I look at the Faulkner novels set in Yoknapatawpha, the same way I look at Prout's Remembrance of Things Past: one large work; it's a cheat, but what I've read so far is so very good. I rarely appreciate setting, but Faulkner's use of setting to signify time, the sound of Cash working on the coffin or the smoke seen in Light in August, always gives me the pleasure of recognition. I'm reading Dante's Inferno again. I'm hoping that As I Lay Dying gets picked in November, because I'm ready to give it another read. This time I'll focus on the is and was. Godot was the first thing I read of Beckett and it was impressive, but the Trilogy, or Molloy alone, is a tour de force.
I can't decide between As I Lay Dying and The Sound and the Fury as to which is Faulkner's best. They're both absolutely mindblowing. I need to pick up Beckett's trilogy... I love Waiting For Godot. What are you reading now?
I'm now convinced that Beckett's Trilogy and As I Lay Dying are the best education on the first-person perspective. Good call.
