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One Matchless Time
A Life Of William Faulkner
by Jay Parini
Parini, who has also written about John Steinbeck and Robert Frost, examines the life and work of Nobel Prize-winning Southern writer William Faulkner.
HarperCollins, 512 pages
11/01/2004
$29.95
ISBN: 0066210720
Nonfiction
Biographies & Memoirs
All reviews are classified as one of five grades: Outstanding (4 points), Favorable (3), Mixed (2), Unfavorable (1) and Terrible (0). To calculate the Metascore, we divide total points achieved by the total points possible (i.e., 4 x the number of reviews), with the resulting percentage (multiplied by 100) being the Metascore. Learn more...
Booklist Donna Seaman
Engrossing and revelatory, this is a landmark biography.
Houston Chronicle William J. Cobb
Anecdotal without being tawdry, analytical without being academic, it captures the essence of Faulkner's life with the narrative drive of a novel. [5 Dec. 2004, p. 19]
Library Journal Henry L. Carrigan Jr.
To his credit, novelist and critic Parini, who has written graceful biographies of Frost and Steinbeck, does not try to surpass Blotner's achievement but incorporates Blotner's insights into his own eloquent and magnificent critical biography.
Kirkus Reviews
Some fresh evidence but a conventional treatment of the Yoda of Yoknapatawpha County.
Chicago Tribune Victor Strandberg
"One Matchless Time" is a worthy contribution to Faulkner scholarship. To be sure, Blotner's vast opus remains the biography to reckon with, but Jay Parini offers a fine second choice for readers not ready to assault Mt. Everest. [14 Nov. 2004, C1]
Christian Science Monitor David Kirby
Parini is the author of 15 other books, five of them novels, and this biography reads like a novel about a novelist - not a Faulkner novel, but one by Balzac, whose vitality and breadth of vision Faulkner first envied, then admired, and finally surpassed.
The Globe And Mail [Toronto] Michael Millgate
When [Parini] is at his best and on his own, and engaging with the novels he genuinely admires, he can be very effective indeed. [27 Nov. 2004, D39]
The New Republic Christopher Benfey
Sturdy and well-researched.
Village Voice Brandon Stosuy
An elegant rehash, Jay Parini's One Matchless Time doesn't escape its foundational shadows.
Wall Street Journal John Freeman
"One Matchless Time" has a hard time comprehending this latter part of Faulkner's psychology as a writer -- it seems insufficiently right-minded, almost embarrassing -- but Mr. Parini does the next best thing in this regard. By thoughtfully steering readers from the life back to the work, he encourages us to explore the sprawling, vine-covered manse of the man's fiction for ourselves.
Washington Post Jonathan Yardley
Whatever the explanation for One Matchless Time, Parini brings certain strengths to the task -- fairness, balance and sympathy -- and one important weakness: He doesn't know much about the South.
New York Review Of Books J.M. Coetzee
All in all, Parini's book is a puzzling mixture: on the one hand, a real feel for Faulkner as a writer; on the other, a readiness to vulgarize him.
Publishers Weekly
The clumsy prose, surprising from such a distinguished literary man as Parini, does not increase the book's readability.
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