A Fable (original 1950; edition 1954)

On May 26, 1956, I said of this book: "Details a stoppage of fighting in France in 1918. We have not yet met the prototype of Christ. Or is prototype the right word? I guess not." On May 27 I said: "A Fable is very good, and the Faulkner power is astounding. i don't pretend it is all clear, but the picture painted and the story told moves and excites me. The parallels to Christ are a little astonishing to me, and to avoid being offended one must not identicalize the corporal and Christ." On June 3 I said: "Finished A Fable. The corporal's body was blown out of its grave by a shell and later was placed as France's Unknown Soldier. The story was absorbing, but of course the meaning misses me. I see the symbolism, the parallels, but what of it? I am not enlightened." ( )

Tough to follow the plot. ( )

A Fable is William Faulkner’s later books which he took ten years to write. Its set in World war 1. A regimen mutinies and decides not to fight, which brings the entire war to a halt. It is found out that the mutiny was orchestrated by a corporal and twelve of his followers. The entire regimen is arrested and brought to the headquarters and await their punishment.

The chief commander of the armies, a man of high birth, is the father of the corporal. The chief commander implores the corporal to flee and promises to help him. The corporal in defiance chooses death rather than betrayal of his cause.

Conceptually the story is interesting but Faulkner has’nt done adequate justice to it. Long sentences and tangent story lines make the original story loose its momentum. The author could have told the same story using half the words more effectively. ( )

I've read all of Faulkner's novels and stories. I saved this for last, hoping that by reading all his other works I'd be prepared to tackle this. But by jings, this thing was too much for even me. I slogged through the whole thing, but I didn't take much away from it. There are some moments of brilliance tucked away. A part of his Nobel Prize speech is tucked away in here, but it's one of his only books I won't reread. ( )

I give up on Faulkner. I mean it. I gave him a last chance with this book, which really had a plot that intrigued me. Faulkner is not bad at plotting. Here, a corporal inspires his regiment to lay down their arms and refuse to continue fighting in the waning days of World War I. The cover tips off the many allusions in the story to the final days of Christ, although as a comparison it is a stretch. And some bits are over the top, such as the barbed wire that has become entangled around the corporal's head as he falls, pierced by bullets. The book is larded with confusing and extraneous side stories. Typically, many of Faulkner's sentences go on for a page and a half - EVEN DIALOGUE! It took me a month to sludge through this book; I lost track of the many side stories frequently, and I just. didn't. care. Never again. There is, however, a redeeming passage on pg. 350: "...and between grief and nothing only the coward takes nothing." Goodbye, Mr. Faulkner. ( )