Faulkner's Oxford

The author shares his memories of Faulkner, and describes the influences of their mutual home town on his writings

YA-- An insider's walking tour of Oxford from 1924 until Faulkner's death in 1962. Since Faulkner set 19 novels in this northern Mississippi town, this collection of anecdotes and photographs gives important background for novices and veterans alike, introducing him to the former, filling in gaps for the latter. Taylor serves up laconic, first-person recollections of "Mr. Billy" telling stories to "Miss Estelle's children," encouraging them to speak out as he did in his struggle to keep industry out of Oxford. The landmarks of the Snopes and the Sartorises are all here in snapshots as well--the town square, the jailhouse and courthouse, the three-storied frame house of Faulkner's grandfather, the creek. A tour with Taylor is a tour through Chickasaw Country, Yoknapatawpha County, where "the muddy water flows slowly through the flat land." Reflections, quietly paced, are understated. A must for an understanding of "Mr. Billy's" geography.
- Margaret C. Nolan, W. T. Woodson High School, Fairfax, VA
Copyright 1991 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Presumably of interest to some lifelong Oxonians, Taylor's first book will furnish nothing to anyone interested in Faulkner. Considerably younger than the Nobel Prize winner, Taylor had only a nodding acquaintance with him and only a rudimentary understanding of his fiction. A rambling, self-indulgent, loosely written personal account of some of the changes he has seen in Oxford, Mississippi in the past 70 years, Taylor's superficial book does nothing but extend and further burden the already heavy shelf of Faulkner iana.
- Charles C. Nash, Cottey Coll., Nevada, Mo.
Copyright 1991 Reed Business Information, Inc.