For William
Faulkner, destiny was a grim piper, forcing humanity to dance like puppets to
the tune of a broken instrument. Swarthmore English professor Philip Weinstein
sets out to find the melody linking the dour tone of the great writer’s fiction
with the dour facts of his life. Becoming
Faulkner is a compact biographical analysis that benefits from brevity.
Unencumbered by the responsibility for small details, Weinstein is able to
focus on what he sees as most salient. “The deepest logic in both Faulkner’s
life and work is that disaster strikes…prior to any preparation for it,” he
writes. And for Faulkner, time and experience were insufficient teachers.
