This book, The Reivers: A Reminiscence, is the starkest shift in Faulkner's style that I have noticed since that occurring between Soldiers' Pay and Mosquitoes and the Sound & the Fury. It seems that the reason behind this may be the fact that it is a first-person account, narrated as a story. Of course, The Sound & the Fury was primarily in first-person, and As I Lay Dying was completely first-person. But each of these were lacking the light-hearted, story-telling quality seen in The Reivers.
The fact that this novel is told as a story perfectly complements its status as a "Reminiscence." The main character is spanning his coming-of-age years, while also, at times, giving the reader (or, in this case, listener would perhaps be a better designation) an explanation of years prior and beyond. I was rather touched by the fact that Faulkner referred to this novel as a reminiscence. So many of our old Yoknapatawpha friends and acquaintances were mentioned, especially those mentioned in Go Down, Moses. It seems that not only was the main character, Lucius Priest, reminiscing, but Faulker himself was revisiting those old friends and histories, while musing on potentialities of the future, of Yoknapatawpha County.
Of course, this book was also the most technologically aware of Faulkner's, at least as far as I can tell. Not only do Faulkner's characters venture to the city for a large portion of the novel, but there is a long explanation of the first automobile in Jefferson. Henry Ford is even mentioned, giving the first link (that I have noticed) to a prominient figure from the known-world.
I found the character of Boon Hogganback an interesting one, at least in his relation to the automobile. Boon pretty much just appears out of the wilderness. He seems to belong to the wild in a sense: he materialized from there, he has a sensitivity to the horses he handles at the livery. But, by golly, he is the first to jump on the automobile bandwagon. Perhaps he represents something in the shift from the natural to the progressive?
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i love the fact that this is a "reminiscence" too. There's a nostalgic feel to it, which I interpret as a good one, not a nostalgia full of doom and gloom. Perhaps the car is a symbol of progression, and yes progression falls into the hands of the wrong people from time to time, but just because it's stolen away for a moment doesn't mean it's totally gone. I was nostalgic with this novel, too, because I used to go to Memphis all the time when I was little. It was like the "big town" just an hour and a half away from where I lived with malls, restaurants, and tall buildings- a place of wonder and excitement. Maybe it was this way for Faulkner too.
ReplyDeleteI think that the construct of The Reivers as a reminiscence is a key part of it's overall theme. In it, Faulkner brings back characters in Yoknapatawpha from other books and ties them into this story. Boon was seen in Go Down Moses, and Luscius, along with Ned, are somehow related to the Edmond/McCaslin family from Go Down Moses as well. Further, we are again privy to the goings on inside Miss Reba's brothel, first seen in Sactuary. Though The Reivers does not tie up every lose end or provide any significant means of "closure" for the people of Yoknaptawpha, it brings the reader, and quite possibly Faulkner himself, on a ride down memory lane.
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