Sanctuary

By William Faulkner

Set in fictitious Yoknapatawpha County, Sanctuary is the moving story of the vagaries of justice in the aftermath of a horrible crime. The daughter of a local judge, Ole Miss university student Temple Drake is kidnapped and assaulted by Popeye, a sinister criminal and head of a gang of moonshiners. On the run from Popeye, Temple finds sanctuary at a brothel, where she is discovered by lawyer Henry Benbow, while the hapless Goodwin is falsely accused of Popeye’s crime.

Published in 1931, Sanctuary established William Faulkner’s literary reputation, and, because of its subject matter, continues to be considered one of his more controversial novels. Faulkner revisited the character of Temple Drake in Requiem for a Nun, published in 1950. Sanctuary has been adapted for film twice, first in 1933 as The Story of Temple Drake, and then again in 1961.

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• Language: English
• Publisher: HarperCollins
• Release date: Jan 1, 2013
• ISBN: 9781443421102

William Faulkner

William Faulkner (1897-1962) is widely regarded as one of the greatest of all American novelists and short-story writers.  His other works include the novels The Sound and the Fury, The Reivers, and Sanctuary.  He twice won the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction and in 1949 was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature.

Reviews for Sanctuary

[ursula_2 · Rating: 2 out of 5 stars]

Apparently this was pretty controversial when it was published in 1931 because of its subjects of kidnapping and rape. I can see why.It reminded me of a Cormac McCarthy book with more description. This isn't a positive thing, for me. There were almost no characters in Sanctuary with any redeeming qualities, and the one that did exist was only there to be the receptacle of cruelty and injustice. And the "victim" of the aforementioned kidnapping, etc., isn't even the one I'm talking about. All-around ugly.

[hodgebud · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Faulkner is a master of finding a narrative style that makes the reader feel like the protagonist (or narrator of the moment) feels. In Sanctuary when they are at the moonshiners' house it is confusing and foreboding not because Faulkner can't write or because he is being obscurant, but because that's how Temple Drake feels. She feels the danger, but she doesn't know where it is coming from. Faulkner can be difficult to read if you expect an omniscent view, or want to know what is going on at all times, but if you trust him he can really give you the subjective feel of his theme.

[grebmops_1 · Rating: 1 out of 5 stars]

A deeply flawed book, not nearly as good as stuff as As I Lay Dying or Absalom, Absalom!. But a very decent crime novel, with often masterful prose. If it were by anybody else I'd be stunned - the story of Temple Drake's sexual and moral corruption has no parallel except in the films of David Lynch. It's not good enough for Faulkner though, as most of the book just meanders with a murky, stilted narrative and faceless characters. Definitely irritating to sit through just to get to the good, lurid and creepy bits.

[jen7r · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

This book is one of Faulkner's most accessible, but it is not the poorer because of it. On the contrary, it shows the variety of styles that Faulkner was able to succeed at. Even though this book is fairly straightforward storytelling, it still contains many of Faulkner's favorite themes: obsession, dissolution, perversion, alcoholism, and just plain ol' bad behavior in the context of male and female relations.It's a story about life in the deep South, and how some outrageous characters get mixed up with some 'regular' folks, and the shocking misadventures that follow. How did they get mixed up? Alcohol, and moonshining, and the little supply and demand problem they had in the 1930's. Don't miss it.

[jeanphilli · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Like most Faulkner I had to reread sections to get what was happening. The sense of foreboding is so heavy that I missed some obvious things. At least 6 fascinating characters, richly developed in a short book. Loved it.

[jburlinson_3 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Nabokov called this Faulkner's "corn cobby fantasy." I think he meant to be dismissive in some way.

[pretear_1 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

A corn cob? Hmm... I've been told I'll have to re-read this to actually understand what's going on.

[katydid4it · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

I must admit that I find Faulkner difficult to read. His narrative style requires a lot of focus and concentration. However, this novel is worth it. The dark, brooding sense of the Southern Gothic is readily apparent. You can almost feel the spanish moss dripping off the trees.

[lola_leviathan · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

I totally missed the rape scene, oops. Supposedly this was Faulkner's sensational potboiler, which is why everybody is always touting its literary merit.

[tsutsik_1 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

If you are born poor in the USA you lose, especially if you were born in the 1920's in the Deep South. Upper middle class girl Temple Drake -daughter of a judge- and her alcoholic boyfriend get mixed op with some poor white trash family in their search for alcohol, which finally results in the death of an innocent man. I am starting to like Faulkner, this is a really good book, in which he unequivocally chooses sides. Ruby, common law wife of army veteran Goodwin, sketches a damning portrait of Temple and her class: ,,Honest women. Too good to have anything to do with common people. [...] Take all you can get, and give nothing.''

[kambrogi_1 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

This grim tale of rape, prejudice and cowardice in small-town Mississippi is written in Faulkner’s brilliant style: equal parts brutal realism and transcendent lyricism, so beautiful and so deep that I often stopped going forward and drowned in a line or a paragraph that took me someplace else entirely. When I came up for air, however, I barreled forward because I really had to know what was going to happen. I am astonished at how well this still plays, 76 years since it was first published, especially as its original intention was to satisfy the tastes of the then-contemporary pulp fiction market. Even at his worst, Faulkner is the best.

[hellbent_1 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

This character Popeye was difficult to figure out at first, but the plot accelerates and finishes well. Supposedly Faulkner just wrote this to make money and succeeded.