Evening star., 1948-09-26
Faulkner Novel
Shows Radical
Change in Style

SnOSSSS III 0sI1S
INTRUDER IN THE DUST
BY william Faulkner. (Random
House; s3J
Reviewed by
CARTER BROOKE JONES.
Mr.. Faulkner's new novel holds
special interest on several
counts.
For one thing, 1t Is his first
novel in eight years. For an
other, its theme-the race issue
In the South in the light Of an
effort in the North to force pro-
gram of civil rights-is as current
as If it evolved from yesterdays
headlines. A third point Is that
the book marks radical change In
Mr.. Faulkner's way Of writing-al-
most q stylistic revolution when
compared to his early novels and
short stories.
The story, so far as 1t Is devel-
oped, is simple enough. An elderly
Negro named Lucas Beauchamp is
supposed to have shot white man
in the back. At least Lucas has
been found near the body, in his
pocket a pistol known to belong to
him, with one shot fired from Vt.
Lucas, who is peculiarly self
contained and dignif1ed old farmer.
does not trouble to explain. That
night he is kept at farmhouse
while the sheriff is sent for. The
sheriff happens to be honest and
not without courage, and he locks
Lucas safely in the strongest cell
Of the county jail. The best shot
in the county is placed on guard
at the jail door. But every one in
the little Mississippi town assumes
that the men of Beat Four" the
region where the slain man lived,
will converge on the county seat,
take Lucas away from his jailers
and lynch him.
Old Friends.
Lucas sends for the most respect
ed lawyer in town, but asks for
nothing-merely tobacco The law
yer's 16-year-old nephew goes along.
The boy knows Lucas. Once the
old Negro sheltered the boy, took
him into his crude farmhouse when
he fell through the ice while hunt
ing rabbits. There is that peculiar
relationship between the white boy
and the old colored man, though
they had not spoken in couple of
years
So later the boy returns to the
Jail alone and is allowed to see Lu-
Cas-. And the prisoner tells him
what to do. The boy sets out to do
1t. He recruits as aides a Negro
lad of his age and a 70-year-old
white woman who has delivery
truck for her poultry farm. What
the three do in the middle of the
night is for a reviewer, in the in
terest of suspense. to abstain from
disclosing. But it is dreadful
mission, and it seems almost incred-
ible that the incongruous trio could
carry it out. But they do. MI.
Faulkner assures us, and from the
evidence they find it begins to look
as II Lucas is innocent, despite
the strong circumstantlal evidence.
AS a result, the mob never gathers
ard Lucas is released.
New Awareness.
So much for the outline Of the
story. 1t is told largely through the
consciousness of the boy anG through
the sagacious comments OF his un-
Gle. The boy is amazingly mature
for his years. Or is he only SYM
boy of a more aware generation in
the South? This uncle. educated al
Harvard ano Heidelburg, really
knows the score. Whatever he says
is worth listening to. 1t is through
him that the issue of civil rights is
raised. not in the talk of the other
people of the town.
The South. says the uncle. Is the
only really homogeneous section Of
the country. and hence it must re-
sist the attempt of the North to
settle its race problems What We
are really defending" he explains,
"is the privilege of setting him 'the
Negro, free ourselves. which we will
have to do for the reason that no
body else can. since going on a CEN
tury now the North tried it and
have been admitting for rs years
now that they failed"
Is this Mr. Faulkner's view after
long residence in the South? Or is
he only reporting the opinion of the
more enlightened States rightists?
Not without Reward.
The boys awareness of the pres
ent and the past, of the significance
OF all that is going on about him.
is told largely through sentences
that run for line after line, some
times for whole pages. Often there
is no punctuation for many lines,
ut other times the punctuation Is
decidedly unconventional. 1t is not
that these streamlined, nonstop
sentences are too hard to under
stand-they can be grasped if you
take time to study them. Nor is it
that the effort is unrewarding; there
is philosophy in them, and there
often is poetry.
But why the constant, indirect,
circuitouS method, which slows up
the narrative at every turn, often
maddeningly at an exciting mo-
ment? The conclusion is almost
inevitable that Mr.. Faulkner is more
interested in the asides than in the
story. But will his readers be?
A E;ref kovof