Absalom, Abaslom! Episode 7—“The best novel yet written by an American” (Faulkner’s opinion of the novel!)

In this seventh (and final) episode proper of Summer Reading with the Diehls Season 1, Adam Diehl and his wife Whitney discuss the lasting value—and place in American literary history— of William Faulkner’s 1936 novel Absalom, Absalom!. Is this book in the running for the mythical Great American Novel? Why or why not? As Whitney said in the previous episode, Absalom, Absalom! is a “meditation on Time, Power, Survival”; this final podcast of the season analyzes and synthesizes this estimation.

 

Also, after considering the length, width, density, mass, and volume, they attempt to answer the question: to what height does this novel soar?