7. Mosquitoes by William Faulkner
OPD: 1927
format: 368 pages within an ebook anthology: William Faulkner: Novels 1926-1929: Soldiers' Pay / Mosquitoes / Flags in the Dust / The Sound and the Fury
acquired: January 1 read: Jan 21 – Feb 7 time reading: 11:20, 1.8 mpp
rating: 3½
genre/style: Novel theme: Faulkner
locations: then contemporary New Orleans and surrounding waterways
about the author: 1897-1962. American Noble Laureate who was born in New Albany, MS, and lived most of his life in Oxford, MS.

Faulkner's second novel is another that few have read. It has some issues, and while reading I was thinking of all the ways I would complain about them, but actually it reads ok overall, and I find myself with an odd affection for it.

It has a touch of a Gilligan's Island feel. A wealthy widow in New Orleans invites a selected crowd on her yacht for an overnight trip. Alas the yacht grounds, and the clash of wealthy single women, male artists, a rambler, local New Orleans girl, and the crew stews on the edge of a humid Louisiana lake rife mosquitoes, in middle of nowhere. And there is only grapefruit, liquor, and cigarettes for sustenance.

The text has a nice flow until the boat grounds. Then it sputters in spits and starts, jumping to random episodes and conversations. The artists are mostly middle-aged men, and they find themselves improperly attracted to their host's slightly dressed teenage niece, who skinny dips before dawn, and the equally slightly dressed teenage local New Orleans girl the niece invited, having just met her before the trip. Sometimes Faulkner manages to be erotic, but mostly he is being intentionally disturbing for comedic effect. And then he mixes in scattered decently serious drunken thoughts on writing and art. One character reads poems out loud to the others, presented to reader.

This awkward book has endearing flawed characters, and entertaining aspects that I'll continue to think about. And I really liked that it touches a little on New Orleans, especially in the epilogue. It maybe spends a little too much time stranded in a mosquito-infested lake, time standing still.

Recommended for the curious and forgiving.

2024
https://www.librarything.com/topic/356616#8413087 ( )

As a disconnected and individual book, this one wasn't very good. However, in the context of Faulkner's artistic development (particularly juxtaposed with Soldiers' Pay), Mosquitoes is a very interesting read. Here, the young writer maintained his social interest in the characters inhabiting his world but compounded them with a much more elaborate and ambitious intellectual project. At times, sure, this came off as overly engineered and trying to hard, but the fact that he was even interested in aping European modernists gave him a structural framework to hang his characters on that exceeds most novelists' sophomore effort. It shows his artistic interests, though his language is still a little vague and full of self-created idioms, which are endlessly repeated. Okay, we get it, Talliaferro is "diffident," Mark Frost has "a prehensile mouth," no need to tell us over and over. There is frequently "a rumor of moonlight" and "a shock of hair."

These are easy violations to forgive in hindsight. We know this young author will become the Faulkner of Absalom, Absalom! and As I Lay Dying so watching him ease into more disciplined prose is actually a delight. A bit like watching Mozart play around with scales, if ever a thing were possible. Not only that but there are worthwhile themes and stylistic experiments in this novel that have the ability to shock and move the reader. It may pale in comparison to his later works but it is still a pretty good read.

Reading an author's work from beginning to end provides insight into the way he develops his ideas and style. In my humble opinion there is no better way to approach an artist. For that I completely recommend Mosquitoes to anyone interested in approaching Faulkner's oeuvre. ( )

As a disconnected and individual book, this one wasn't very good. However, in the context of Faulkner's artistic development (particularly juxtaposed with Soldiers' Pay), Mosquitoes is a very interesting read. Here, the young writer maintained his social interest in the characters inhabiting his world but compounded them with a much more elaborate and ambitious intellectual project. At times, sure, this came off as overly engineered and trying to hard, but the fact that he was even interested in aping European modernists gave him a structural framework to hang his characters on that exceeds most novelists' sophomore effort. It shows his artistic interests, though his language is still a little vague and full of self-created idioms, which are endlessly repeated. Okay, we get it, Talliaferro is "diffident," Mark Frost has "a prehensile mouth," no need to tell us over and over. There is frequently "a rumor of moonlight" and "a shock of hair."

These are easy violations to forgive in hindsight. We know this young author will become the Faulkner of Absalom, Absalom! and As I Lay Dying so watching him ease into more disciplined prose is actually a delight. A bit like watching Mozart play around with scales, if ever a thing were possible. Not only that but there are worthwhile themes and stylistic experiments in this novel that have the ability to shock and move the reader. It may pale in comparison to his later works but it is still a pretty good read.

Reading an author's work from beginning to end provides insight into the way he develops his ideas and style. In my humble opinion there is no better way to approach an artist. For that I completely recommend Mosquitoes to anyone interested in approaching Faulkner's oeuvre. ( )

“Mosquitoes” was the second novel Faulkner wrote. It’s a satire set in New Orleans, and while it’s amusing it’s not really laugh out loud funny. It’s a sort of “Ship of Fools” but with a smaller boat and possibly more foolish people.

A woman of means, Mrs. Maurier, who wields power in the art buying world, arranges a boat party for a few artists and writers. Her niece and nephew are also included, and they snag a couple of other people they’ve never even met before, right off the dock. This mismatched group, who apparently didn’t think things through, finds themselves on Lake Pontchartrain for several days. Mrs. Maurier seems to expect artistic conversation and jolly dances. Instead she gets people who stay consistently drunk and who try and seduce each other. And complain about the fact that they are served grapefruits at every meal. The boat runs aground, some of them try and swim to shore and walk back to the Big Easy, another someone disappears.

These are some of the most annoying people on earth. If I were stuck on a boat with them for days, I’d go overboard, too. It’s fun to read about them at times, but I have to admit I was bored part of the time, too. There is a good bit of repetition. I had trouble remembering who was who- three of the men seemed interchangeable (one was even called “the Semitic man” instead of named most of the time!) and a couple of the young girls did, too. They are the true parasites of the story, not the mosquitoes which, while biting constantly, are never named. None of the women are portrayed in a good light. Three stars. ( )

Not my favorite Faulkner by any means. An early work of his about a day-long outing by a loosely-knit group. The heat and the infernal mosquitoes add to atmosphere. ( )