The Saddest Words: William Faulkner's Civil War

"surely among the most dexterous, dynamic, and consistently surprising studies ever written about an English-language novelist ..."

"Faulkner had his flaws, Gorra writes, but he 'gets the big things right' ..."

"Gorra adroitly and poignantly portrays Faulkner at war with himself, juxtaposed and entwined with the history of a cleaved nation, to provide a compelling and necessary reexamination of a towering literary figure."

"Gorra's book, as he writes in his preface, is 'an act of citizenship,' timely and essential as we confront, once again, the question of who is a citizen and who among us should enjoy its privileges."

"Gorra demonstrates convincingly that this unshakable past for Faulkner came increasingly to involve race ..."

"Gorra could not have foreseen our current moment when he began this work of biography, history and literary criticism."

"A worthy addition to Faulkner studies, and for larger Southern literature and Civil War collections."

"Gorra's argument, however, depends on close readings of everything from individual sentences to symbols and characters and themes across the author's novels, which collectively make the case that a racist person can be a radical writer."

"...penetrating and elegantly written ..."