The Sound and the Fury
by William Faulkner (1929)
Modern Library (1992)
368 pp
I’m absolutely loving getting better prepared to talk about Faulkner in June with Paul for our next author focused episode. I’ve been intimidated by The Sound and the Fury for years and years. My parents got me this book for Christmas in 2001 (thanks Mom and Dad!), and so it’s made its way around my shelves for just shy of a quarter century.
But no regrets. I’m so glad I finally read this. That’s not quite the right word. I’m glad it finally experienced this. Because perhaps more than any other book I’ve ever read, The Sound and the Fury was an experience.
For the first section, I had no real idea what was going on. The story is told through a stream-of-consciousness narrative by Benjy Compson, who moves from past to present often without much indication of the shift. Things are happening around him, but we (like him) cannot capture it fully. I found the raw immediacy surprisingly emotional.
We get to understand the story in more detail in the next two sections, told by his two brothers, Quentin (on his last day on earth) and the deeply unlikable Jason. The final section goes to a third-person narrator, which probably helps clear plot points up, but the parts that stay with me are the three brothers. Somehow Faulkner made those sections terrifyingly real as they often fussed about their family, in particular their sister Caddy.
I’m looking forward to more. I’ve already started Absalom, Absalom!
