William Faulkner--The Town (1957)

Part two of the Snopes trilogy, between The Hamlet (1940) and The Mansion (1959).  Chapter Synopsis: Each chapter is narrated from the point of view of one of three characters: Chick Mallison, Gavin Stevens, or V.K. Ratliff.  Like The Hamlet, The Town also focuses on the changing economy of Jefferson, but emphasizes the significance of gender in the flow of the economy, not only in how they effect it differently, but there’s a real Helen of Troy-esque blame on women for motivating men to make poor economic decisions.  In the story of the corsage panic, or Gavin’s pursuit of Linda Snopes, or Eula’s cuckolding of Flem, or Montgomery Ward’s pornography atelier, lust and sex are seen as the motive power of economics.  While women inspire this tragic motive power, they themselves seem doomed, as the suicide of Eula Snopes seems to emphasize to me.