Becoming Faulkner : The Art and Life of William Faulkner

William Faulkner was the greatest American novelist of the twentieth century, yet he lived a life marked by a pervasive sense of failure. Throughout his career, he remained haunted by his inability to master a series of personal and professional challenges: his less-than-heroic military career; the loss of his brother in an airplane crash; a disappointing stint as a Hollywood screenwriter; and a destructive bout with alcoholism. In this imaginative biography, Philip Weinstein--a leading authority on the great novelist--targets Faulkner's embattled sense of self as central to both his life and his work. Weinstein shows how Faulkner's troubled interactions with time, place, and history--with antebellum practices and racial division--take on their fullest meanings in his fiction. Exploring the resonance of his own unpreparedness, Faulkner invented a singular language that captured human consciousness under stress as never before. Becoming Faulkner joins Faulkner's life and art in a bold new way, giving readers a full vantage from which to better understand this twentieth-century literary genius. Weinstein shows how Faulkner's troubled interactions with time, place, and history--with antebellum practices and southern heritage--form a pattern that played out over the course of his entire life. At the same time, these incidents take on their fullest meanings in his fiction. It was in meditating on his failures, his own unreadiness, Weinstein argues, that Faulkner came up with his singular language, one that captured human consciousness under stress as never before. His fruitless striving catapulted American literature to a new level of sophistication. Narrating the events that comprised Faulkner's life, biographers have long struggled to depict his personal complexity, the paradoxes that shaped his decisions and dogged his relationships. But without a consideration of the writing as well, the troubles in the life fail to reveal their deeper resonance. By skillfully analyzing the work while tracing the events, Weinstein achieves a full portrait, revealing struggles that animate his life and shadows that complicate his work. Becoming Faulkner thus conjoins Faulkner's life and art in a bold new way, giving readers a full vantage from which to better understand this twentieth-century literary genius.

William Faulkner was the greatest American novelist of the 20th century, yet he lived a life marked by a pervasive sense of failure. Repeatedly, he failed to master the challenges that erupted upon him in charged moments: crises involving love, war, and race, as well as family, Hollywood, and alcohol. In this imaginative biography Philip Weinstein, a leading authority on Faulkner, targets Faulkner's sense of unpreparedness as central to both his life and his work.

Weinstein shows how Faulkner's troubled interactions with time, place, and history-with antebellum practices and southern heritage-form a pattern that played out over the course of his entire life. At the same time, these incidents take on their fullest meanings in his fiction. It was in meditating on his failures, his own unreadiness, Weinstein argues, that Faulkner came up with his singular language, one that captured human consciousness under stress as never before. His fruitless striving catapulted American literature to a new level of sophistication.

Narrating the events that comprised Faulkner's life, biographers have long struggled to depict his personal complexity, the paradoxes that shaped his decisions and dogged his relationships. But without a consideration of the writing as well, the troubles in the life fail to reveal their deeper resonance. By skillfully analyzing the work while tracing the events, Weinstein achieves a full portrait, revealing struggles that animate his life and shadows that complicate his work. Becoming Faulkner thus conjoins Faulkner's life and art in a bold new way, giving readers a full vantage from which to better understand this twentieth-century literary genius.

Library Journal

In his prolog, Weinstein (English, Swarthmore Coll.) explains his concept of a biography as a work that does more than recount the events of a person's life in chronological order. He seeks to convey something of the disturbing stresses of Faulkner's life as he might have experienced them at the time and to explore how those experiences shaped the great works he produced between 1929 and 1942. Weinstein examines Faulkner's failed elopement with Estelle Oldham and his failed marriage to her years later. He discusses his great-grandfather, a Civil War hero who likely fathered a child with a black servant, and his effect on a young Faulkner who fabricates heroic service in World War I and becomes an outspoken opponent of the Civil Rights Movement. Faulkner's bouts with depression and alcoholism are similarly examined. Weinstein acknowledges that although Faulkner would have protested this glimpse into his tormented private world, he also would have recognized the portrait as true. What more can one ask of a biographer? VERDICT This rich work will be well received by Faulknerian students and scholars. Highly recommended.—Anthony Pucci, Notre Dame H.S., Elmira, NY

An imaginative biography that identifies Faulkner's frequent hardships as central forces in his creative process, Becoming Faulkner provides a fresh perspective on one of America's greatest novelists.