SOURCE: A review of On the Prejudices, Predilections, and Firm Beliefs of William Faulkner, in The New York Times Book Review, November 15, 1987, p. 27.

[Sundquist is an American educator and critic. In the following review, he provides a mixed assessment of On the Prejudices, Predilections, and Firm Beliefs of William Faulkner.]

His three previous books on Faulkner have established Cleanth Brooks as one of the novelist's leading critics in the last 30 years. Still, Mr. Brooks's interpretations of major works have not always been as influential as his insights into less studied aspects of the Faulkner canon. This most recent collection [On the Prejudices, Predilections, and Firm Beliefs of William Faulkner] of 12 essays, all but one of them first delivered as lectures dating as far back as 1971, is no exception. The essays that treat perennial Faulkner topics—the notion of community in his novels, his women characters or his values...