The Sound and the Fury

Just finished this book for the second time...my did I get much more out of it this time than when I was 17 years old!

Still continually amazed at the level to which Faulkner can immerse himself into a literary character. I made the comment in a book club that his treatment of Benjy, Quentin (son), and Jason was like an actor preparing for a movie role. There was very little, if any, stylistic carry-over from one section to the next, which made the reader feel like he/she was in the head of the individual narrating that particular section.

This time, I picked up more on the racial themes as well as the struggles states like Mississippi had in the generation following the Civil War. I especially liked how the part of the Compson family that tended to side with Jason (father) - i.e. Quentin (son), Caddy, and Quentin (C's daughter) - were ultimately set free from the deteriorating family through death or relocation. Jason (son) and Caroline (i.e. the Bascomb side) were left to continue deteriorating into obscurity. Benjy was simply caught in the middle with no choice but to watch it happen.

Again, great book. I would not change the five-star rating. My only qualm with it was the jarring transition to third person narration in the Dilsey section. I wish it would have stayed in first person...I just grew too attached to the first person upon this reading. Still, though, an excellent read and re-read.

Tough, complex read (and listen). Takes a while to get oriented. Reminded me of a piece of contemporary music, where you are allowed to follow for a while but then plunged back into a confusion of fragments. Some of this confusion is deliberate (for example, the use of the same name for multiple characters, or the name change in another). Will need a second read! Faulkner wants you do so some work too. How nice when a book (or, for that matter, a poem, music, movie, dinner, painting) makes an impression that stays with you for days!

finally over with this book depression hit hard in the midde so you will have to excuse me; great book but the wild palms is still better

Can sense that this book was really good, but so much of it went over my head that I can't say I enjoyed it so much. Well written, but not enough for me to want to reread it again to decipher what happened. Glad I read it however.

Not rating because I think I should read it again someday when I have more time.

absolutely phenomenal from start to finish. such a difficult read, but one that i enjoyed nonetheless. would love to own a physical copy of this!

Useless, all of them
wallowing in their whiteness
too good to help out.

Full disclosure I didn't finish this book, I read Benji's section the end and maybe a dozen pages of Quintin's.

Two stars for interesting writing style and concept but ultimately I just don't want to spend the hours required to read the inner thoughts of a suicidal Harvard student and his older brother who is a complete jerk.

Second Faulkner book I've read, and his style is definitely not for me. Painful, convoluted read. Not my thing.

Read this while at University and loved it! Tried it again 10 years later and just couldn't get into it.

How can you like a book when you hate almost all of the characters? I started off liking some of them, or didn't fully realize I hated them until I read third section which is told from the perspective of Jason, likely the biggest loser I have ever encountered in real or literary life. He's a self-pitying, egotistical, violent, aggressive, passive-aggressive, heartless, soulless SOB that Faulkner writes all too realistically.

As I read Jason's section, my opinion of the remaining characters deteriorated quickly. Jason is his mother's favorite child which made me hate his mother for loving him. His mother constantly whines about fulfilling the wishes of her dead husband which made me hate her dead husband. Jason hates his niece who hates herself and wants to die. His niece is named after her Uncle Quentin who hated himself so much he DID kill himself, making me hate both Quentins. Caddie, Quentin the Niece's mom, doesn't make much of an appearance (having been exiled on account of her promiscuity) but we do know that while she was helpful with her handicapped brother, she can't take care of her own daughter because her lifestyle is too wild. She is desperate and helpless and Jason hates her and hurts her at every opportunity. I thought I liked Caddie, but I don't know, she seems hatable enough.

That leaves Jason's mentally handicapped brother Benjamin and the black servants who work in the house. Benjamin is 33. He narrates for the first section of the book, ironically the only section that I found to be truly enjoyable. His doesn't speak and his predominant sense is smell. He's confused, castrated and constantly crying. Jason despises him and wants to send him to Jackson, a public mental asylum. While I liked his perspective, my feelings for Ben are neutral at best. Then there are the servants. I like them. They're the only sane ones in the book. Luster just wants a quarter to see a show (understandable), and his grandma Dilsey is the only person in the book with a mentality remotely close to my definition of healthy. I'll take their simple motives to Jason's insanity anytime.

The oft-mentioned stream of consciousness writing style was my favorite part of the book and the reason that despite the bevy of annoying characters, my overall impression of the book is positive. When I got into the flow of it, it was uncanny how easy it was to follow the frequent shifts in perspective. I felt lost at times but the narrative always ended up coalescing seamlessly. Sometimes it happened synchronous with my reading it, more often, 20 or 30 pages later.

Despite the beautiful writing, the reason I probably won't read this again, aside from the aforementioned annoying characters, is that I don't think The Sound and the Fury will have a lasting effect on me. It doesn't have the moral and philosophical insights of Dostoyevsky, the introspections of Hemingway, the historical expansiveness of Tolstoy, the humor of Cervantes or the mystery of Borges. Instead you get the dirty South. My native South is portrayed in a way that is akin to watching ESPN in some alternate universe where they only show the errors. It's painful entertainment.

I wished I had read this in college, where I could have had the opportunity to discuss it with an English lit professor. So confusing at times, with all the time changes. I have to admit it took me half the book to realize that there were two characters named Quentin. But so creative! And haunting.