Faulkner konnte es eigentlich schon besser...: Es fängt ganz harmlos an, auf der Old-Frenchman-Farm wird Schnaps gebrannt.
Rechtsanwalt Benbow, der sich gerade von seiner Frau getrennt hat, weil er es nicht mehr ertrug, ihr jeden Freitag die Garnelen vom Bahnhof nach Hause zu tragen, stößt in der Nähe der Farm zufällig auf einen der Schnapsbrenner.
Diesen packt die Angst, dass seine heimliche Destille entdeckt werden könnte. Der Verbrecher lässt den Anwalt erst wieder laufen, nachdem er das Versprechen erhält, dass es zu keiner Anzeige kommt.
Benbow ahnt zu diesem Zeitpunkt noch nicht, dass er den Schnapsbrennern noch einmal begegnen wird.
Kurze Zeit später erscheint ein weiterer Besucher mit seiner äußerst attraktiven Freundin auf der Farm, um Schnaps zu kaufen.
Der Mann betrinkt sich direkt vor Ort und bemerkt dabei nicht, welche Begierden seine Freundin bei den illegalen Produzenten freisetzt. Diese Nacht bleibt ereignisreich, denn es geschieht auch noch ein Mord.
Rechtsanwalt Benbow nimmt sich des Falles an und deckt nach und nach die Einzelheiten auf.Obwohl ich mich als recht begeisterten „Faulkner-Leser" einordnen würde und der Roman sicherlich ein recht hohes erzählerisches Niveau erreicht, bin ich der Meinung, dass er doch um Einiges hinter Faulkners großen Werken zurück steht.
Der Leser schmunzelt über manch skurile Schilderung der Ereignisse, muss sich aber auch durch recht langweilige Passagen kämpfen.

This book is one of Faulkner's most accessible, but it is not the poorer because of it. On the contrary, it shows the variety of styles that Faulkner was able to succeed at. Even though this book is fairly straightforward storytelling, it still contains many of Faulkner's favorite themes: obsession, dissolution, perversion, alcoholism, and just plain ol' bad behavior in the context of male and female relations.

It's a story about life in the deep South, and how some outrageous characters get mixed up with some 'regular' folks, and the shocking misadventures that follow. How did they get mixed up? Alcohol, and moonshining, and the little supply and demand problem they had in the 1930's. Don't miss it. ( )

Like most Faulkner I had to reread sections to get what was happening. The sense of foreboding is so heavy that I missed some obvious things. At least 6 fascinating characters, richly developed in a short book. Loved it. ( )

Nabokov called this Faulkner's "corn cobby fantasy." I think he meant to be dismissive in some way. ( )

A corn cob? Hmm... I've been told I'll have to re-read this to actually understand what's going on. ( )

I must admit that I find Faulkner difficult to read. His narrative style requires a lot of focus and concentration. However, this novel is worth it. The dark, brooding sense of the Southern Gothic is readily apparent. You can almost feel the spanish moss dripping off the trees. ( )

I totally missed the rape scene, oops. Supposedly this was Faulkner's sensational potboiler, which is why everybody is always touting its literary merit. ( )

If you are born poor in the USA you lose, especially if you were born in the 1920's in the Deep South. Upper middle class girl Temple Drake -daughter of a judge- and her alcoholic boyfriend get mixed op with some poor white trash family in their search for alcohol, which finally results in the death of an innocent man. I am starting to like Faulkner, this is a really good book, in which he unequivocally chooses sides. Ruby, common law wife of army veteran Goodwin, sketches a damning portrait of Temple and her class: ,,Honest women. Too good to have anything to do with common people. [...] Take all you can get, and give nothing.'' ( )

This grim tale of rape, prejudice and cowardice in small-town Mississippi is written in Faulkner’s brilliant style: equal parts brutal realism and transcendent lyricism, so beautiful and so deep that I often stopped going forward and drowned in a line or a paragraph that took me someplace else entirely. When I came up for air, however, I barreled forward because I really had to know what was going to happen. I am astonished at how well this still plays, 76 years since it was first published, especially as its original intention was to satisfy the tastes of the then-contemporary pulp fiction market. Even at his worst, Faulkner is the best. ( )

Faulkner claimed he wrote this book to be a shocker, in order to make some money from writing. But when it came to actually publishing it, he completely rewrote it, ending with a book still dark and shocking, but now much more than mere pulp. The Library of America's Crime Novels American Noir describes its contents as exploring "themes of crime, guilt, deception, obsessive passion, murder and the disintegrating psyche." All perfectly descriptive of Sanctuary as well, a powerful novel about a sorry lot of people.

This character Popeye was difficult to figure out at first, but the plot accelerates and finishes well. Supposedly Faulkner just wrote this to make money and succeeded. ( )