Simply Faulkner

The writer who turned the American South into a world of its own.

William Faulkner wrote about a fictional corner of Mississippi, but the questions running through his work are anything but local. In Simply Faulkner, literary scholar Philip Weinstein offers an accessible introduction to the life, novels, and ideas of one of America's most important and challenging writers. From The Sound and the Fury and As I Lay Dying to Light in August and Absalom, Absalom!, Weinstein explores Faulkner's unforgettable characters and his fascination with memory, family, race, violence, guilt, and the lasting consequences of the past. He also explains Faulkner's distinctive style, including his shifting points of view and unconventional treatment of time, showing readers how to approach writing that can initially seem difficult or unfamiliar. The result is a clear and engaging portrait of a novelist who used the history of the American South to explore the larger complexities of human experience.