Faulkner sweepings, sketches and stories from his New Orleans writings circa 1925, this collection was first published by Rutgers University Press in 1958 and has new material in the autobiographical introduction and an additional essay on Sherwood Anderson. A considerable experimental poking about here in subject and technique, indigenous speech, tentative universals. Without the looming sky, these characters--touts, a cobbler, children of nature, a jockey, a hood, etc.--appear diminished, curious originals; and the stories seem hurriedly contrived. However, the imposition of mystery, of the moment when circumstance and accident immobilize an instance of portent--an idiot holds a mended flower; a Negro's dead face turns toward the sky--and the use of religious references indicate a direction. The Anderson essay, an estimate before Faulkner's own powers were realized, indicates a bemusement rather than an illumination. In all, an essential revision for the body of Faulkner scholarship.
