The Wild Palms (Vintage Classics)

I like most `Wild Palms', but it doens't mean I didn't like the other novel. But Palms somehow pushed some buttons inside me. Many people complain this novel is too obvious, and after the second chapter you can predict things that will happens to the lovers in the end. Well, it can be so somehow, but what I think it is more importante here is how far they go and how they take their love affair so serious and passionate. Charlotte and Wilbourne are very brave . When reading I could see the tragic result of their love, but one cannot imagine what leads the to such an ending. `Old Man' also is about love, but a different kind. In this novel, the river is one of the main characters, subjugating men, but also meaning free will.

All in all, it is a very dense novel, that tackles both about bizarre and lyrical sides of life. I don't think it is a kind of book for everyone, due to its difficult and deep subject, but some people will delight with Faulner's words.


America's Shadow   April 16, 2001
 5 out of 7 found this review helpful

A masterpiece, one of Faulkner's greatest achievements. The book brings the dark side of the American dream. With black humour and sophisticated literary technic, Faulkners shows how money, fear and prejudicism have destroyed the aspirations of common Americans. The novel depicts American society as a material civilization utterly devoid of ideals. In this novel, Faulkner's black vision of America comes close to E. A. Poe's literary nightmares and his epic vision of Mississippi to that of Mark Twain.