Reading 1001 discussion

5 stars
5 Jan

William Faulkner makes my brain hurt... but it is worth it. This book is profound. Tragic. Brutal. Complex. Beautiful!

Faulkner tells this story in four chapters, each narrated by a different person and occurring on a different day. The story is not told chronologically and based on the advice of another Goodreads member I returned to the first chapter upon completion of the book. It helped me understand the story more fully. The writing style reflects the character perfectly. Two chapters are stream of consciousness, with very little punctuation. This is something that I often hate, but it works.

The book is a tribute or retelling of MacBeth in many ways. Ot tells the story of three brothers and the people in their lives. (view spoiler)[ One brother commits suicide. One brother is severely mentally handicapped and considered an idiot. And one is an embittered, cunning, clever, angry and cynical man. Faulkner implies that if one does not choose suicide he will become either bitter or stupid! It is a sad and pessimistic take on life. (hide spoiler)] There are women in their lives, but the women have only disappointed the brothers. (view spoiler)[The mom is remote and unloving. The sister is promiscuous and leaves the family fold after becoming pregnant and tricking another man into marriage, which ends quickly in divorce. The niece is born out of that promiscuity and ends up taking a similar path. (hide spoiler)]

These characters are deeply flawed and beautifully drawn. While reading the novel I came to know them intimately. I liked them. I hated them. I grieved for them. And, if a book makes me feel for the plight of the characters it has done everything I want it to do.

I enjoy reading Faulkner though it isn't easy. This Southern gothic tells the story of the Compton family over 30 years. It is a picture of fallen aristocracy. The characters are flawed. Mrs Compton is too "sick" to care for her children so the childcare falls to the black servant Dilsey. Faulkner tells his story through 4 narratives and use of stream of consciousness. The first chapter is by the intellectually handicapped Benji and it is very disjointed but the reader does adjust to it. I found it helpful to read a bit about the book so that it was easier to catch on. There are major chronological leaps back and forth. The second is told by Quentin with mostly stream of conscious. He is the smartest most promising Compton and goes to Harvard to attend school. The third section is told by sarcastic Jason who is most ambitious and self-interested of the children. The final chapter is told by third person, omniscient POV and centers on Dilsey. Much of the thoughts of the 3 brothers are centered on their sister Caddy. The description of the Compton family members; Mr. Compson is an alcoholic. Mrs. Compson is a self-absorbed hypochondriac who depends almost entirely upon Dilsey to raise her four children. Quentin, the oldest child, is a sensitive bundle of neuroses. Caddy is stubborn, but loving and compassionate. Jason has been difficult and mean-spirited since birth and is largely spurned by the other children. Benjy is severely mentally disabled, an “idiot” with no understanding of the concepts of time or morality. In the absence of the self-absorbed Mrs. Compson, Caddy serves as a mother figure and symbol of affection for Benjy and Quentin.
The title of The Sound and the Fury refers to a line from William Shakespeare’s Macbeth. Macbeth, a Scottish general and nobleman, learns of his wife’s suicide and feels that his life is crumbling into chaos. In addition to Faulkner’s title, we can find several of the novel’s important motifs in Macbeth’s short soliloquy in Act V, scene v:

Tomorrow, and tomorrow, and tomorrow
Creeps in this petty pace from day to day
To the last syllable of recorded time,
And all our yesterdays have lighted fools
The way to dusty death. Out, out, brief candle.
Life’s but a walking shadow, a poor player
That struts and frets his hour upon the stage,
And then is heard no more. It is a tale
Told by an idiot, full of sound and fury,
Signifying nothing.

The cover of the first edition, by William Faulkner portrays a man in torment as if wrestling in darkness, maybe depression.

****

Having read The Hamlet previously and been left rather unimpressed, I had some apprehension about approaching this classic of American literature. As I finished reading the last page, I was left with a feeling of wonderment and a desire to read the novel again (that will come much later). The novel is a rich weave of writing styles, of historical, social and psychological themes, and of mostly deeply flawed characters. While the use of the stream of consciousness style in the first two parts might be a deterrent for some, I felt this was probably the most approchable example of the genre, notwithstanding the fact that the last two parts provide several answers to events "related" at the beginning of the novel.

The Sound and the Fury is a Gothic tale of the decay of southern values as portrayed by a self centered and deeply flawed family and their black servants. The breath of the characters, from an idiot to a Harvard student, and the depth of the flaws they present made me truly care about many of the people in the book. Further, the use of modernist stream of consciousness, crisscrossed voices and timeframes also caused me to struggle but engage in the unfolding of the book. I found there to be less of a "haunting" than in the other Faulkner's I have read but nevertheless, in the end I loved the book. 4 stars.

This is the moving story of an everyday tragedy - a dysfunctional Southern family who gradually fall apart - told in an innovative and rather challenging way that demands very careful attention. Faulkner combines both stream of consciousness and a more traditional (but incomplete and unreliable) narrative, and jumps about between timeframes to gradually reveal his story.

The first three sections are narrated by the three sons of the Compson family so it is through their eyes we see their gloomy alcoholic father, snobbish hypocritical mother, and flighty but compassionate sister Caddy. This gives a good sense of the contrasts between them and their different attitudes to each other. The final section from the viewpoint of the Black servants of the family ties it all together and adds a perspective that is both insider and outsider, This structure also allows Faulkner to reveal his story in carefully chosen snippets that build up a picture for the reader, and for me it was really effective.

I loved Faulkner’s use of language, the way he created convincing but memorable characters, and the intense atmosphere of guilt, cruelty and decay. This was an original and dramatic novel that had much to say about humanity in a compelling way, one of my favourite books.

This is at least the 5th modernist novel that I have read this year, and I'm more than over the stream-of-consciousness thing. I didn't dislike it as much as I did Stein's Three Lives, but I didn't exactly love it. Still, I'm proud of myself for finally tackling it.

⭐⭐