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Light in August  By  cover art

Light in August

By: William Faulkner
Narrated by: Will Patton
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Editorial reviews

Having grown up in the South, the daughter of someone who wrote her masters thesis on Southern fiction, the idea of writing even a 300 word review of William Faulkner’s classic Light in August is intimidating, to say the least. In the South, Faulkner is a rite of passage, someone we all read in high school or college but certainly not since, preferring to celebrate our literary legacy through more contemporary “Southern fiction light”. Faulkner is just tough — it’s dense and wrought with meaning — classic literature at its finest, but not what you would call a beach read (unless you’re my mom).

And then I listened to Will Patton perform Faulkner’s Light in August.

Faulkner’s stories are written out of chronological order, in layers, in such a way that you might come to know a story over time from hearing it told by many different people in a place. Those who have studied Faulkner say when you get really caught up in one of the author’s page-long sentences, the best thing to do is read it out loud.

It’s even better to listen. With intonation, and the honey smooth cadence of Patton’s voice, the story is suddenly clearer.

Patton introduces us to Lena Grove as she begins her journey to find the father of her unborn child, Lucas Burch. Instead she finds Byron Bunch, who feels a strong pull to take care of her, though it puts him in an awkward social position. For guidance, Byron visits the Rev. Gail Hightower, a man so haunted by not even his own past, but that of his grandfather, that he has trapped himself in his own home.

Even before we encounter Joe Christmas, the 33-year old drifter of ambiguous race, the allusions to the life and death of Jesus are thick. There is a fire and a murder, and it all unravels from there. Patton’s voice carries us through it all, enhancing the story with approachability and authenticity. The Charleston-born Patton’s southern accent is true and real—not a touch of the theatrical, overdone linguistics adopted by some other actors.

In Light in August, Faulkner addresses themes of morality and race, religion and redemption — all too deeply to address in these few words. But he does it without preaching or judgment, leaving the reader — and in this case the listener — to wonder about our own stories, and how they might be told. —Sarah Evans Hogeboom

Publisher's summary

Earphones Award Winner (AudioFile Magazine)

Audible is pleased to present Light in August, by Nobel Prize-winning author William Faulkner.

An Oprah's Book Club Selection regarded as one of Faulkner's greatest and most accessible novels, Light in August is a timeless and riveting story of determination, tragedy, and hope. In Faulkner's iconic Yoknapatawpha County, race, sex, and religion collide around three memorable characters searching desperately for human connection and their own identities.

Audie Award-winning narrator Will Patton lends his voice to Light in August. Patton has narrated works by Ernest Hemingway, Don DeLillo, Pat Conroy, Denis Johson, Larry McMurtry, and James Lee Burke, and brings to this performance a keen understanding of Faulkner, an authentic feel for the South, and a virtuoso narrator's touch.

As an added bonus, when you purchase our Audible Modern Vanguard production of William Faulkner's book, you'll also receive an exclusive Jim Atlas interview. This interview – where James Atlas interviews James Lee Burke about the life and work of William Faulkner – begins as soon as the audiobook ends.

Be sure to check out Faulkner's The Wild Palms as well.

This production is part of our Audible Modern Vanguard line, a collection of important works from groundbreaking authors.

©1954, 1976 William Faulkner (P)2010 Audible, Inc.

Critic reviews

  • Audie Award Nominee - Best Classic Audiobook, 2011

"For all his concern with the South, Faulkner was actually seeking out the nature of man. Thus we must turn to him for that continuity of moral purpose which made for the greatness of our classics." (Ralph Ellison)

"It's impossible to overstate the difficulties facing Will Patton as he undertakes a reading of this Faulkner classic. It's not simply the matter of conveying early-twentieth-century Southern backwoods dialects. That, a skilled mimic with an exceptional ear like Patton masters easily. But this novel's demands are so much more arduous, requiring a narrator to plumb the depths of despair, hopelessness, faith, rage, and yearning that go on for page after page without letup." ( AudioFile)

Editor's Pick

True story about actor Will Patton
"Because Nobel Prize-winning author William Faulkner has the reputation (sometimes) of being hard to understand, Audible wanted to cast a narrator who is both a stellar performer *and* an accessible interpreter of stories dense with meaning. Enter Will Patton. I once asked Will Patton for the secret of engaging narration, and he said, ‘Easy. I don’t step up to the mic until I understand the value of every word.’ (Bonus audio track from James Lee Burke, too!)."
Christina H., Audible Editor

What listeners say about Light in August

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  • Overall
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    4 out of 5 stars

May be better in book form

This is the first time I have read anything from William Faulkner. I think this book would be better to read than listen to. The story is good but it jumps around a lot with many characters that need to be pieced together into the overall story. It is harder to do that when you are passively listening which I often do. I enjoy listening to books while I am cleaning or driving so they do not get 100% attention as they would with reading.

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  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
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A page turner

Christmas, next to Charles Bon, in another of Faulkner ‘s tragedies, is the loneliest man on the face of the earth. This is undoubtedly one of the best books that’s ever been written. It is so heartbreakingly truthful when it comes to the capacity of pure evil about what adult has done to and innocent child and the consequences thereof.

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  • Overall
    3 out of 5 stars
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    1 out of 5 stars

circle of confusion

the narrator was the only reason to listen. the story followed a circle but it was not clear if it was a circle or a line in the sand. It had beautiful words and phrases but could not support a never ending round.

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Intriguing story; amazing narration

I was assigned this book when I was in college 25 years ago. It recently came back to mind, so I looked it up on Audible and was not disappointed.

The story is multifaceted and told in non-chronological order. The narrator tells the story with a slow, southern drawl that makes a listener feel like he (the narrator) is actually witnessing the story and simply telling us about it.

Since the story takes place in the 1930s in the South, themes of racism and economic hardship are dominate.

This book is considered to be Faulkner’s most complex work, and it’s not a light read. But if you’re prepared to pay close attention and listen through some of the “thicker” parts of the book, I highly recommend it. .

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Faulkner and Patton - - one was made for the other.

Will Patton is genius. His performance of this book is incomparable . Faulkner is alive and well and lives as long as Mr Patton reads with the true voices of the south.

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    2 out of 5 stars
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Ramblings of a madman

By chapter 11 the story degraded into a tangle of never ending sentences. I commend the narrator for his effort and endurance but the listening had to stop before I lost my own mind in the morass of words.

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Not a great book

I found this book boring and confusing. The narration lost me over and over again. It is the first time over years of audiobooks that I could not even get what the story was about.
I’m half way finished, but I think I’ll just leave it.

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What a struggle

Think this might be the book that I struggled the most with to listen to completion. My opinion might differ from many, but really not worth the time an money.

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Did not like it.

I just did not "get it". Disappointed, just a bunch of unfortunate things happening. Will Patton was great as expected.

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Pitiful and disappointing

I had read this years ( actually, decades !) when I was in school... I had forgotten how disappointing it was.... Everyone should probably read it, so trey have something to compare others with... the denouement is actually nothing like what is expected.
So, before you have caviar, or lobster, you have to try dry crackers or milk about to go bad, so you have a frame of reference, you know what disappointing is. This is the peanut butter just short of rancid... maybe not enjoy, but learn from it.....

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