Click on a thumbnail to go to Google Books.
Loading... The Wild Palms (original 1939; edition 1995)by William FaulknerMy 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, 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. A couple meet, she is married with children , he is a poor naive medical student. They fall in love and run away. She is an artist. He wants to keep their love pure, above middle class conventions such as security. This absolute idea leads to stupid behavior and eventually he performs an abortion on her which kills her. This is largely a novel of an idea, hardly a novel, more an argument of ideas. The characters are not developed. The pot is simple and obvious. There is an effort to capture ' consciousness' of a person when a crisis is occurring. 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, 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. 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 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. 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. |
Current DiscussionsNonePopular covers
Google Books — Loading... GenresMelvil Decimal System (DDC)813.52Literature English (North America) American fiction 20th Century 1900-1944LC ClassificationRatingAverage:
|
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, 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.