The Sound and the Fury

I haven't actually finished one of my 1001 books yet since I started this project, but as I mentioned there's about 50 of them which I've already read, so until I do finish one I thought I could talk about those which I've already finished. I thought would be good to start out talking about one of my very favorites:

I read this book for the first time just a couple of months ago. I actually read it for my American Lit. class and ended up writing my final paper on it. My professor for this class used the word "awesome" to describe every book we read--in a 50 minute class period he probably used the word "awesome" at least 10 times. With this book, though, I thought it was really an accurate description. The Sound and the Fury by William Faulkner was, without a doubt, awesome.

This book is not super plot-heavy. It tells the story of the Compson family, who used to be this really aristocratic Southern family but who have fallen into decline. There are 4 Compson children: Quentin, Caddy, Jason, and Benjy. The book is divided into four sections with four different narrators--the three Compson brothers narrate the first three sections and the fourth is told through third-person narration. Caddy, the only Compson sister, is the only sibling who does not narrate a section, but she ends up being the central focus of the book since all of her brothers are fixated on her.

The first couple of sections in this book are a little confusing because they are a combination of flashbacks and present day, but there's never any clues to when the flashbacks are starting or ending so it's hard to establish a timeline for when things are happening. There's also no clear introductions to characters so as you're reading you're just kind of thrown into what's happening and you have to figure things out for yourself.

All in all, I think this is one of those novels that you either love or hate. The first pages can be pretty frustrating and if you're not willing to work through them you will probably end up being one of the haters of this book. But, if you take your time and push through the confusing parts, the book eventually starts to make sense and you end up loving it. I wish I could use a different word, but I can't...this book is just awesome.