Rating: ![5 stars](http://www.reviewfocus.com/images/stars-5-0.gif) Summary: One of the best novels I've ever read Review: All right, all right. It's one of the ONLY novels I've ever read. It was still a powerful experience.It must be said, to the uninformed (i.e. me, until I got the Cliffs Notes), that the first quarter of the novel is narrated by a mental defect. The second is by a distracted, suicidal young man, and the third is by a rage-filled bigot. The fourth is by Faulkner himself, so it should present the least difficulty. Know these things, and you are properly equipped to dive into Faulkner's astoundingly brilliant prose. I'm no literary critic -- movies are my game -- but "The Sound and the Fury" transcends everything I've ever been taught in English class, and winds up being a lesson in itself, on how to write with freedom and heedless abandon, and communicate no more than exactly what you have to say. Who can't admire that?
Rating: ![5 stars](http://www.reviewfocus.com/images/stars-5-0.gif) Summary: You couldn't read another novels after you've read this. Review: 'Sound and Fury' is a masterpiece. It reached a peak of the novel genre. Nothing could beat 'Sound and Fury' forever. Many of modern writers are influenced from this book.. including TS Eliot and James Joyce.
Rating: ![5 stars](http://www.reviewfocus.com/images/stars-5-0.gif) Summary: One of the most towering novels of the century Review: "The Sound and the Fury" tells the disintegration of the once proud Compson family. What makes the novel engaging is that it tells the disintegration in a span of one day. Faulkner used the "stream-of-consciousness" and the interior monolgue techniques - relatively new forms of technique in those years. The "stream-of-conciousness" techniques puts in writing the actual thought process of a character. Further complicating the reading is that the novel is told from four different points of view. The first chapter is narrated by the inbecile Benjy, the second by the dead Quentin, the third by the sane Jason, and the fourth chapter is narrated by the author. It is very difficult at first to comprehend what Faulkner is telling the reader. It does not help that he started the novel with Benjy's section. Benjy is severely retarded; he can not understand what is happening; his thoughts move back and forth in time; he is forever confined in the arms of Caddy. Faulkner once said in an interview that he started the novel with Benjy's sections because he wanted a character who can tell what happens/ed and can't tell why it happened. Reading Quentin's section would fill in the questions left unanswered in Benjy's section. Quentin's section is my favorite section. The section is narrated shortly before his suicide on June 10, 1910. He tells of his desire to be Caddy; he even goes as far as telling their father that he was the one who impregnated Caddy not dalton Ames. The section is even more difficult to comprehend than Benjy's. Whereas Benjy's thoughts do not go back to the same past, Quentin's thoughts goes back many times to the same past. He just can't imagine his life without Caddy. Both Benjy's and Quentin's sections are marked with italics whenever there is a time change. Jason's section is easier to understand than the two Previous sections. Jason's section is actually spoken by him; Faulkner used the interior monolgue technique. In this section you would discover even more surprises not revealed in the two previous sections. Jason is practically angry with everybody. He is angry with Caddy; she was the cause why he did not get the job in the back. Jason is also angry with Caddy's daughter Quentin (not to be confused with the other Quentin). Quentin took Jason's money and ran away with a man she knew from the circus. Problem is Jason can not tell the police that Quentin stole the money because part of the money stolen by Quentin actually belongs to her. Jason stole the money sent by Caddy to her daughter. The fourth section is told by the author. For the first time you'll get a picture of what Benjy looks like. The novel is a very interesting read. No author in recent memory has come close to what William Faulkner accomplished in this novel. Every reading of the novel will bring you closer to the complex personalities Faulkner has created. It is not only a novel that you can read but reread.
Rating: ![5 stars](http://www.reviewfocus.com/images/stars-5-0.gif) Summary: wow Review: That is all I can say about this book. I read it for a class in college. It was terribly difficult to grasp at first, but once I got the hang of the style these characters seemed to jump out of the page and make this one of the most poignant tragedies I have ever read. A hint for getting into the book is to look up a Faulkner site on the net and read a brief synopsis of the story first. This will keep you from getting too confused in the first couple of pages.
Rating: ![1 stars](http://www.reviewfocus.com/images/stars-1-0.gif) Summary: Want to be confused? READ THIS BOOK!!! Review: I read this book back in college and I hated every moment of it. I thought I was young and naive. I read it again some years later.... same result. My professor (who had taught this book for many years until we convinced her not to use it anymore) walked us through the entire book, so I understand it... I just don't think it is worth the time. The biggest problem is the writing style. Faulkner writes using "Stream of Consciousness," a writing style meant to show the reader what characters are actually thinking. It's as if you are inside the character's head, listening to his/her thoughts. One problem: the first part of the book is about someone who is mentally retarded. But you don't know this. You read and read and the book jumps from place to place with no connection whatsoever because it is occuring in the mind of someone who has no concept of time or reality. In a later section, one of the characters goes mad. In this section, if you buy the book, you will get the joy of reading page after page of text with NO PUNCTUATION WHATSOEVER. No capitalization, no commas, no periods.. NOTHING. Trust me on this one. Do not buy this book. Buy something you will enjoy. A book does not have to be this complicated to be a classic. A book should just be enjoyable.
Rating: ![4 stars](http://www.reviewfocus.com/images/stars-4-0.gif) Summary: A complex book but a very good read. Review: This book is hard to understand firsthand but once you get into the meaning of it, the characters speak out very clearly. Having been written in 1929 this book is definitely in touch with turn of the century problems...and even some of todays' A good read but read it through to get the meaning.
Rating: ![5 stars](http://www.reviewfocus.com/images/stars-5-0.gif) Summary: A masterpiece Review: It takes at least two read throughs to appreciate what Faulkner has done. His characters are beautifully tragic, and the way they tell their stories is as important as the stories themselves. If there is such thing as the Great American Novel,maybe this is it.
Rating: ![5 stars](http://www.reviewfocus.com/images/stars-5-0.gif) Summary: ataleofwittystlyleandliteraryinventivness Review: I read this book several years ago and it was my first faulkner book. I din't understand anything, except the last chapter, and that was the main reason I began to read faulkner's works. they are all incredible; his sentences are a defiance to normal reading, and the way he tells the story is a breakthrough in literary inventivness. you can start the book by any chapter except the last one and still get the same reading.Later that style was put to use in Spanish language by writers such as Julio Cortazar. A style in which the book does not need to be read like a good boy from beginning to end and can be started at any chapter. TO my understanding and taste this is not Faulkner's best book butit's the most experimental,the one he said he liked best. HE was a perfectionist and once he said that if he had the chance he'd write the story once again. It's a shame that it was the french who first discovered his genius, but later people in the states began to recognize his literary achievement, especially after the nobel prize I HOPE YOU ENJOY IT.
Rating: ![3 stars](http://www.reviewfocus.com/images/stars-3-0.gif) Summary: flawed but excelent in parts Review: The good fragments in this book are worth 5 stars, but the book fails as a whole. Quentin's section was a great lyric but Quentin himself was not believable. Mr. Compson, Jason, Mrs. Comspon, and a few minor characters were dead on. Caddy is vague, and somehow I sympathized with Jason more (perhaps because he is painted in human colors). And to sympathize with Jason more than with Caddy isn't what Willy intended. Be prepared to hunt through coal for the books honest diamonds.
Rating: ![5 stars](http://www.reviewfocus.com/images/stars-5-0.gif) Summary: Buy the Cliff Notes Review: No one can accuse The Sound and the Fury of being an easy read. Totally confused after the first two chapters, I purchased the Cliff Notes from Amazon. With this help, I was stunned to discover a novel of monumental depth. Figuring out the pathological Compson family was an exhausting yet delightful intellectual exercise. The book is a work of genius.
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