Literary Award Winners Fiction Book Club discussion

Please comment here on 'A Fable' by William Faulkner, winner of the 1955 Pulitzer Prize and 1955 National Book Award.

A dense, difficult read, anti war novel, set in the trenches in France in 1918, during World War One.

On a Monday in May, 1918, the regiment of General Gagnon refuses to attack. The Germans do not take advantage of the mutiny. At noon, shooting stops altogether. Gagnon requests execution of all 3,000 mutineers and demands his own arrest. By Wednesday at army headquarters in the town of Chaulnesmont, it becomes known that a corporal and his squad of 12 have spread their ideas of peace among the troops. Four of the thirteen are not Frenchmen by birth and only the Corporal speaks French. He is the focus of the towns fury.

The novel covers the various reactions to the corporal’s behaviour. Woven into this story is another loosely connected story of an injured American racehorse who wins races in a number of American small towns even though the horse is running on three legs, with the jockey who becomes a sentry in the war.

The Corporal’s Christ allusions are pronounced. The Corporal has a last supper with his men, including a man named Piotr who denies knowing the corporal three times. The Corporal’s mother is named Marya, and his financee was a prostitute from Marseilles.

There is also some dark humour in this novel. For example, the scene where a group of soldiers need to find a corpse to bury in the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier in Paris.

Readers new to Faulkner should begin with ‘As I Lay Dying’, ‘Light in August’, and ‘The Hamlet’, all of which I highly recommend.

Finished this last night. I appreciated the premise, but found it a slog to read. I always struggle with Faulkner. I guess I am not smart enough for him. Here's hoping that our February title will be easier.

Missed this latest read.

I did enjoy and appreciate As I Lay Dying