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. ( )

One of my perennial complaints is the dumbing down of reading lists for the summer months. Why must one be merely entertained and not challenged simply because it is warm out.

Well, somehow, I found myself with a Faulkner, usually the height of erudition, that nonetheless qualifies as a 'summer read', and having a rollicking good time with a book that bears more resemblance to Huck Finn with big words than to, say, Light in August or the Sound and the Fury. An 11 year old car thief in a brothel planning a horse race. A horse race that careens out of hand, culminating in double-or-nothing outrageousness. A plot that drives on, passing by the usual Faulknerian detours.

The depth of this work (and it is not devoid) is in the perfection of its tableau of life in north Mississippi and west Tennessee 100 years ago; other Faulkner works challenge that society, plumb its conflicts, and explore its inner workings - the Reivers simply lays it out there with a little chuckle, a little 'heh, heh, heh' (which is the refrain used by Ned, the stablehand lurking in the background as the novel opens but driving the action forward by the end of the book) and a shake of the head. Yes, Faulkner can't resist a bit of philosophizing, and his indelible stamp is indeed on the book's relatively stark though still floriforous language. But the book stays with the action - this is a page turner.

The range of Faulkner's work continues to amaze me, from film scripts to simple short stories to absolute masterworks of fiction. And this, my dears, is Faulkner's 'beach read'. Now, I must go pick up Absalom, Absalom or I'll start to feel guilty as well as amused. ( )

Substance: Less a coming-of-age story than one of pummeling innocence into submission. Of the three main characters, only 11-year-old Lucius retains his honour, if not his ignorance. The machinations of the older boys (one hesitates to call them adults despite their age) are amusing, but unnecessarily convoluted.
Style: Faulkner evokes the time-and-place-and-people convincingly, but confusingly. Chapter 1 would flunk any first-year college student, and at no time do all the family relationships and history come clear. ( )

A Faulkner novel where everything turns out all right! The white farmhand, the black stableboy, and the grandson of the town's scion steal granddad's precious car, and wind up in a whorehouse in Memphis. Somehow the car is traded for a horse, then the horse must win a race so our protagonists can win back the car. All hell breaks lose when granddad shows up. What's not to love?