The Reivers

By William Faulkner

This novel won the Pulitzer Prize for 1963.

This is the story of a boy, a stolen car and a stolen racehorse. It is set in 1905 and the car in question belongs to the boy's grandfather. The grandfather's driver, Boon, takes advantage of his employer's absence and he sets out on a trip to Memphis and brings the grandfather's grandson, Lucius, along, as a kind of insurance, I guess. They also have a stowaway on board too. Hidden under a tarp is Ned, a family retainer.
Boon is bound for Memphis to visit a woman he likes who works in a bordello. Why Ned decided to come along isn't made clear until the very end of the story. Boon and Lucius are not there very long before they find out that Ned has sold the car in exchange for a racehorse, a stolen racehorse. This particular racehorse is famous for not liking to race. Ned explains that he can get the horse to run and win and with their winnings they will be able to buy back the car and get back home and maybe Lucius' grandfather won't put them in jail. Meanwhile, Lucius gets a thorough education in the facts of life that he later wishes he could unlearn, thanks partly to Otis, a creepy and nasty boy who is a guest at the bordello.
Lucius also is witness to the tempestuous relationship between Boon and Corrie, who is one of the bordello girls, and Butch, a corrupt official who also wants Corrie.

I hadn't read Faulkner before reading The Reivers. This story started out really hard to read, the style very dense and meandering and full of interjections. Fortunately, it becomes more readable before long. The details of the car/horse race swap went over my head, being very tangled and rather unlikely, as far as I could tell. I didn't really get that part of the story, maybe because I am not a gambler and I don't follow racing and I don't know anyone who does.
Other than that, it was an engaging story, often times amusing, and Lucius a likable kid and the stowaway, Ned, a fount of down home wisdom. It was a fun and sometimes scary trip back to the old south and the days of the "Jim Crow" laws.

Review by Jonathan Yardley in The Washington Post: "William Faulkner's Southern Draw: 'The Reivers'"