William Faulkner is known for grim scenes and family fractures of the post Civil War and early twentieth century South. His work has usually presented disfunctional working families, out of touch fallen elite types, people indifferent to the black families who work for them However, in the Reivers, Faulkner's last novel written about two months before his death, we take a bouncing trip with an eleven year old boy, a family black servant who is the brains of the group, and a bumble-headed oaf. The trip, in the boy's grandfather's car (lifted for the occasion) gives the boy a view of a different world, gambling, a house of prostitution, horse racing and horse race fixing. All ends on a positive note, for the boy a real life wakening--the novel is a sort of southern bildungsroman--and a happy (unusual for Faulkner) ending for almost all characters concerned. [jscreighton@yahoo.com fix my e-mail]

William Faulkner is one of my all time favorite authors, one who I greatly admire and love. His writing always seems fluid in its movement from paper to mind, giving up such a full picture of what is going on. The Reivers is yet another novel that draws you in and makes you feel as though you are right there with Lucius, Boon and Ned as their adventures lead them to Memphis.

All, of course, did not go as planned. Lucius Priest, an eleven year old boy, is persuaded by Boon, a character we've seen in other Faulkner novels (such as Go Down, Moses), to "borrow" Lucius' grandfather's car. Eventually the star of the book, Ned McCaslin, is discovered and the adventure soon took a decidedly different direction.

The Reivers is a great comic, picaresque novel that is one of Faulkner's easier novels to read. This does not distract from the novel and, in a way, lends the story its credibility. At times we see the naive and ignorant young Lucius, then we meet the older narrator Lucius. Boon the mastermind, only to be usurped by Ned. The morals and the justice of the story all come together nicely by the end.

Faulkner is one to be admired, and I have yet to pick up one of his novels and not be impressed. Although some find his novels too complex or confusing, this one is a much easier read and allows the reader to enjoy the complexity of Faulkner in a much more straight forward manner.

5 stars.

Faulkner's "The Reivers" is a great comic adventure about the early days of automobiles, when it was rare to see one. The story is about a misadventure that a young boy, and two of his father's employees get into when they 'borrow' his grandfather's car for a joyride from rural Mississippi to Memphis, Tennessee.

The Faulkner I've previously read explores mans' imperfections and failures. This book celebrates them. The story is told from the perspective of a young boy, and his sentence structure and punctuation takes getting used to, but it's worth it. The book is beautifully and joyfully written.

Although I had read Faulkner's other major works, I only just recently got around to completing this novel. As students of Faulkner know, this book is not--nor did its author intend it to be--a major work of literature. For those just beginning to read Faulkner, it will prove much more accessible than the classic texts (like The Sound and the Fury), and it will introduce them to some of the author's characters and themes--but it won't introduce them to important elements of his Modernist technique.

The novel has a great deal of charm, however, and I will take this opportunity to suggest that it be assigned as summer reading (do they still do that?) for students in about 10th grade. It's a coming-of-age story that has to do with responsibility. At the end the grandfather says to Lucius following the boy's adventure in Memphis: "A gentleman can live through anything. He faces anything. A gentleman accepts the responsibility of his actions and bears the burden of their consequences, even when he did not himself instigate them but only acquiesced to them, didn't say No though he knew he should" (p. 302).