Absalom, Absalom! Final Thoughts with Dr. Larry Allums

In this final discussion of Absalom, Absalom! by William Faulkner, Lori is joined once again by Dr. Larry Allums to close out one of the most haunting and inexhaustible novels in American literature.

Together, they trace Faulkner’s labyrinth of narration—Quentin and Shreve’s imaginative reconstruction of the Sutpen story—and explore what it reveals about truth, storytelling, and the South’s enduring obsession with its past. Lori and Larry discuss themes of fatalism, love, terror, and the moral weight of history, examining how characters like Judith and Charles embody both the inescapability of inheritance and moments of grace within it.

They also reflect on Faulkner’s ambivalence toward the South—his simultaneous hatred and love for it—and how that tension gives the novel its tragic depth. From the image of the blackbird referring to Wallace Stevens’s “Thirteen Ways of Looking at a Blackbird,” the conversation concludes by considering what it means, as readers, to seek truth in a story that resists any single interpretation.

A fitting end to The Big Book Project’s journey through Absalom, Absalom!—and a reminder that the most profound books never truly end; they continue to reverberate in the imagination long after the final page.

Chapters:00:00 — Introduction02:00 — The unreliable narrators: Quentin and Shreve15:30 — Judith and Charles: love, fate, and moral choice35:00 — The curse and fatalism of the Sutpen legacy50:00 — Faulkner’s ambivalence toward the South1:02:00 — Wallace Stevens and the search for truth1:04:30 — Closing reflections

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