Intruder in the Dust

Rating:
Summary: Bill's Whodunit
Review: "Intruder in the Dust" wraps a fine mystery around and through a story that could only happen in Faulkner country, yet is a timeless monument to man's stubbornness, stupidity and honor. Mr. Faulkner enfolds his prose around you like kudzu and makes you part of his world.

In a small Mississippi town in 1948, black Lucas Beauchamp is wrongfully arrested for shooting white Vinson Cowrie in the back. Sixteen-year old Charles Mallison owes Lucas a debt of honor incurred four years ago. Lucas hires Charles' cynical uncle, Gavin Stevens, to defend him. The most pressing matter is not Lucas' guilt or innocence; it is keeping him from getting lynched before he is arraigned. Lucas is a nightmare of a client. He is stubborn, stiff necked and proud. He dresses like an old time plantation owner and neither owes nor accepts favors from anyone. Uncle Gavin is trying to save Lucas' neck while Charles is trying to clear him. Gavin laments that Lucas would be easier to keep alive if "he would just ACT like a n----r." This Lucas refuses to do. There is body snatching, graveyards at night and some thoroughly frightening characters to liven up the journey.

Another reviewer mentioned "drunk on his prose," and it is a very apt description. It works best if read aloud; you will find Faulkner's rhythm and make it your own. The long sentences don't trouble if you just let his prose carry you along. Mr. Faulkner thinks any southern woman over 35 years old is a secret Amazon of quiet strength and fortitude, which makes for interesting characters, but is a little hard on credibility. There is long section on how "outsiders" (read "Northerners") have interfered and thereby delayed integration. However true or false this may be, it slowed the story down and seemed tacked on.

"Intruder in the Dust" is not generally ranked with "premier" Faulkner ("Light in August," "Absalom, Absalom!"), but it stands on its own as a fine read and certainly is one of his best post-WWII books.
-sweetmolly-Amazon Reviewer

Rating:
Summary: Southern mystery, Faulkner style
Review: After twenty years of writing experimental fiction and Hollywood screenplays, Faulkner seemed destined to create a novel like "Intruder in the Dust"--a noir-ish mystery set in Yoknapatawpha County, Mississippi, that incorporates his signature prose style into a continuing commentary on race relations in the South. The premise of the accusation of a black man for the murder of a white man may seem too facile, but the novel does not rely solely or even primarily on plot-driven intrigue; it is the criminal aspect only as it relates to the prevalent social attitudes that generates interest.

One day a local white man named Vinson Gowrie is found shot to death, and a black man named Lucas Beauchamp is arrested at the scene and charged with the murder. In this part of the country at this time in history, a black man who is even suspected of murdering a white man is in danger of being lynched, especially by people like Gowrie's relatives, who are from a particularly rough and bloodthirsty enclave living in an area called Beat Four.

The story is told in the third person but from the viewpoint of a white boy named Charles "Chick" Mallison, who in the past has tried to befriend the solitary but kind Beauchamp and is convinced of his innocence. With the help of his uncle Gavin Stevens, a lawyer who decides to represent Beauchamp, his black friend Aleck Sander, and an elderly spinster named Miss Habersham, Chick investigates the matter and discovers, unsurprisingly, that there is more to the case than initially meets the eye.

This sounds like generic pulp detective stuff, and indeed there is not much to say about the plot except that it involves a lumber scam, quicksand, a false grave, and a real culprit who is not too bright; but what makes this novel worth reading is the insight it gives about how easily in this milieu a black man can conveniently take the heat for a white man's crime, regardless of provability of guilt, and the ethical implications that arise from this situation. There is a particular manner in which the characters communicate with each other that reveals this information, conveying Faulkner's sublime sense of the range of personal moralities.

Faulkner has several narrative modes at his disposal, and the one he chooses here is similar to that of "Absalom! Absalom!", employing impossibly long and syntactically deformed run-on sentences that compress copious visual detail into quickly moving scenic impressions. This technique could annoy many, but for those who know how to "read" Faulkner, it may be accepted as a characteristic part of the package. I'd place "Intruder in the Dust" somewhat below "Sanctuary" as an aesthetic achievement, but I still commend it as satisfying, like that tasty last bit of dessert after a full meal.



Rating:
Summary: WHAT!?!?!?!?!
Review: I AM CURRENTLY READING THIS BOOK AS A MANDATORY OUTSIDE READING BOOK FOR MY 11TH GRADE ENGLISH CLASS. I AM ON CHAPTER THREE AND I STILL HAVE NO IDEA OF WHAT IS GOING ON EXACTLY. FAULKNER'S USE OF WORDING IS EXTREMELY CONFUSING AND DOES NOT CAPTURE THE READER AT ALL.ALONG WITH READING THE BOOK WE HAVE TO COMPLETE A PROJECT EXPLAINING THE PLOT AND MAIN THEMES. HOW CAN I DO THIS IF I DON'T UNDERSTAND THE BOOK ITSELF?THIS BOOK IS SAID TO BE A GREAT PEICE OF AMERICAN LITERATURE BUT I DISAGREE COMPLETELY.I THINK IT'S REALLY BAD.

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Summary: um.. and the point of this was??????
Review: I am going to be a freshmen in high school. This book was on my summer reading list and as I began to read it it's flow totally lost ME IN THE DUST!!! I am not stupid, in fact I am in the top 99 percentile of all kids in my grade across the U.S. After having to write down all the characters and list their traits i believe that I can grasp a few chunks of this novel. O well.
Yeah, just don't even try this book.

Rating:
Summary: Unforgettable...a classic
Review: I am in 11th grade, and my hackles naturally went up upon reading the several reviews written by high schoolers on the subject of this novel. Do not be put off by such efforts to defile a masterpiece. This is one of the most profound and convincing novels I have ever read.

Tolstoy once wrote that the success of any work of art depends ultimately upon the artist's maintaining an "independent moral relation" to his subject, and that he who does not bring to his work a fresh and enlightened view of the universe will invariably fail in attempting to create good art. Applying this criterion to Intruder in the Dust, Faulkner's novel stands as a paradigm of great art; for its moral scope and philosophical perspective are singularly awesome. Faulkner is simultaneously sympathetic toward and critical of that Southern society which serves as his subject, and yet he manages never to stoop to petty preaching or outright sermonizing. His work is a marvel of artistic delicacy and intensity. Bravo.

Rating:
Summary: Read...at your own caution!
Review: I am in eleventh grade Advanced Placement (AP) English and this is the first book I have ever read that has made me want to learn another language. This writer has no respect for his readers with his continously confusing run-on sentences and distracting word placement. Furthermore, he has no respect for the "laws" of the language, that are put there to keep from this very disgrace of a novel of ever happening. I will never read another William Faulkner novel; for this one has made me feel like my intelligence has been stripped from me. In plain, American, understandable English: THIS BOOK STINKS!

Rating:
Summary: I loved it.
Review: I had to choose a novel for an independent reading assignment, so of course, being the striver I am, I had to choose an obscure Faulkner novel. I thought the book was excellent. Faulkner's rich prose helped to develop his deeply southern charachters. The culture of the South and it's deeply imbedded morals were brought out through Faulkner's lengthy sentences and gothic elements such as suspense and enhanced senses. The coming of age story of Chick Mallison and several subplots gave the novel many layers with which to envelop the reader. Overall, the novel turned out to be a tough read that was well worth the time.

Rating:
Summary: Still controversial after all these years.
Review: My 14 y/o daughter was given this title as a summary reading assignment for freshman English. I picked up the book and thought that I would read it before her so we could talk about it. I'm a 50 y/o very well-educated man who spends at least an hour a day reading. This book is INCOMPREHENSIBLE and I couldn't get past the first 5 pages much less understand what I actually read.

Trying to read this book is like trying to read a book while the lights go on and off, being sprayed with water, while your chair spins around and around with someone screaming obscenities in your ear. It's not worth the effort or time.

There is a reason for "rules" in writing, speech, etc. that have evolved over a million years. Human beings are only capable of grasping 3-5 "chunks" of information at a time. The stream of consciousness, rambling on with sentences a half a page long, bad grammar displayed in this book violate every principle of human communication and can only be considered a "style" by those who think the emperor wears beautiful clothes when in fact he wears none.

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Summary: I just can't get past the writing style.
Review: This is the first Faulkner book I ever read (I did get about 1/3 through "The Sound and the Fury" but quit when I realized that I didn't understand anything that had gone on in the book so far). As has been discussed in many reviews about Faulkner, he has a unique writing style.

Basically, Faulkner writes really long sentences, sometimes going on for a page or two. They are often devoid of any punctuation marks. I find it very difficult to read a style like this, as I usually read a sentence, and when I get to the period, I absorb the meaning of the sentence. When confronted with a very long sentence conveying numerous ideas, I suffer from information overload. One way that I dealt with this problem was to treat commas like periods. All the same, dealing with Faulkner's style at times frustrated me.

However, I persevered, and I'm glad that I did. The story, which is basically a mystery, was suspenseful and entertaining. What happened with Lucas and the deceased? Who is involved in the body switching?

I really liked the character of Lucas. He did not assume to role of a subservient black, which in the South made him an unlikely candidate for redemption. Despite the reservations of his saviors, who were products of the white South, their reluctant respect for the indominable Lucas pushes them forward.

This novel depicts race relations in the South in some interesting ways, tells a good mystery, and creates some memorable characters. I still have problems with the style of writing that diminished my enjoyment of the novel.

All the same, with one Faulkner book under my belt, I plan to tackle another in the future. Perhaps with more familiarity with Faulkner's style, the problems I have with his style will be mitigated.

Rating:
Summary: Unforgettable...a classic
Review: Wonderful writing, slow and steady and relentless as a long walk on a hot day on a dusty road in the deep south. Tragic central story of a proud black man who has tried to live as just Man, not black man, and suffers for it when he is wrongfully accused of murdering a white woman, a woman who for many years was his lover. The further you read, the more certain you are that this cannot end well - but no way can you stop reading.
Classic Faulkner at his best, with the typical huge cast of 'characters' (in every sense of the word) and side plots.