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Light in August
- Narrated by: Will Patton
- Length: 15 hrs and 28 mins
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Publisher's summary
Earphones Award Winner (AudioFile Magazine)
Audible is pleased to present Light in August, by Nobel Prize-winning author William Faulkner.
An Oprah's Book Club Selection regarded as one of Faulkner's greatest and most accessible novels, Light in August is a timeless and riveting story of determination, tragedy, and hope. In Faulkner's iconic Yoknapatawpha County, race, sex, and religion collide around three memorable characters searching desperately for human connection and their own identities.
Audie Award-winning narrator Will Patton lends his voice to Light in August. Patton has narrated works by Ernest Hemingway, Don DeLillo, Pat Conroy, Denis Johson, Larry McMurtry, and James Lee Burke, and brings to this performance a keen understanding of Faulkner, an authentic feel for the South, and a virtuoso narrator's touch.
As an added bonus, when you purchase our Audible Modern Vanguard production of William Faulkner's book, you'll also receive an exclusive Jim Atlas interview. This interview – where James Atlas interviews James Lee Burke about the life and work of William Faulkner – begins as soon as the audiobook ends.
Be sure to check out Faulkner's The Wild Palms as well.
This production is part of our Audible Modern Vanguard line, a collection of important works from groundbreaking authors.
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Editorial reviews
Having grown up in the South, the daughter of someone who wrote her masters thesis on Southern fiction, the idea of writing even a 300 word review of William Faulkner’s classic Light in August is intimidating, to say the least. In the South, Faulkner is a rite of passage, someone we all read in high school or college but certainly not since, preferring to celebrate our literary legacy through more contemporary “Southern fiction light”. Faulkner is just tough — it’s dense and wrought with meaning — classic literature at its finest, but not what you would call a beach read (unless you’re my mom).
And then I listened to Will Patton perform Faulkner’s Light in August.
Faulkner’s stories are written out of chronological order, in layers, in such a way that you might come to know a story over time from hearing it told by many different people in a place. Those who have studied Faulkner say when you get really caught up in one of the author’s page-long sentences, the best thing to do is read it out loud.
It’s even better to listen. With intonation, and the honey smooth cadence of Patton’s voice, the story is suddenly clearer.
Patton introduces us to Lena Grove as she begins her journey to find the father of her unborn child, Lucas Burch. Instead she finds Byron Bunch, who feels a strong pull to take care of her, though it puts him in an awkward social position. For guidance, Byron visits the Rev. Gail Hightower, a man so haunted by not even his own past, but that of his grandfather, that he has trapped himself in his own home.
Even before we encounter Joe Christmas, the 33-year old drifter of ambiguous race, the allusions to the life and death of Jesus are thick. There is a fire and a murder, and it all unravels from there. Patton’s voice carries us through it all, enhancing the story with approachability and authenticity. The Charleston-born Patton’s southern accent is true and real—not a touch of the theatrical, overdone linguistics adopted by some other actors.
In Light in August, Faulkner addresses themes of morality and race, religion and redemption — all too deeply to address in these few words. But he does it without preaching or judgment, leaving the reader — and in this case the listener — to wonder about our own stories, and how they might be told. —Sarah Evans Hogeboom
Critic reviews
- Audie Award Nominee - Best Classic Audiobook, 2011
"For all his concern with the South, Faulkner was actually seeking out the nature of man. Thus we must turn to him for that continuity of moral purpose which made for the greatness of our classics." (Ralph Ellison)
Editor's Pick
True story about actor Will Patton
"Because Nobel Prize-winning author William Faulkner has the reputation (sometimes) of being hard to understand, Audible wanted to cast a narrator who is both a stellar performer *and* an accessible interpreter of stories dense with meaning. Enter Will Patton. I once asked Will Patton for the secret of engaging narration, and he said, ‘Easy. I don’t step up to the mic until I understand the value of every word.’ (Bonus audio track from James Lee Burke, too!)."
—Christina H., Audible Editor
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Biblical, American and Absolutely Brutal
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Gone with the Wind
- By: Margaret Mitchell
- Narrated by: Linda Stephens
- Length: 49 hrs and 2 mins
- Unabridged
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Winner of the Pulitzer Prize for Literature, Margaret Mitchell's great novel of the South is one of the most popular books ever written. Within six months of its publication in 1936, Gone With the Wind had sold a million copies. To date, it has been translated into 25 languages, and more than 28 million copies have been sold. Here are the characters that have become symbols of passion and desire....
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not to miss audible experience
- By dallas on 12-08-09
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The Pastures of Heaven
- By: John Steinbeck
- Narrated by: Sean Runnette
- Length: 7 hrs and 13 mins
- Unabridged
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Today, nearly 40 years after his death, Nobel Prize winner John Steinbeck remains one of America's greatest writers and cultural figures. We have begun publishing his many works for the first time as Penguin Classics. This season we continue with the seven spectacular and influential books East of Eden, Cannery Row, In Dubious Battle, The Long Valley, The Moon Is Down, The Pastures of Heaven, and Tortilla Flat.
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Golden, mythical America
- By Dan Harlow on 07-07-13
By: John Steinbeck
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Freedom Road
- By: Howard Fast
- Narrated by: Norman Dietz
- Length: 9 hrs and 50 mins
- Unabridged
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It was everywhere. You couldn’t talk about the revolution without using the word freedom in the same breath. But Gideon Jackson knew that freedom meant something different if your skin was black. Fast’s fictional account of the post Civil War era takes us into the life of Gideon Jackson, a black man, newly freed, and determined to make a difference.
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Great Story, Decent Narrator
- By Keon Gardner on 12-04-17
By: Howard Fast
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To Kill a Mockingbird
- By: Harper Lee
- Narrated by: Sissy Spacek
- Length: 12 hrs and 17 mins
- Unabridged
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Harper Lee’s Pulitzer prize-winning masterwork of honor and injustice in the deep south - and the heroism of one man in the face of blind and violent hatred, available now for the first time as a digital audiobook. One of the best-loved stories of all time, To Kill a Mockingbird has been translated into more than 40 languages, sold more than 30 million copies worldwide, served as the basis for an enormously popular motion picture, and was voted one of the best novels of the 20th century by librarians across the country.
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A gift to be treasured
- By David Shear on 07-09-14
By: Harper Lee
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Paradise
- By: Toni Morrison
- Narrated by: Toni Morrison
- Length: 15 hrs and 19 mins
- Unabridged
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In Paradise - her first novel since she was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature - Toni Morrison gives us a bravura performance. As the book begins deep in Oklahoma early one morning in 1976, nine men from Ruby (pop. 360), in defense of "the one all-black town worth the pain", assault the nearby Convent and the women in it. From the town's ancestral origins in 1890 to the fateful day of the assault, Paradise tells the story of a people ever mindful of the relationship between their spectacular history and a void.
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MORRISON AT HER MOST COMPLEX
- By Kennedi Hill on 11-07-19
By: Toni Morrison
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The Optimist's Daughter
- By: Eudora Welty
- Narrated by: Eudora Welty
- Length: 3 hrs and 59 mins
- Abridged
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This story of a young woman's confrontation with death and her past is a poetic study of human relations.
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Beautiful writing
- By Teresa on 07-15-13
By: Eudora Welty
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The Known World
- By: Edward P. Jones
- Narrated by: Kevin Free
- Length: 14 hrs and 18 mins
- Unabridged
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Henry Townsend, a black farmer, bootmaker, and former slave, has a fondness for Paradise Lost and an unusual mentor, William Robbins, perhaps the most powerful white man in antebellum Virginia's Manchester County. Under Robbins's tutelage, Henry becomes proprietor of his own plantation, as well as of his own slaves. When he dies, his widow Caldonia succumbs to profound grief, and things begin to fall apart.
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A meandering audiobook...
- By Daniel on 09-03-04
By: Edward P. Jones
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The Collected Stories of Eudora Welty
- By: Eudora Welty
- Narrated by: Barbara Rosenblat, Jessica Almasy, Victor Bevine, and others
- Length: 32 hrs and 18 mins
- Unabridged
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This complete collection includes all of the published stories of Eudora Welty. There are 41 stories in all, including those in the earlier collections A Curtain of Green, The Wide Net, The Golden Apples, and The Bride of the Innisfallen, as well as previously uncollected stories.
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Too Good For Audio
- By Yennta on 06-18-12
By: Eudora Welty
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Peyton Place
- By: Grace Metalious
- Narrated by: Tim O'Connor
- Length: 16 hrs and 44 mins
- Unabridged
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In 1956, when this novel was first published, communities all over New England snapped up copies to see if they were the town portrayed in the book. Peyton Place is the story of a repressive New England town known for its high standards of public morality, and the steamy sexual activities that take place behind its bedroom doors.
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Best book I've read to date!
- By Crusader on 11-07-11
By: Grace Metalious
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Tobacco Road
- By: Erskine Caldwell
- Narrated by: Mark Hammer
- Length: 6 hrs and 30 mins
- Unabridged
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Earthy, raunchy and high spirited, this story of larkabout Jeeter Lester’s struggle to keep his farm is one of the most poignant and humorous in Depression-era literature and an American classic.
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Wonderful
- By KEE on 11-28-11
By: Erskine Caldwell
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The Ballad of the Sad Café
- By: Carson McCullers
- Narrated by: David Ledoux, Joe Barrett, Therese Plummer, and others
- Length: 5 hrs and 28 mins
- Unabridged
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A classic work that has charmed generations of readers, this collection assembles Carson McCullers' best stories, including her beloved novella The Ballad of the Sad Cafe. A haunting tale of a human triangle that culminates in an astonishing brawl, the novella introduces readers to Miss Amelia, a formidable southern woman whose cafe serves as the town's gathering place. Among other fine works, the collection also includes "Wunderkind", McCullers' first published story, written when she was only 17, about a musical prodigy who suddenly realizes she will not go on to become a great pianist.
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Literate short stories
- By RueRue on 02-23-16
By: Carson McCullers
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A long, enjoyable listen
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One of William Faulkner’s finest novels, As I Lay Dying, originally published in 1930, remains a captivating and stylistically innovative work. The story revolves around a grim yet darkly humorous pilgrimage, as Addie Bundren’s family sets out to fulfill her last wish: to be buried in her native Jefferson, Mississippi, far from the miserable backwater surroundings of her married life.
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Faulkner's As I Lay Dying review
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The Sound and the Fury is the tragedy of the Compson family, featuring some of the most memorable characters in literature: beautiful, rebellious Caddy; the manchild Benjy; haunted, neurotic Quentin; Jason, the brutal cynic; and Dilsey, their black servant. Their lives fragmented and harrowed by history and legacy, the character’s voices and actions mesh to create what is arguably Faulkner’s masterpiece and one of the greatest novels of the twentieth century.
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Simply great.
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As I Lay Dying
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One of William Faulkner’s finest novels, As I Lay Dying, originally published in 1930, remains a captivating and stylistically innovative work. The story revolves around a grim yet darkly humorous pilgrimage, as Addie Bundren’s family sets out to fulfill her last wish: to be buried in her native Jefferson, Mississippi, far from the miserable backwater surroundings of her married life.
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The Long, Hot Summer
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Humorous and poignant
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Intruder in the Dust is at once an engrossing murder mystery and an unflinching portrait of racial injustice. Set in Faulkner's fictional Yoknapatawpha County, it is the story of Lucas Beauchamp, a black man wrongly arrested for the murder of Vinson Gowrie, a white man. Confronted by the threat of lynching, Lucas sets out to prove his innocence, aided by a white lawyer, Gavin Stephens, and his young nephew, Chick Mallison.
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Excellent characterization, fine suspense
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The Reivers
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One of Faulkner's comic masterpieces, The Reivers is a picaresque story that tells of three unlikely car thieves from rural Mississippi. Eleven-year-old Lucas Priest is persuaded by Boon Hogganbeck, one of his family's retainers, to steal his grandfather's car and make a trip to Memphis. The priests' black coachman, Ned McCaslin, stows away, and the three of them are off on a heroic odyssey.
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4 days in the life of an eleven year old
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By: William Faulkner
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The Mansion
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The Mansion tells of Mink Snopes, whose archaic sense of honor brings about the downfall of his cousin, Flem. "For all his concern with the South, Faulkner was actually seeking out the nature of man," noted Ralph Ellison. "Thus we must turn to him for that continuity of moral purpose which made for the greatness of our classics." This volume includes a new introduction to the trilogy by acclaimed novelist George Garrett, author of Death of the Fox and The Succession.
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Mink Cometh
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By: William Faulkner
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A Fable
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- Unabridged
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An allegorical story of World War I set in the trenches in France and dealing ostensibly with a mutiny in a French regiment.
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Bad Production and Direction
- By Andy Curry on 05-08-17
By: William Faulkner
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The Town
- A Novel of the Snopes Family
- By: William Faulkner
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- Unabridged
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The story of Flem Snopes' ruthless struggle to take over the town of Jefferson, Mississippi, this is the second volume of Faulkner's trilogy about the Snopes family, his symbol for the grasping, destructive element in the post-bellum South.
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Accessible Faulkner
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The Sound and the Fury
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A classic of American literature from a Nobel Prize winning author, The Sound and the Fury is widely considered to be one of the best novels of the twentieth century. William Faulkner expertly illustrates the epic and tragic story of the Compson family, three generations of Southern aristocrats on the brink of ruin. Unprecedented for its time, Faulkner weaves a tale spanning nearly two decades, told from multiple points of view in a style all its own.
By: William Faulkner
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The Sound and the Fury
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A deep American South novel about a black & white intertwined in a relationship living in one house with various goings-on Southern style.
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Narrator sounds drunk
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By: William Faulkner
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The Wild Palms
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In New Orleans in 1937, a man and woman embark on a headlong flight into the wilderness of illicit passion. In Mississippi ten years earlier, a convict risks his one chance at freedom to rescue a pregnant woman. From these separate stories Faulkner composes a symphony of deliverance and damnation.
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Deserves attention
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The Wings of the Dove
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Milly Theale is a young, beautiful, and fabulously wealthy American. When she arrives in London and meets the equally beautiful but impoverished Kate Croy, they form an intimate friendship. But nothing is as it seems: materialism, romance, self-delusion, and ultimately fatal illness insidiously contaminate the glamorous social whirl.
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Not an easy read but SO worth it!
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Nightwoods
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Charles Frazier puts his remarkable gifts in the service of a lean, taut narrative while losing none of the transcendent prose, virtuosic storytelling, and insight into human nature that have made him one of the most beloved and celebrated authors in the world. Now, with his brilliant portrait of Luce, a young woman who inherits her murdered sister’s troubled twins, Frazier has created his most memorable heroine. Before the children, Luce was content with the reimbursements of the rich Appalachian landscape....
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Beautiful writing and powerful narration
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What listeners say about Light in August
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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- Sharron
- 03-06-13
Hardwork
I couldn't finish this book. My reads need to have a good storyline, move at a reasonable pace and have interesting character development. Light in August failed all three.
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- jim holt
- 06-28-13
Memory Believes Before Knowing Remembers
If you could sum up Light in August in three words, what would they be?
Engaging Southern Story
What other book might you compare Light in August to and why?
the old testament
What does Will Patton bring to the story that you wouldn’t experience if you just read the book?
the right tone and everything else
Who was the most memorable character of Light in August and why?
Joe Christmas
Any additional comments?
This was a far better experience than I expected. I thought it would be too dense and difficult to be enjoyable. Perhaps I am just at a point in my life where I can appreciate a work of this quality and depth.
The read by Will Patton was simply amazing and confirms in my mind that he is the best.
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- M. Raffol
- 10-03-12
Wonderful Narration
If you could sum up Light in August in three words, what would they be?
Entertaining, descriptive (of the time period, people and scenarios) and drama-filled (like an old fasioned-soap opera).
The narrator's voice and ability to go into the characters really made the book come alive for me. The story, written in 1932, set in the 1800's I believe, is written in older-style, poetic in areas and very wordy at times. I had to sometimes paraphrase in my mind the main points through the wordy parts of any such scene to keep focus of what was really being said. Though overall the story kept me listening for more. Kudos to Will Patton for a superb job with his intonations and inflections for the many interesting characters and storylines (there were multiple stories within stories that were within the main story itself). He kept me listening to that wonderful voice of his and I heard the entire 15+ hour book within 2.5 days during spare time. It was thought provoking to the time period and sometimes humorous as well. Overall a definite recommended read (or listen).
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- Lexi
- 04-28-15
Good story but difficult at times to follow
I really enjoyed this book. I was disappointed to not know what became of some of the characters but I think that added to the authenticity of the story. At times it was a challenge to keep the characters straight but I definitely think this was worth reading.
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- bee
- 05-10-21
A Quiet,complicated,Southern story, amazing prose & Perfect reader for
One of America’s great prose writers , it becomes even more apparent when listened to.
This Exceptional reader brings this alive.
2nd time listening ...highly recommend
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- Midwest Goddess
- 09-28-18
Intriguing story; amazing narration
I was assigned this book when I was in college 25 years ago. It recently came back to mind, so I looked it up on Audible and was not disappointed.
The story is multifaceted and told in non-chronological order. The narrator tells the story with a slow, southern drawl that makes a listener feel like he (the narrator) is actually witnessing the story and simply telling us about it.
Since the story takes place in the 1930s in the South, themes of racism and economic hardship are dominate.
This book is considered to be Faulkner’s most complex work, and it’s not a light read. But if you’re prepared to pay close attention and listen through some of the “thicker” parts of the book, I highly recommend it. .
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- DON
- 07-10-12
I DD NOT LIKE IT
What did you love best about Light in August?
NOTHING. I AM A BIG READER IN FACT I AVERAGE A BOOK A DAY AS I AM RETIRED AND I FOUND THIS BOOK RATHER BORING. ALL OF THE CHARACTERS, BAR NONE WERE DISFUNTIONAL. I KEPT LISTENING HOPING IT WOULD GET BETTER, BUT IT DID NOT.
Who was your favorite character and why?
NONE
Who would you have cast as narrator instead of Will Patton?
IT WAS NOT HIS FAULT. I DON'T THINK ANY NARRATOR WOULD HAVE BEEN BETTER. I USALLY ENJOY MOST BOOKS ABOUT THE SOUTH.
Was there a moment in the book that particularly moved you?
NO1! ONLY BORED ME
Any additional comments?
THINK I SAID ENOUGH NEGATIVE THINGS ABOUT THIS BOOK.
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- Frak
- 01-25-15
Great writing, odd story
Is there anything you would change about this book?
The story, I loved William's writing, he can weave some beautiful imagery and I wanted the story to go on as it started which was with country visuals and emotional depth but it went in a strange violent direction. I listened to the entire story, hoping to go back to the girl, who in my mind was the most interesting. Instead, it followed a character who is a twisted, evil, woman hater, who I didn't care about and was looking forward to his death so that we could get onto something besides absent minded aggression and hatred.
I think the writer wanted us to have compassion because of the characters terrible childhood but it was a story of bad equals more bad with zero introspection. I found it depressing..
If you’ve listened to books by William Faulkner before, how does this one compare?
I may try another, he is a fabulous writer
Would you listen to another book narrated by Will Patton?
not especially
Do you think Light in August needs a follow-up book? Why or why not?
no, terribly violent story
Any additional comments?
I own that I am burned out on senseless violence
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- Eileen
- 12-12-11
Powerful, painful, true
Would you listen to Light in August again? Why?
No this is powerful enough on the first reading to remember every detail
Which scene was your favorite?
When the main character is hiding out, rarely eating and going through a sort of purification process
Any additional comments?
This felt like a true flavor of the south that still exists today in the deepest, darkest parts of the southern soul lurking there in a scary way. Narrator's accent was dead on.
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- BJMQ
- 08-30-14
Brilliant
Amazing novel, no wonder Faulkner is such a highly respected writer of the highest caliber. I loved everything about this novel, great performance by Will Patton, a compelling and involving story, and the writing...OMG dense, complex, rich, potent, intellectually challenging. This book restored my faith in American writing.
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