Santuario fue la obra que dio a conocer a William Faulkner al gran público. Una historia escalofriante en la que caben toda la fuerza y la originalidad del genial novelista estadounidense.

Lee Goodwin es acusado de asesinato. El escenario del crimen es una casa oculta entre los árboles que alberga una destilería ilegal. Allí viven, entre otros, Ruby, una mujer que ha renunciado a todo por Lee, y Popeye, un sádico gánster marcado por una infancia terrible.

El abogado Horace Benbow lucha para que Goodwin no sea juzgado por ser quien es, sino por los actos de los que le acusan. Para ello necesita la ayuda de Temple Drake, una adolescente que siente una extraña atracción por el peligro. Pero Temple ha desaparecido.

La crítica ha dicho:
«Faulkner indagó en las sombras con emoción y talento difícilmente comparables [...]. Cualquiera que tenga curiosidad por la novela del siglo XX en cualquier idioma tiene la obligación de leer a William Faulkner.»
Javier Marías

«Faulkner gusta de exponer la novela a través de los personajes. El método no es absolutamente original, pero Faulkner le infunde una intensidad que es casi intolerable.»
Jorge Luis Borges

«El vínculo entre Cervantes y Faulkner se encuentra en que los dos añaden algo al mundo, ilustran nuestro espíritu, al convertir los mundos ocultos en mundos liberados: Faulkner mediante la conciencia trágica del dolor y Cervantes mediante la comedia y la idea de que el hombre prevalecerá.»
Carlos Fuentes

«Al leer y releer a Faulkner es forzoso sospechar que su mirada era distinta a la nuestra, a la del común de los hombres, a la del común de los escritores. Detenida sobre paisajes, personas, circunstancias, veía algo más que lo percibido por nosotros [...]. Es, literariamente, uno de los más grandes artistas del siglo.»
Juan Carlos Onetti

Confusing, at times, to figure out what is going on with who. Still, towards the end, becomes engrossing.

8/29/21 reread
I had to put this book down, reading it for the second time, halfway through. The characters are too repugnant for words, constantly using the n-word. I don't give a damn for any of these characters. I don't know if I'll ever read a William Faulkner book again. He must have had contacts in the publishing business to even get published. ( )

It's actually been quite a while (probably like, almost a year?) since I read this, I just haven't moved it off my 'currently reading' list. Now, there were actually quite a few books like that, partially due to simple laziness, partly due to barely remembering them, but in this case I'm pretty sure it's because the book was pretty bloody brutal and I was kind of traumatised after finishing it.
Now that I've finally given it a bare-bones review (from what I remember it was great. Horrifying and bleak, but great), maybe I can clear the rest of these long-since-finished (or abandoned) books off my virtual shelf. ( )

I’m trying to imagine a darker world than the one William Faulkner portrays in [b:Sanctuary|18789|Sanctuary|William Faulkner|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1385366876s/18789.jpg|1646639], and I can’t come up with one. There is not one character who isn’t pretty much despicable in his/her own right. Even Benbow, the lawyer who seeks to help a man that he knows is not guilty of the murder for which he is charged, is weak and unsavory in many ways.

What happens to Temple Drake, who finds herself in a very dangerous situation because she is young, naive, and clueless about the world at large, should not happen to the worst among us. The passages concerning her were desperately difficult to read. They are so stark and realistic, written in a quick clipped manner that echoes the shallow, frightened breathes you know she is taking. I found myself holding on to my own breath and gasping, with a tightness in my chest that surprised me.

No one could ever accuse Faulkner of being easy reading. He suggests more than tells sometimes, or you get a few chapters along and wonder if you missed something previous or even misunderstood what you have read. He loves to answer questions only after you have given up on getting the answers you need, and he washes through a very important event and then gives you bits of details later in the story. It is exhilarating and irritating at the same time. I have never closed one of his books without feeling that I should start over at the beginning and read it again.

Sanctuary is not my favorite Faulkner, but Temple Drake is, I believe, one of his stronger characters. She is a complicated mixture of vixen and child, she is a victim of not only the evil that is Popeye, but of the evil that is the system in which she has been raised and from which she draws her morals, or lack thereof. I’m looking forward to reading [b:Requiem for a Nun|1008839|Requiem for a Nun|William Faulkner|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1334525385s/1008839.jpg|2041161] and seeing where her future takes her. What possible meaning could life have after an experience like this one?
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