Intruder in the Dust by William Faulkner

This book is part detective fiction and part apologia for Southern slowness in correcting its racism and bigotry. The story and the writing are alright, but not outstanding in comparison with Faulkner's other work. The real disappointment is that instead of developing sophisticated, challenging and nuanced perspectives on race through character development (as we see in Go Down Moses and Absalom, Absalom!), here Faulkner puts his ideas about how the North, East, and West should back off the South and let it dealt with race on its own terms and in its own time in the mouth of Gavin Stevens and then creates a story where two young boys (one white and one black) and an old, white woman unite to save a black man from almost-certain lynching. There's an element of the coming-of-age story, but mostly this novel is a frustrating and heavy-handed attempt at self-justification.