The Sound and the Fury

God bless the first publisher and early readers of this book, because there is no way I would have made it past the first few pages without the reassurance of essentially the entire literary world that Faulkner was brilliant. And I still might not have gotten much out of it without the chapter summaries, character descriptions, and analyses of the plot and structure that are now readily available online.

The book begins not only with the emerging literary technique of stream of consciousness, but from the perspective of Benjy, an intellectually disabled man with a very limited vocabulary who does not distinguish between past and present. His thoughts move constantly between different periods of his life, often with little warning beyond a change in typography or some small sensory association. It is extremely confusing.

Each of the four sections does become progressively easier to follow, with increasingly coherent perspectives, culminating in the final section, which is told in the third person and feels almost conventional, narratively speaking. I almost think it might have been an easier experience to read the sections in reverse order, but I know that would have defeated much of the intended effect.

In any case, the whole structure is very confusing. However, with the help of various online aids, once I got into the rhythm of it, I started to love it and did not want to put it down. I did not expect the characters to affect me as much as they did given the format of the book. Jason is one of the most hateable characters I have ever encountered. Caroline is a close second. I felt so much compassion for Caddy, Benjy, and Quentin. I loved the embedded commentary on religion, elitism, and hypocrisy. I especially loved the irony at the end, when Benjy is finally turned in the correct direction and feels that everything has returned to its proper order, even though, in every way that actually matters, the family has completely fallen apart.

I am sure there was a lot that I missed. Perhaps more than any other book I have read, this one seems written with the clear expectation that it will need to be read more than once. I look forward to it.

Book author: William Faulkner