Light In August

Rarely have I read any book, which has such a cheerful and a sweet ending that it atones for all the dreariness in the book. The book starts with, “Although I have not been quite a month on the road I am already in Mississippi.....” These words are uttered by a young, unwed girl who is pregnant and is on the lookout for her self-avowed husband, who in turn has deserted her. She is mightily confident that she would find him but she has no idea that by the time she would see him again, he would have turned into a broke & a reckless rascal. She was then not traveling but only enduring the journey with a repressed hope, which is to hope despite knowing all the while that there was no hope in it. The story ends with, “.....here we aint been coming from Alabama but two months, and now it’s already Tennessee.” These words are spoken by the same girl. Only this time she is traveling without a purpose. She is out on a country tour without a worry and without a husband but with a lover. But the story is not about her. Instead it’s about the characters who are inextricably linked to her in someway or the other.

The book I am talking about is ‘Light In August’ by William Faulkner.

How many times have you observed that just when you think that you have gotten yourself that alluring peace, a quite corner for yourself, that you have gotten above all the petty nuisances or that you have become invincible and don’t care any more what people might say to whatever you have done or to whatever you might do, right then something will happen that will throw you neatly inside the ring and every shard of your whimsical paradise will be broken and pierced with peace-shattering events.

Just when you thought that you were immune to people's sarcasm and that your life was going on smoothly, yet something would happen that will give you a rude shock. You will be taken aback. To make matters worse someone will come into your life and you will fall in love with her or at least you feel that you have fallen in love with her. Woe betides if she happens to be the one who has fallen in love with you and you are emotionally impervious and impassive to her and she makes her business that you toe to her line.

All of a sudden you realize that you have become a fugitive in your own country, which until recently treated you as any ordinary citizen. Out of the blue, the spotlight is on you and the people are ready to lynch you and that too just because they want to lynch somebody.

The book talks about all this and the deep divide that was there between the blacks and the whites in the southern US in the early 20th century. It is about the struggle to survive and lead a respectable life in a racist society, where every action you take and every word you speak could possibly demarcate you from the blacks or the whites whichever the case might be even if you were of the same race as the one you were being differentiated from.

Overall, the book is a good read but it could be quite boring towards the latter part. If you ever plan to give it a read, make sure you do reach the last page for it’s the best one.

Au revoir