A Review: Three Famous Short Novels: Spotted Horses / Old Man / The Bear

Title of Work: Three Famous Short Novels: Spotted Horses / Old Man / The Bear
Author: William Faulkner
Format:
Published: 1958
Started:
Finished: 2022-10-28\

Posted: Goodreads
Rating: 3/5

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All three stories had large sections I found beautifully written. Deep and rich, each with distinct and palpable setting. I was present in the corral with the horses, I was careening down engorged tributaries of the Mississippi, and I sat frozen in the dawn air of a familiar forest as The Bear stalked into view.

Of the three, I was least invested in “Spotted Horses”, most invested in “The Bear”, and felt “Old Man” was most consistently enjoyable although less so than the best parts of “The Bear”. The first half of “The Bear” was as riveting as it was gorgeous, after which was a loooooooong section of near Biblical genealogy and accounting of debts and slave ownerships “handwritten” and read in broken sequences from a ledger. I skimmed a bit here, I won’t lie.

Faulkner is a painfully skilled writer. Sometimes I think he was so good that he got tired of beautiful, mesmerizing writing and delved into stylistic and structural experimentation for the fun of it. These diversions, while interesting for their ambition and novelty, are simply less enjoyable to me than his more plot motivated and beautiful efforts.