At LitHub Nicola DeRobertis-Theye tagged five favorite novels of biographical detection, i.e. books that follow a character investigating another character’s life. One title on the list:
Absalom, Absalom!, William Faulkner
In this novel the detective is Quentin, whose, ahem, interest in his family has more tragic consequences in The Sound and the Fury. The man detected is Stupen, who Quentin’s grandfather became involved with in the decades before the Civil War, and whose ruthless establishment of a failed dynasty in the town of Jefferson Quentin slowly unpeels.
Read about
the other entries on the list.
Absalom, Absalom! also appears on
Brenda Wineapple's six favorite books list,
Jacket Copy's list of sixty-one essential postmodern reads,
Sarah Churchwell's list of six books on the American Deep South, and
Thomas Perry's favorite books list.
--Marshal Zeringue
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