The Wild Palms

5. The Wild Palms (If I Forget Thee, Jerusalem) by William Faulkner
OPD: 1939
format: 290-page paperback
acquired: 2024 (from Faulkner House in New Orleans) read: Jan 29 – Feb 8 time reading: 11:11, 2.3 mpp
rating: 3
genre/style: classic novel theme: Faulkner
locations: Mississippi , New Orleans, Chicago, Wisconsin, and along the Mississippi River
about the author: 1897-1962. American Noble Laureate who was born in New Albany, MS, and lived most of his life in Oxford, MS.

Hmm. Does it work? This novel is actually two separate stories in each in a kind of distinct contrast. Chapters alternate. One is the story of an impoverished and aspiring, if unenthused, doctor, who abandons his internship to run off with a married woman. She leaves her show more children willing, drawing him away. Her story is about attempting to escape societies expectations by trying to leave society altogether. At one point they spend several months in a seasonally abandoned Wisconsin summer cabin. He wavers between wanting to believe in her goals, and also attempt to make things work. The other story is that of a convict who gets lost during the 1927 Mississippi River flood. He ends up floats down the Mississippi Huck-like, but instead of Jim, he's with a pregnant women nearing labor. He has a sort of parallel experience in an isolated cabin, hunting alligators. The men in these stories each pursue their own logic, and with their own principles, and stick to them to their tragic ends.

There are interesting elements here, including a look at abortion when it was illegal. I got caught up in it in places, especially with the accidentally escaped convict. But I'm not sure this novel was really worked through all the way, and maybe it doesn't work. Reviews online indicate Faulkner wrote the extramarital story first, and felt it was lacking, so he added the escape convict's story to provide some balance and contrast. Weird, but it's not a quick and dirty add. The convict's story may even be the better one. Some reviews find plot connections between the two stories, but I'm not sure they have it right. The connection I found is thin.

One thing I liked about the stories is that they are more straightforward and accessible.

Anyway, a book for Faulkner completists only.

2025
https://www.librarything.com/topic/367331#8764311 show less

Reads like a darker Thomas Wolfe. Not the paeans to the American universe but a full prose that speaks of the hardness, pain, and melancholia of existence in the American land of the early 20th century. Faulkner is insightful and eloquently descriptive in telling his tales of suffering and endurance. I lost the string of each of the stories a couple of times. His transitions were not clear. The endings to both of his stories were chaotic and harsh. But his prose, insights, and depth of thought were impressive.

Faulkner brings together two disparate novellas and creates a distinct whole. The result is more than the sum of its parts. The narratives of "The Old Man" and "The Wild Palms" don't match up exactly, since they aren't directly related.

I would recommend this book to readers interested in Faulkner, since the novel is more commercial and more mainstream in its style.

"Wild Palms" also has the memorable quote: “Between grief and nothing I will take grief." This occurs with the bohemian couple on the run. The quote also appears in Jean-Luc Godard's classic New Wave film "Breathless," also about two bohemians on the run.

"Wild Palms" foreshadows modern American cinema, especially the ones featuring somewhat-interrelated storylines, show more everything fro Steven Soderburgh's "Traffic" to "Babel" and "Crash" (not the David Cronenberg one).

While more accessible to readers, Faulkner is also daring enough to let the reader decide how the two storylines fit together. It isn't explained, not should it be. Sometimes the reader has to make their own decisions and not have everything spelled out for them by The Author. These demands on the reader elevate the novel to something above the standard romantic potboiler. show less

My mother asked me what I thought of it, and mentioned that she thought it sounded kind of "steamy" from the GoodReads summary, so this started out as a comment on her comment and then turned into a general commentary/review so I thought it would make more sense to just make my official comment lol.

I thought it was excellent. there's not really a lot of explicit sex in it, so i wouldn't call it steamy so much as "shocking" in the context of the times. there's a mention of using a douche, there's two abortions (not graphic, nothing like Cider House Rules, thank God), but the purpose of the sex is not for its own sake but to contribute to the realism of the book. the whole point is that there are two stories interpolated with each other, show more and they have absolutely NOTHING to do with each other. there's no crossover of characters, or even types of characters, time, place, etc. there are, however, various themes which are common to both. The name of one story is Wild Palms, and the other is Old Man. I remember my professor telling us what the deal was with the title being "If I Forget Thee, Jerusalem", but I don't remember what it was.… In any case, the Wild Palms story is where the sex takes place, and the realism of the relationship portrayed there is infinitely enhanced by the unequivocal, unapologetic, *unromantic* presence of their sexual acts. show less

This is actually two separate novellas (the other story being "The Old Man"), told in alternating chapters. According to the intro, the two novellas were intended by Faulkner to be printed together in this fashion, and they actually complement each other. I couldn't quite see that, but the style is not really distracting. No, what distracts is Faulkner's literary style, tending toward pompous verbosity. Here (in "The Wild Palms"), he even allows his obfuscatory verbage to infect the dialogue. If I were a character in this story, I'd be liable to yell "What on Earth are you talking about?". And it's really too bad, because both stories are pretty compelling. "The Wild Palms" is about a housewife and mother who impulsively leaves her show more husband for a medical intern, and their struggle to keep the demands of the world from pressing into their pure desire for each other. "The Old Man" is about a convict who inadvertently escapes while being called upon to lend aid during a Mississippi flood, and rescues a pregnant woman who becomes his dazed companion as he attempts to navigate floodwaters over several days. Both stories are powerful and well-plotted, but fatally marred by Faulkner's writing. The final sentence of "The Wild Palms", however, is a masterpiece of bleakly spare philosophy, and perfectly encapsulates the story. show less

The Old Man is very well written, and it is a fantastic story. The Wild Palms, I didn't enjoy so much. Faulkner clearly didn't intend it, but if you ever reread this novel, read each story seperately. It's more enjoyable that way.

Two seemingly unrelated novellas in one book, one about a doctor-turned-bohemian and his adulterous affair with a woman who runs away with him, only to die from a botched abortion, the other about a convict's adventure as he saves a pregnant woman during a horrific flood in Mississippi (he gets ten additional years added to his sentence for his trouble). Well-written, enjoyable, but not a major work. I liked it a great deal.