Word: faulkner
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Marcus's latest book, Representations, is a collection of essays originally published in various magazines over a 15 year period, in appearance the sort of innocuous collection many successful critics produce from time to time. And in fact, a number of these pieces, such as those on Waugh, Faulkner and Hammett, have the character conventionally associated with such volumes--that of being well-written, perceptive and clever, but without a coherent purpose. The book as a whole, however, despite Marcus's protests to the contrary, reads like "an ideal project for literary studies," an embodiment of the benefits...
...would have accepted them as a valid summation of his work. Throughout his 40 odd years on the American literary scene, O'Hara lobbied openly for the critical acclaim he felt was due him, and watched in frustration as he was passed over, time and time again, for Hemingway, Faulkner, Fitzgerald, Wolfe and Steinbeck...
There is a distinctly American flavor to O'Hara's fictional world. His best writing deals with his roots--the section of northeastern Pennsylvania called "The Region," where anthracite coal is mined. But in all fairness, O'Hara's evocation of life in Latenengo County cannot match up to Faulkner's treatment of Yoknapatawpha County or Hemingway's States-based fiction about the Florida Keys...
...such a mood, he muses about retirement: "After all, I've been at it for 30 years. At my age Scott Fitzgerald had been dead for six years, Hemingway had nearly stopped, Faulkner wasn't much good. It might be a good idea to stop while you have all your marbles...
Reybold offers a mystery story, complete with a classic detective-hero: retired Scotland Yard Inspector Charles Darby, visiting America while writing his memoirs. Darby is invited to present his findings on Chappaquiddick at a cocktail party hosted by P. Faulkner Truliman. Truliman, a Long Island multimillionaire, arranges for members of the party to read selected portions of the testimony. Darby moderates and points out relevant pieces of evidence; placing the testimony in chronological order and marshalling a string of 92 "facts." These "facts" are the pieces of a complex jigsaw puzzle that Darby reassembles in the last chapter...