Soldiers' Pay

Description for SOLDIERS' PAY by William Faulkner:

SOLDIERS' PAY was William Faulkner's first novel. With such notable works of the period as Dos Passos' THREE SOLDIERS and Hemingway's A FAREWELL TO ARMS, this tale of a wounded airman returning to his home in the South is a product of bitter post-World War I disillusionment. An atmosphere of fevered sexuality against the background of approaching death permeates the book as its doomed protagonist, Donald Mahon, seeks his place in a world that has remained unchanged while his life was being shattered. His attempt to win back his faithless former love, his final acceptance of the love of a woman who lost her husband in the war, convey a sense of human anguish and tragic destiny that lies at the heart of the Faulknerian vision. In turn deeply moving and sharply satiric, superbly accomplished and awkwardly groping, SOLDIERS' PAY is not only a novel distinctly memorable in its own right, but it also offers unique fascination---as Robie Macauley declares---"for readers who enjoy the excitement of first trials, early promises, omens and portents."