The Hamlet (1940)

For years I procrastinated about reading Faulkner. I was intimidated, I guess, by what I'd heard about the difficulty of the language, although generally I'm not put off by such things. And it just so happened that through high school, undergrad and even an English Lit MA, I syllabus containing Faulkner never crossed my path. At any rate, at age 56 I finally decided to start with the Snopes Trilogy, of which The Hamlet is the first novel. And, wow, am I sorry I waited so long.

Not really novel in the classic sense, The Hamlet, rather tells a series of interweaving stories with a core set of characters moving throughout and an interchanging series of part-time players revolving around them. This is life in small town deep South in the late 19th/early 20th centuries: grim, ruthless and hard, with a few hesitant glimmers of grace woven in. The writing hurtles headlong with with dense, flowing language, memorable characters and beautiful, lush descriptions of nature and location that serve as much to set the tone of the characters' actions and frames of mind as it does to offer an acute sense of place and time.

Obviously, many others have written at greater length and with greater scholarship about Faulkner. I'm just saying I loved this, and if there were dense spots at times, I learned to let the language loft me floating over them rather than trying to hack my way through them. I'm looking forward, at the very least, to the rest of this trilogy. ( )

The Hamlet is the first book in the Snopes Trilogy, and works quite well as a standalone novel. It is typical Faulkner fare-- wonderful writing and superb insight into the dysfunctional Southern psyches and societies. For me, The Hamlet feel short of many of his other novels, in that the structure was less clean, almost episodic at times (perhaps some of the loose ends get resolved in the sequels??). Some scenes were a bit over the top and unbelievable as well. But if you like Faulkner, this won't disappoint-- the characters are especially memorable. I do plan to read The Town and The Mansion later this year. 3.75 stars. ( )

Difficult, but an entertaining and worthwhile read. As strange as it sounds, I'd say that the more quickly you read this, the more of an impact it will carry and the more engaged you'll be able to become with the text. At the same time, there is some disturbing material here--violence and sex based--so I wouldn't recommend the text for young readers or readers who are easily offended. As always, though, Faulkner's language is faultless, and some of the passages in this book are the most lyrical that I've seen from him. If you've liked other works by Faulkner, this is a must-read. Recommended regardless for fans of southern literature and explorations in oral story-telling, as well as readers who've enjoyed the grotesques created by Carson McCullers and Flannery O'Connor. ( )

Four episodes limning the rise of the Snopes family, one of which is "The Long Hot Summer." Anyone who has seen the movie (or the '60's era TV series) will be very, very startled if they expect the steamy sex they saw on the screen. Steamy sex there is, but I doubt if a faithful film version would star Paul Newman, Joanne Woodward, or Lee Remick. Orson Welles, perhaps -- but as the cow. ( )

Ah, the South. the story? the story is of a small little crook in the road really, in Mississippi, right at about the time of the beginning of the Great Depression. not that anyone there knew it was the Great Depression; they were too poor to tell. When your entire worldly belongings consist of one set of clothes to a person, one set of mismatched shoes for five people to share, a pot, a brush with no handle, and a hammer head with no claw tails set upon a stick of firewood... yeah, well, Wallstreet is nothing but a name to you. literally ;)

there is not really a main main character, but ostensibly one could claim this is the chronicle of the origins of Flem Snopes, a crusty frog-like individual who raises himself from an incredibly impoverished and common enough beginning to the highest possible level in that society, by way of his own bootstraps and heartless, almost soulless, manipulation of other people and their expectations. since the trilogy is called the Snopes trilogy, and since the last scene of the book includes Flem and his new wife and child leaving to set up in Jefferson, I'm pretty sure I'm justified in saying so.

;) ( )