The image of the three boys swimming is, for me, the key to the whole book. Faulkner describes their wet heads, the way hair gets wet when you go swimming. It’s a completely mundane detail, and that’s why it’s brilliant. Faulkner gets you to think about something you never bothered to think about before but have seen a thousand times. He’s physically poking around in your own mind & memory to see what makes you tick