The Hamlet by William Faulkner

The preponderance of William Faulkner's stories of his mythical Yoknapatawpha County concern the fallen Southern aristocracy and read like Greek tragedies; I can enjoy but not relate to these because, though I am a daughter of the South, my ancestors were not the plantation owners or the classically educated lawyers and such like. This saga tells of the rise of the Snopes family, Southern white trash who succeed through the sharpness of their skill at taking advantage of the greed of others. That's closer to my heritage. Wait, perhaps my people would not even have been classified as suitable members of the Snopes clan. Mine were more likely to have been some of the hapless victims, naive or greedy enough, or both, to be taken in by a Snopes scheme. To this I can relate.

This novel reads like a series of short stories, and it is very funny, albeit of a very grotesque sort of humor, almost a parody of a Greek tragedy. We read of injury, death, madness, greed, sexual obsession, imbecility, and even bestiality and can find it all a source of uncomfortable amusement. Not many authors could accomplish that stretch, conveying the levity of tragedy when it happens to someone else, while at the same time transmitting the emotions of sympathy and sorrow. Go, Faulkner.

Many are prone to saying that Faulkner is not really difficult to read, and in a way they are right. True, he does not explain everything, but requires his readers to form conclusions and to make connections for themselves. He does not follow the rules and conventions of prose, but instead writes stories as they would be told orally. He immerses readers in a veritable flood of words. He requires his readers to put their brains in an entirely different gear from that usually used for reading fiction, but the results are so rewarding that he is worth any amount of effort. And, surprisingly, after one gets "in the swim," so to speak, no effort is required.

This is a fable of the New South, where the manners and noble ideals of the old order have been supplanted by the raw and vigorous amorality of a new ruling class, a class which, just like the Snopes family, seemingly multiplies without end. In fact, I believe that the Governor of my state is one of the Snopes cousins.