The Classics Challenge: "The Sound and the Fury" by William Faulkner

I knew going in that Faulkner was not an easy author to read. However, when the first chapter is written from the point of view of a mentally disabled individual, with the narrative jumping around in time and space with no warning, AND the said chapter is 75 pages long, I was frankly blown away. But the stubborn reader in me smiled and dug in before the challenge. There was no way I'd give up now.

Chapter 2 did not get much easier. If Benjy's mind just jumped around in space and time, at least his focus was on simpler things: sounds, sights, smells and feelings. Quentin's narrative is more eloquent, but just as disjointed and all over the place. I do appreciate and admire Faulkner's ability to stay "in character" and express his narrators' inner thoughts and feelings.

Chapter 3 is a vast improvement. Written from the point of view of Jason, a perpetually angry and dissatisfied with his family younger brother, the narrative flows smoothly despite the fact that Jason's mind is fixated on money and the moral characters of his sister and niece. The final chapter is written in the third person and does not have one primary narrator. It is thus the most straightforward in the book.

Overall, reading Faulkner is both like looking at a Picasso's painting; and hacking through a thorny thicket hoping that there is a beautiful view up ahead. The good thing is there is a lot of material written about this novel on the internet. I highly recommend going in blind, but then about half way through chapter one looking up the list of characters just so you can keep them straight in your head. Since Benjy's thoughts jump around all over a thirty-year period, it is good to at least be aware who belongs where.

Reading this book must have been a crazy experience when it first came out in 1929. If you survived the first 100 pages, you would probably get to the end, just to realize that you needed to start again from the very beginning in order to put all those ramblings in perspective now. I can definitely see the genius of experimenting this way with the form and structure of the novel, but this book is definitely not for everyone.

Upon finishing the novel I felt an almost overwhelming sense of wonder. How did he do it? Out of the utter chaos of the first two chapters emerged a painful and profound picture of inexplicable human existence. He repeats pretty much the same story four times from a different point of view, as if to say: as conscious beings we all have a story to tell. In addition, each of those stories is slightly different based on the narrator's perception, opinions, beliefs etc. As in life, so in reading Faulkner, no matter how painful moment to moment is, one cannot help but be in awe of the overall concept.

As for rating, how do you rate a genius? I think I will just quote what Robert Penn Warren had to say:

"For range of effect, philosophical weight, originality of style, variety of characterization, humor, and tragic intensity [Faulkner's works] are without equal...." This is one of those books that will stick with me for a while. Finishing it definitely gave me a profound sense of achievement.