The Snopes Trilogy, Volume III, The Mansion

The final thread for the Trilogy is open. Are we all ready?

August 1st, new month, new book - I'm ready to start!

I’ll be starting soon, too.

I’ve just noticed this book is longer than the first two, so have moved it up on the TBR. I’m starting it tonight. Anybody else into it yet? For me its main competition is the Booker Long List. It appears that the Mansion begins by going back to Mink’s story.

I still have maybe a week more on The Town. So maybe I’ll start this next weekend or a week from Monday.

I’m approaching the halfway point and am finding it enjoyabe. I was finding the beginnings of the second section a bit tedious, so I spent one of my Audible credits and am finding the audiobook is for me a different experience. Much better!

I started yesterday. Any thoughts on Faulkner’s introduction on inconsistencies?

>7 dchaikin: After reading a lot of Faulkner I do see the whole Yoknapatawpha cycle as ongoing “living history,” and to me the differences from novel to novel can be read to suggest that more has been learned about the events since they were first reported or that they have acquired some embroidery or inaccuracies, as family stories tend to do. I’m not a Faulkner completist (going back to your review of The Town) but I am a Yoknapatawpha completist, meaning I love these stories and their development. Despite last sentence of Intro, Faulkner wrote his best books relatively early. His very earliest books, set elsewhere, and his later books are not as good, according to his critics.

>7 dchaikin: Interesting question. I started reading yesterday, making my way through the Mink section. In my comments on The Hamlet, I noted that the story in that book was that Mink killed Houston over a $3 pasturage fee, and such a paltry amount reflected just how low these Snopes folks would go. It just didn't seem a "good" reason for murdering someone. Here, in The Mansion, Faulkner is going much deeper into the Mink/Houston story, and Mink's motives for killing Houston. The whole long story of Mink, his cow, and Houston was very illuminating for me. There is certainly a great deal of class resentment on Mink's part. Ultimately, Mink's conclusion is that he murdered Houston because of the pasturage fee (in this book $1, not $3), but Faulkner shows us there was a lot more going on, even though Mink concludes all the other stuff--having to work off the $18.75 etc--was not the reason for the murder, just the pasturage fee Houston added on at the end. So I appreciated that.

>9 arubabookwoman: Mink has me thinking of the hoodlum Snopeses at the of The Town. I’m wondering if Faulkner is trying to tie a rural and urban mindset.

Mink does spend a night in now urban Memphis looking for a gun, and I find his dismay at the totally changed city very poignant. Have had that sort of experience myself, though not in such desperate straits.

>8 dianelouise100: “Despite last sentence of Intro, Faulkner wrote his best books relatively early.” - interesting, and that’s what I understand.

>11 dianelouise100: “Mink does spend a night in now urban Memphis” - oh yeah! So he does.

Reading about Mink, I start to wonder if i’ve lost my own sense of logic. He warps constructive thought.

I just finished the Mink section. Interesting that Linda signed the petition to allow Mink's early release. But I'm really curious about why Ratliff signed to prevent Mink's release.

Overall having read this section, I have a more sympathetic view of Mink. Less evil, and more stupid.

I should be finishing this tomorrow, 2 more chapters. I can say now that it has been my favorite part of the trilogy. Much more going on and some very humorous episodes told by Ratliff. And a good bit of suspense as well. Glad you are both well into it now.

Listening has made for great entertainment.

I’ve finished The Mansion, my favorite of the three. I like this book a lot.

So, i just finished Mink’s part. Strange seems to be my word today. He’s a weird guy. I hated him for killing Houston in The Hamlet, but I’ve made peace with his release.

“I jest simply decline to have it any other way except that one because there aint no acceptable degrees between what has got to be right and what jest can possibly be.”

VKR

So, it only took me seven hours of reading, but I think I’ve finally begun to enjoy The Mansion. I’m in the Linda section - the one where all the men speak for her. (And yet it’s still a nice section so far. She just came home.)

I think Linda surpassed even Ratliff as my favorite character in these books, but there’s plenty of room for disagreement here. I’m eager to see what others will think.

>18 dchaikin: So glad you’re enjoying it!

Just finished the Linda section.

I'm still reading the Linda section. It dragged for me a bit when Ratliff narrated what seemed to be a reiteration of the whole plot of The Town (with digressions), and it took me a long time to read as I kept resisting. Do you think Faulkner included this whole retelling for people who might possibly have not read the first two in the trilogy? Did it add anything to your understanding of the characters or plot? Unlike the first section (Mink), which for me really fleshed out Mink's story, I don't think this added much. Maybe I will change my mind.

It picked up again for me when the story began moving forward with Linda's wedding. Why do you think Gavin wanted Linda's father at the wedding, but wanted to maintain the fiction that he was just a distant relative? I loved the story of Ratliff, the poor country boy in the big city, and the fancy ties. I am just now to where Linda is returning to Jefferson, and I again have to say it's started to drag a bit again, with all the side stories about all the veterans who have returned to Jefferson after wars.

>21 arubabookwoman: sometimes I wonder if Faulkner was reminding us or himself what happened before. I loved Ratliff in NY. Interesting question about Gavin. I think Gavin was being Gavin, passively trying to live in different conflicting worlds without explaining it to himself or anyone else. He was being especially kind, but also denying it. I have to admit he doesn’t fully work for me, never has.

Side note - I’m toying with the idea that this whole trilogy is Faulkner writing about women he can make up but who can’t possibly exist. To keep the fantasy, he denies them a voice, and then manipulates what voice he gives. (And all his passion went into a cow.) Gavin might then be a Frankenstein impossible character to help his fantasy along.

Ok, I finished! Phew. Not my favorite trilogy, not something I would have read if I didn’t want to try to read all of faulkner at some point (maybe a focus in 2024). Not the best closing book, although it had it moments. But i loved the ending. Loved that.

>23 dchaikin: It was the ending that made me like this book best of the trilogy. Though he wasn’t her biological father, Linda seems to have learned a thing or two from Flem, what an irony.

I’m so glad you haven’t rejected F. based on these books. Perhaps picking up one of the great ones when you’re ready to tackle him again would let you know if you really want to spend more time in his world.