The Reivers (1962)

Another one I would probably enjoy if I ever get around to re-visiting it. I was a teenager working in the library when I picked it up, and classics just weren't my thing. ( )

ok, I'm officially over my Faulkner phobia. I "had" to read something by him because he's on both the Pulitzer (2 times) and Nobel lists. I started with his last novel, The Reivers, for which he won the Pulitzer in 1963 and I loved it. Set in the very early 20th century in the American South, The Reivers tells the tale of an 11 year old boy who is taken on a trip to Memphis by his grandfather's driver who "borrows" grandfather's car while the boy's parents and grandparents are out of town for a funeral. On the way to Memphis they discover that a black stable hand, Ned, has hidden himself in the car in order to join them on the trip. Once in Memphis complications arise including Ned trading the car for a race horse who has never won and the ensuing scheme to win back the car. The book is suspenseful, funny and a total delight to read.

The only downside to the book for me was personal. I have a very unusual name. I've only met 3 other "Reba's" in my life and have never encountered one in literature...until now. One of the main characters in The Reivers is a madam, named Miss Reba. At least she has a heart of gold :-)

By the way, the fly leaf of the book says that "reive" means "to take away by stealth or force; plunder". ( )

The Reivers, written at the end of William Faulkner's life, is a picaresque tale of a young boy's coming of age. There is a certain resemblance to aspects of Huckleberry Finn in the adventures and friendships of young Lucius Priest. Lucius, an eleven year old boy is sensitive and intelligent, but innocent of the rougher side of life and ready for adventure when Boon Hogganbeck, a simple man, and Ned William McCaslin Jefferson Missippi (a Negro referred to as Ned) steal Lucius' grandfather's car and head off for Memphis with Lucius in tow. The presence of cars in this early twentieth-century tale suggests the many changes in society that would occur later in the century. This story seems to be suspended in time, sometimes a time that feels like it never was, except in someone's imagination.
The encounters Lucius has over the next few days are as exciting as those of Huck and they lead him to meditate on his own innocence and its loss. Early on he recognizes this thinking, "You see? I was doing the best I could. My trouble was, the tools I had to use. the innocence and the ignorance: I not only didn't have strength and knowledge, I didn't even have time enough."(p 55) Later in their adventures, after Ned has traded the stolen car for a race horse, Lucius reflects further, "It was too late. Maybe yesterday, while I was still a child, but not now. I knew too much, had seen too much. I was a child no longer now; innocence and childhood were forever lost, forever gone from me."(p 175)

The novel is not all serious moments of reflection like these; for there is the excitement of the horse races, Lucius' friendship with the Corrie, the prostitute, and his experience with the negro old Possum and his family. The adventures, while real for Lucius, seem to exist in a fairy tale world as the fun overshadows any sense of danger. Through it all there are just enough ties to Faulkner's earlier work through genealogy and character (Ned was present in several tales of Go Down, Moses) to make this a fitting bookend to his career. In it you see a mature author brilliantly developing yet another view of a young boy's coming of age. ( )

Scottish for robbers, The Reivers blends a tangle of genealogies - everyone seems to have some blood link to someone else, with a complicated, detail packed plot and lots of run-on, rambling conversations. The Reivers is told from the point of view of eleven year old Lucious Priest. He gets involved in first the theft of Grandfather's automobile, then after running away to Memphis, prostitutes, horse smuggling and the long arm of the law. In the beginning I found plot and dialog cumbersome. It took me several chapters to get into the cadence of Faulkner's writing, but once I settled in and became familiar with his style it was highly enjoyable. ( )

983 The Reivers A Reminiscence, by William Faulkner (read 30 Nov 1968) (Pulitzer Fiction prize in 1963) This was a book which I appreciated much less than other Faulkner book I have read. I think it was given a Pulitzer just because Faulkner had never won one and it was felt such an important writer should have been given a Pulitzer prize. ( )