

The day after his brother leaves Frenchman's Bend for Memphis, the narrator follows him by foot and by train, and he finally arrives, only to discover that his brother is about to go to Little Rock. In a wonderfully poignant scene, Pete talks with him about the importance of doing what is right at the right time of one's life, convincing the narrator to return home.

Christopher L. King, who tells the story on audio, has the perfect blend of soft southern drawl combined with a warmth of manner that makes the young narrator come alive. He takes the role of the little brother seriously and never patronizes, imbuing his performance with an honesty which is refreshing. He maintains the dignity which the young boy deserves, never suggesting that the boy is overreacting to the loss of his brother. In the course of the story, the listener clearly hears the young narrator growing up emotionally, but, in the conclusion, recognizes that he is still an eight-year-old boy. Written in 1942, this wonderful story is the prelude to Faulkner's continuation of the Grier family's story in "Shall Not Perish" (1943). n Mary Whipple

Collected Stories of William Faulkner
The Cambridge Introduction to William Faulkner (Cambridge Introductions to Literature)
Three Famous Short Novels: Spotted Horses Old Man The Bear
Uncollected Stories of William Faulkner