I am compelled to make a premise, even if it is a bit pedantic, but with Faulkner I cannot avoid it: this is not intended to be a review, but simply to report reading impressions, those "gut emotions" that cannot remain unexpressed, that urge and demand to be spoken. I am not seeking a detailed analysis that, especially in this case and in this context, would still remain superficial. Each chapter would require a seminar.

Faulkner's tone is epic, biblical; one can almost hear the tolling of bells. Every one of his statements is solemn, a fact, just as religion is for the voices of the characters who appear in the narration. More than one is submissive to it, to a provincial and narrow dogma that proves suffocating and fanatical, and conforming to or fleeing from it has great repercussions. There is no protagonist; they all are, and all are equally well delineated. Man, whether "white or black," is depicted as an elemental being, at the dawn of man, monolithic, without facets, following a firm principle – which then, sometimes, proves fallacious – whether it be of faith, honesty, cowardice, or obtuseness. Despite the facts, everything seems static, like the August heat. The men seem to move under the heavy cloak of predestination. There is no evolution; each one is what he is. The judgment of the people is always the same; there is no escape. It is a difficult reading, the content of which lies, at least temporarily, between the stomach and the esophagus, not exactly as a weight but as a presence to be ruminated upon. Few are able to write pages of this kind.

1932

Whoever has fully contemplated a sunset will understand that tremor of the air, that extremely slight vibration of the light when its absence fills the horizon and the first glimmers of darkness make their presence. That backdrop where the soul can project itself, just when the diurnal song has fallen silent and the nocturnal one has not yet begun.

Luz de agosto is that sunset, that concatenation of instants in the opportune moment, where each shadow and each reflection ultimately offers the spirit enough material for its tremor. The great novelists manage to convey, along with the events of their story, an aura, a sense of involvement to which the reader submits. It is difficult to achieve it, the rhythm, the precision of the language, the ability to create an atmosphere, the risk of navigating in the depths are at stake. Here - and perhaps it is fortunate that it took so long to read it - I finally understand the cult of readers towards William Faulkner. Here is the very clear difference between what is not simply a book, but literature.

The four stories of the novel (Grove, Christmas, Bunch, Hightower) share the irrevocable harshness of the inevitable. There is a very strong notion of destiny in each of them. The council of gods that finally decides to free Ulysses, the voice of God that in the Olives refuses to remove the cup, the gesture of Fate whose index finger points the way from before the beginning. Faulkner's characters, each subject to the gravitation of their desires, manage to connect us with our intimate sense of contradiction: that us absent from the mirror, but whose will is overwhelming. In that avalanche - never surprising, always intuited - however, there is enough time for some redemption. The right light of the ending sunset.

Is it necessary to talk about the plots? A man flees from his present where the shadow of his bastardy threatens him every instant, obliging him to hate and to hate himself; his path, incapable of tenderness and feeling unworthy of forgiveness, must end in death. A woman looks for the father of her unborn child to get married, hoping thus, more than to protect herself from dishonor - in which she does not believe - to manage to build a place called her own, in the midst of her odyssey she discovers love on the journey. An old pastor cannot separate himself from the specter of his grandfather, and the heroism acquired during his childhood is a weight on his mature heart whose consequence is disgrace, however, it is also the only passport of his soul to achieve peace. An exemplary worker discovers love, discovers hope, at the same time that these are denied to him, in the paradox of his condition are all men, always.

But it is much more than that. It is a wet electric shock in the air. It is a column of smoke among the trees, and the sun crossing the white and the gray. It is the dust of the road. In singular and with a capital letter. The Road. The Road where the footprints of the past will appear tomorrow in front of us, being erased under the weight of our tired feet.

On the back of my edition, they quote Mario Vargas Llosa. \\"A story in which the most sinister and vile dimension of the human condition is shown\\", he says. I do not agree. Luz de agosto shines, with the glow of pain and violence, yes, but being that the same glow of redemption. The shine of the blood that we offer for the forgiveness of our sins.

Perhaps a useless offering, but whose gesture is one of the most authentically ours when bleeding is equivalent to singing, to crying, to an old prayer whose meaning we forgot a long time ago and cannot manage to remember.

Reading Faulkner, at moments, I have heard him.

Memory believes before knowledge remembers.

It believes for a longer time than it recalls, much longer than knowledge wonders. It knows, remembers, loves the explosive phrase of Faulkner.

Light in August, a book that imagines a remarkable, almost monumental, sloth in its incredibly sensual indolence. It seems like a classic writing,

an epic about heresy, the social reality of the American South, in the abyss of racism, the moral atrocity of a morally bankrupt ethics, the religious corruption and the human decline that differentiates skins and colors in bodies condemned to hatred and equal in love that has never won.

In a suffocating ammonia atmosphere,

like sand, rotten grass, greasy slime, and sticky sun. Estrangement and hatred.

The moon of the civil war weighs on the nights

of historical memory and the past.

Conjectures. Realities. Words. Language.

Ideology directed by exchanges of all kinds from those that are not disclosed or explained.

They travel to their entrails like a toxic hormone, a terrifying and incomprehensible hatred, a product of the tiring state of reality. When the sun rises in such places, it is like a yellow ball filled with blood.

Faulkner, the amazing, magnificent master

of the multi-layered structure and the conscious flow. The absolute and divine storyteller, the mage of writing

that is burdened with simplicity and repetition but also with deep psychological analyzes.

A rhetorician who cuts reality into pieces and events are composed of the multiple individual representations of it in the human mind. A true wandering prophet who declaims and liberates spasmodically and ephemerally like a hired politician.

He describes exhaustively all the possibilities that could exhaust the human mind or he presents fragments from the claustrophobic parallel of a psychotic hero who talks to himself. Yet this same one who speaks is the internalized "other", the abstract internalization of the average person in the daily social routine.

Of course, where there is Faulkner's signature, we should know in advance that we will be charged with a heavy psychological toll and an intense spiritual reading process of a special orthography with the texture and the sense of the brilliant imposition.

This is the dark, violent surprise from the reference to the availability of the naturally bound propositions, the descriptions that make the unsubdued and wild words confess secretly so inevitably, so painfully, so persistently that only Faulkner and the true magic of language could create words with images that depicted a time and a place and such different people, with a tormenting and artistic reality alive, to paint images with his words that will echo long after the end of the book.

"Light in August" is famous as one of the best novels of the 20th century and is structured as stories from different people around a central narrative.

The narrative and the description were particularly disturbing to the sensory and humanistic conscious mind, especially in the depiction of the rarely disputed racism and bias of the

Jim Crow South (the book takes place in the 1920s, with some of the older characters having childhood memories of the civil war).

The legal principle of "separate but equal" racial segregation extended to public facilities and transportation, including interstate Pullman trains and buses.

The facilities for African Americans were constantly lower and underfunded compared to the facilities for white Americans. Sometimes, there were no facilities for the black community. As a body of law, Jim Crow legislated economic, educational, and social disadvantages for African Americans living in the South.

The laws of Jim Crow and the constitutional provisions of Jim Crow enforced the segregation of public schools, public places, and public transportation, as well as the segregation of restrooms, restaurants, and water fountains between whites and blacks.

Sometimes historical truth hurts.

The variations of the intellectual disposition are like

the adaptations to density, direction, color in art.

But, Faulkner's curve is extensive, a paradoxical four-dimensionality of the past and the present, a representative space and an

unrepresented idea. All placed in two-dimensional curves on each page.

The stories of Lena Grove and the Reverend

Gail Hightower serve as parts of the narrative flow that are connected to a central story, that of the white/black Joe Christmas.

The so-called Christmas could be the Christ of the neighborhood, who lived the Golgotha but not the resurrection even as an urban myth. Although Joe Christmas ends up committing crimes, the reader cannot feel sadness or anger for this. Nor can one sympathize with his alienation from the "white" society around him.

It is not surprising that a person like this - despised by the whites around him and imposed on himself to be obsessively lower like perhaps the Nazarene in Roman Palestine - never respected the social rules.

Each chapter opens skillfully without obvious recognition of the main protagonists.

In fact, usually, the reader

takes several pages to determine who the main heroes are.

This tactic, while sometimes disappointing, creates intrigues and involves the analytical functions of the reader.

Someone has to conclude the framework not by characterization but from the behavior and the functional adjustment in which the characters are placed.

The enigmatic style of the author to use the method of disposition, a realism of descriptive literature driven by bound in wild, unsubdued propositions, notes observations, from those

that only Faulkner would feel.

Complex and tragic is the turmoil that surrounds him

and he himself as the leader, the pages will be filled with "Light in August" that unfolds in a violent and unforgiving world.

The plot moves quickly, except for the units related to the exiled from religion and life itself, the Reverend Hightower.

In the long references related to the multifaceted priest, there is a lot of symbolism that can be interpreted in many different ways.

Of course, the interrelated action is a distinct cosmology (form) with many complexities, views, tragedies.

Yet, behind the decorated stage, and the reflections of the blacks in their wretched states that are decorated with more advanced props, the message whispers quietly, which in this case delivers "the light" to our minds, at the end when the story closes with the words of the unseen mother who, all in fear, murmurs: "We started from Alabama, but two months later, we are already in Tennessee."

This is the same woman who opens the story painting in our minds an image of some tragedy that was "foreshadowed".

Thus, the light that Faulkner wants to shine on "August" is the nature of how we perceive

the events, which in the end may prove very different from our projections that pass through the endless details of suffering and difficulty.

"Although the mules are plunged into a constant and restless sleep, the wagon does not seem to move forward. It seems to be suspended forever in the middle distance, so endless is its progress, like a wretched hound on the soft red cord of the road."

Good reading.

Many greetings.

Light in August by William Faulkner is an absolute masterpiece of fiction. It stands head and shoulders above most of the works I've come across in the past 30 years. Faulkner's use of language is simply breathtaking. He seems to dance with words, creating a style that is both captivating and at times, almost unbelievable. Every word he writes seems to have a purpose, slipping effortlessly into your mind and hijacking your conscious thought.

The story revolves around two strangers who arrive in Faulkner's fictional town of Jefferson, Mississippi. Lena Grove, a young pregnant woman from Alabama, comes in search of the father of her child and the promise of marriage. At the same time, a fire brings the crime of murder and two suspects into the public eye.

The second thread of the story follows the life of Joe Christmas, from a young orphan to a whisky bootlegger. His life is filled with hardship and a search for identity and a sense of home. The tale is complex and tragic, filled with outcasts, misfits, and those who are forever searching for something more.

The quotes in this book are simply unforgettable. They seem to leap off the page and lodge themselves in your memory. It's no wonder that this is now a firm favorite of mine. I can't wait to devour more of Faulkner's stories and see what other literary gems he has in store for us.

No matter what the story is, Faulkner has the ability to write it masterfully! This man truly knows the art of storytelling.

The characters, with the exception of Lena, are all somehow trapped in the past. They are held back in ways that prevent them from reaching their full potentials.

Joe Christmas is perhaps the saddest of them all. He has no knowledge of his past, and yet it still haunts him and holds him back. How can one move forward when one doesn't even know what one is moving forward from? Where does he belong in this world? How can he find a way to fit in?

Byron Bunch is stuck in a rut of a life. But then something jolts him out of that rut. Although the road he has chosen is difficult, his story might just be the brightest in this book.

Lena is a unique character. She is the only one who isn't weighed down by her past. However, she also isn't really a part of the present either. She is skimming along, passing by each day without truly engaging in any of it. And yet, in a strange way, she seems to be moving towards something. Is she following an unobtainable dream in order to move forward?

The story is told fantastically, captivating the reader from beginning to end.

For many years, I have postponed reading this author because I had classified him as a very complex one. Moreover, I considered that I did not have enough reading background to understand him.

Many people say that this book is the most suitable one to start with this author. So when it was proposed for reading in a group, I thought it was the perfect moment.

The book takes place in the southern United States, several decades after the Civil War, in a town marked by a strong religious and racist background. Two storylines intersect. On the one hand, we have Lena Grove, a young pregnant woman who is looking for the father of her child. On the other hand, there is Joe Christmas, who lives immersed in an internal conflict due to the violence he has received since he was a child and his racial origin. All the characters, both the main and the secondary ones, have their stories and are magnificently characterized. And although at first glance they seem to have nothing in common, throughout the pages everything takes on meaning.

Faulkner constantly plays with the narrator, time, and space. He turns the same idea around and more than one event will appear described from different angles and voices, fragmented and even disordered.

Reading "Light in August" is to immerse yourself in the deep South, with all the good and bad that it entails. It is to enjoy its landscapes, its smells, its sounds, its LIGHT, but also, its misery, its fanaticism, its racism, and its violence.

Don't let all this scare you. You just have to make a little effort not to get lost in the reading, and I promise you that the reward is well worth it.

Reading Faulkner is never an easy task.

His works are characterized by the use of multiple perspectives, the non-linearity of the story, and frequent streams of consciousness.

However, once one immerses oneself in his hermetic universe that reminds one of the Deep South, he becomes truly captivating.

I was reminded of this when I recently read "A Mercy" by Toni Morrison.

I processed "Light in August" more than 10 years ago, and it meets all the criteria of a superb Faulkner novel.

It is fabulously written and has a cast of characters that make this novel a real classic.

Lena Grove is the ultimate mother, who transcends and accepts everything and gives meaning to it all.

The presumed murderer Joe Christmas represents the South that struggles with its roots.

Pessimism pervades, but it is softened in the end.

The language Faulkner uses may seem offensive to present-day readers, and as mentioned, this novel is not easy to read at all.

However, the rewards are great.

This is the tenth Faulkner book I have read in 2 years. Thanks to being re-introduced to him by the co-members of the group On The Southern Literary Trail, I have delved deep into his literary world. Just like the others, this one also rates 5 stars from me.

It is written in a more straightforward manner, with less of the stream of consciousness to wade through. However, it still jumps back and forth in time and between characters, adding an element of complexity. I suppose one could use the term Southern Gothic for this work, although I'm reluctant to apply such a common label to a book born from Faulkner's genius.

The story is filled with a host of misfits and lonely souls. Joe Christmas, Joanna Burden, Reverend Hightower, Lena Grove, and Byron Bunch are the main characters, but they are supported by a cast of less prominent ones. The first three are so深陷 in the mire of their own thoughts and emotions that tragedy seems inevitable. Lena and Byron, despite carrying their own burdens, will manage to escape and perhaps find happiness and contentment because they both feel a responsibility towards someone other than themselves.

Set in Mississippi in the 1920s, and being a Faulkner novel, the big themes of race, religion, and how the characters cope with the cards fate deals them are explored. Light in August is a powerful book that is also a suspenseful and gripping read, leaving a lasting impression on the reader.

The Light in August was the first book I read by William Faulkner.

This novel is written in the genre of Southern Gothic with a modernist approach, and due to its approach, it is somewhat different in style from Faulkner's other works. Southern Gothic is one of the subgenres of Gothic literature that deals with a particular narrative of the conditions and circumstances in the American South. The common themes in this style include the examination and description of earthy, damaged, and highly flawed, and unknown characters, colorful and decayed and sometimes grotesque spaces and environments, unstable and ambiguous gender roles, strange and grotesque spatializations, and other elements such as poverty, alienation, violence, crime, and sin that have roots in various maladies.

The time of the story is related to the period after the American Civil War and is a narrative of an American drifter named Joe Christmas. The story takes place in a fictional and imagined region by Faulkner called Yoknapatawpha, which is the setting for several other of Faulkner's works, including the novel As I Lay Dying. In this story, Joe Christmas is introduced as a person who is in search of the truth of his own existence. In fact, the main core of the story is based on this personal search of individuals with conflicting personality types in self-discovery and their different reactions to the problems they encounter in life, which Faulkner has done well in characterization and description.

In this story, we are faced with the inconsistent and sometimes violent behavioral reactions of Christmas. The author, by using the personality type of Christmas, shows how a person can constantly suffer from his own maladies and exhibit violent behavior when facing others, and on the other hand, by introducing other characters such as "Lena", shows how one can show a completely consistent and different reaction from oneself in the difficulties of life and not shirk the burden of responsibility.

I read this book in English, but if you are interested in reading the translation, there are two existing translations of this book, one of which has been published by Chashmeh with the translation of Mr. Abdolhossein Sharifi. Of course, the translation is very old and it may be very difficult to find. For me, this book was a very good choice at the beginning of reading Faulkner's works, and since I enjoyed reading this work very much, I also recommend reading it to you.

Faulkner once again made me admire with "August Heat."

When I read the last page, my heart was filled and I was deeply moved. How happy we are to have such books and literature that can arouse such complex emotions in us.

"Because you know what I think? I think he was just traveling. He didn't think he would find the person he was looking for. He didn't even have the intention to find him in the first place. He just didn't tell the man. Maybe this was the first time he had distanced himself from a sunset in his hometown. Well, he had come this far quite well, and everyone had helped him on the way. So I think he decided to see as much as he could by traveling a little more, because I think he knew that this time, if he settled down somewhere, he would have settled down for the rest of his life. I think so."

“...qué falso puede ser el más profundo de todos los libros cuando se pretende aplicarlo a la vida.” This statement makes us stop and think deeply about the relationship between books and real life.

Books often contain profound ideas and theories that seem to offer valuable insights. However, when we try to directly apply these ideas to our lives, we may find that they don't always work as expected.

The reason for this is that life is complex and multifaceted, and what may be true in the context of a book may not hold true in the real world.

We need to approach the knowledge and ideas in books with a critical and discerning eye, and be willing to adapt and modify them according to our own experiences and circumstances.

Only in this way can we truly make the most of the wisdom and knowledge that books have to offer and apply them effectively to our lives.

I had defined Faulkner with passion and anger. With the August Light, he became one of my favorite writers. He is a writer who requires thought, effort in reading, and not to be rushed.

Perhaps the most important representative of the Southern Gothic, the "stream of consciousness", flashbacks, and interior monologues form the framework of the narrative. While constantly keeping the sense of curiosity high, you witness the life of the South in time and find yourself within the fabric of the events (dead ends / mazes).

I must state that while I say I definitely didn't like his translation, he wrote a very nice preface in Belge's.