The Sound and the Fury - book review

[SpursforSix]

So my kid has to read this over the summer. I never read it so I decided to give it a shot.
The first section was WTF. Faulkner goes back and forth between different times with no warning. Sometimes the time shift is signified by italics. But not all the time.
And the first chapter is told from the point of view of a mentally disabled person and it's mostly stream of consciousness.

The next chapters are told from other points of view and easier to get through. Once you know who all the characters are and their relationships.

There is some great writing mixed in. Glad I read it but I don't know why this is considered on of the greatest works in American fiction.

6.5/10

[Kim Jong-il]

I know, it's ridiculous! Just throw in a fart joke or two, maybe some puns about dicks, a diarrhea chapter, you know just some classic literary stuff. But no! None of that!

[Avante]

I;ve read all the classics....

Dickens
Hemmingway
Steinbeck
Poe
F.Scott Fitzgerald
Faulkner
Wells
Hesse
Hawthorne
Melville

....but for sheer enjoyment they have nothing on western writers...

Louis L'Amour
Max Brand
Luke Short
Zane Grey

[SpursforSix]

I;ve read all the classics....

Dickens
Hemmingway
Steinbeck
Poe
F.Scott Fitzgerald
Faulkner
Wells
Hesse
Hawthorne
Melville

....but for sheer enjoyment they have nothing on western writers...

Louis L'Amour
Max Brand
Luke Short
Zane Grey

I've tried to read some westerns from time to time. Too pedestrian.

[Avante]

I've tried to read some westerns from time to time. Too pedestrian.

I've read the great sci fi authors, the great fantasy writers. Read Sinclair Lewis, Bertrand Russell, Bernard Malumud, Kurt Vonnegut, Raymond Chandler, Norman Mailer and on and on and......

None of them have a thing on those 4 western writers I mentioned.

[leemajors]

So my kid has to read this over the summer. I never read it so I decided to give it a shot.
The first section was WTF. Faulkner goes back and forth between different times with no warning. Sometimes the time shift is signified by italics. But not all the time.
And the first chapter is told from the point of view of a mentally disabled person and it's mostly stream of consciousness.

The next chapters are told from other points of view and easier to get through. Once you know who all the characters are and their relationships.

There is some great writing mixed in. Glad I read it but I don't know why this is considered on of the greatest works in American fiction.

6.5/10

As I Lay Dying is in the same sort of format. I didn't really care for it. I love some of his short stories though, Barn Burning is great.