A review by feefeeberry
The Sound and the Fury by William Faulkner

challenging dark emotional reflective slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.75

My rating is kind of low for me, but I promise that I really enjoyed this book. The bad is mainly a me problem, and not from the writing itself. I had a time trying to finish it, it put me in a reading slump, and I struggled severely to follow the story. This book is not a book that will be enjoyed most on the first read. It is so interesting, so clever, but good lord is it difficult. The first section puts you in the mind of Benjy, a man with a severe intellectual disability. He has no concept of time whatsoever which makes for a very challenging read, but a very interesting analysis. Benjy serves a similar function to Lockwood in Wurthering Heights in my opinion, he gives us these objective snippets of the Compson family, and the reader is left to fill in the blanks with the subjective perspective of Quentin and Jason. That is genius. I also believe that Quentin’s section and character is one of the most interesting things I’ve ever read. Did I understand most of it? Likely not. However, his section would be amazing to re-read and analyze, despite how long it took me to read. Jason’s section was probably my least favorite, but I understand his function. He gives us a subjective present, whereas Quentin gives us a subjective past. Jason’s initial characterization was very well done, with his sectioning opening with “Once a bitch, always a bitch.” That immediately tells the reader that he is a crude misogynistic man that is less educated than Quentin. I did find that Jason’s character got old to me about 30 pages too soon, and only got interesting again in the last 20 pages of the novel. Overall, I’m very glad I read it, but it is HARD and not for the impatient.