{"product_id":"the-saddest-words-michael-gorra-9781631491702","title":"The Saddest Words: William Faulkner's Civil War","description":"\u003cp\u003eWilliam Faulkner, one of America's most iconic writers, is an author who defies easy interpretation. Born in 1897 in Mississippi, Faulkner wrote such classic novels as \u003cem\u003eAbsolom, Absolom!\u003c\/em\u003e and \u003cem\u003eThe Sound and The Fury\u003c\/em\u003e, creating in Yoknapatawpha county one of the most memorable gallery of characters ever assembled in American literature. Yet, as acclaimed literary critic Michael Gorra explains, Faulkner has sustained justified criticism for his failures of racial nuance--his ventriloquism of black characters and his rendering of race relations in a largely unreconstructed South--demanding that we reevaluate the Nobel laureate's life and legacy in the twenty-first century, as we reexamine the junctures of race and literature in works that once rested firmly in the American canon.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eInterweaving biography, literary criticism, and rich travelogue, \u003cem\u003eThe Saddest Words\u003c\/em\u003e argues that even despite these contradictions--and perhaps because of them--William Faulkner still needs to be read, and even more, remains central to understanding the contradictions inherent in the American experience itself. Evoking Faulkner's biography and his literary characters, Gorra illuminates what Faulkner maintained was \"the South's curse and its separate destiny,\" a class and racial system built on slavery that was devastated during the Civil War and was reimagined thereafter through the South's revanchism. Driven by currents of violence, a \"Lost Cause\" romanticism not only defined Faulkner's twentieth century but now even our own age.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eThrough Gorra's critical lens, Faulkner's mythic Yoknapatawpha County comes alive as his imagined land finds itself entwined in America's history, the characters wrestling with the ghosts of a past that refuses to stay buried, stuck in an unending cycle between those two saddest words, \"was\" and \"again.\" Upending previous critical traditions, \u003cem\u003eThe Saddest Words\u003c\/em\u003e returns Faulkner to his sociopolitical context, revealing the civil war within him and proving that \"the real war lies not only in the physical combat, but also in the war after the war, the war over its memory and meaning.\"\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eFilled with vignettes of Civil War battles and generals, vivid scenes from Gorra's travels through the South--including Faulkner's Oxford, Mississippi--and commentaries on Faulkner's fiction, \u003cem\u003eThe Saddest Words\u003c\/em\u003e is a mesmerizing work of literary thought that recontextualizes Faulkner in light of the most plangent cultural issues facing America today.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eAuthor:\u003c\/b\u003e Michael Gorra\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eISBN-10:\u003c\/b\u003e 1631491709\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eISBN-13:\u003c\/b\u003e 9781631491702\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePublisher:\u003c\/b\u003e Liveright Publishing Corporation\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eLanguage:\u003c\/b\u003e English\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePublished:\u003c\/b\u003e 08\/25\/2020\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePages:\u003c\/b\u003e 448\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eFormat:\u003c\/b\u003e Hardcover\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eWeight:\u003c\/b\u003e 1.70lbs\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eSize:\u003c\/b\u003e 9.50h x 6.10w x 1.50d\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eReview Citation(s): \u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003ci\u003eLibrary Journal Prepub Alert\u003c\/i\u003e 03\/01\/2020 pg. 64\u003cbr\u003e\u003ci\u003eKirkus Reviews\u003c\/i\u003e 05\/15\/2020\u003cbr\u003e\u003ci\u003eBooklist\u003c\/i\u003e 07\/01\/2020 pg. 12\u003cbr\u003e\u003ci\u003eLibrary Journal\u003c\/i\u003e 07\/10\/2020 pg. 1\u003cbr\u003e\u003ci\u003eShelf Awareness\u003c\/i\u003e 09\/04\/2020\u003cbr\u003e\u003ci\u003ePublishers Weekly\u003c\/i\u003e 09\/14\/2020","brand":"Michael Gorra","offers":[{"title":"Hardcover","offer_id":44048024011007,"sku":"9781631491702","price":29.95,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0662\/2982\/9887\/files\/img_5eb0dbc4-1b71-42ce-b63a-6428192fbba5.jpg?v=1684993459","url":"https:\/\/www.whiterainbookhouse.com\/products\/the-saddest-words-michael-gorra-9781631491702","provider":"WR Book House","version":"1.0","type":"link"}