The Sound and the Fury by William Faulkner

The Sound and the Fury by William Faulkner published 1929 is book five on my 2018 Back to the Classics Challenge (hosted by Karen K at Books and Chocolate) - choose a classic that scares you.  I had heard that Faulkner wrote in a stream of consciousness style that would be hard to follow and The Sound and The Fury is indeed a difficult book to get through.  When that happens it's not a bad idea to check out Spark Notes.  They go through the novel with you chapter by chapter,  It made a difference.  Passages I couldn't comprehend before became clearer.  But it's still a difficult read.

The Sound and the Fury tells the tragic story of the Compson family.  The novel is set in Jefferson, Mississippi and takes place primarily during an Easter weekend in 1928.  Each of the first three chapters are narrated by a different Compson sibling, Benji, Quentin and Jason.  You are inside the thoughts of these brothers each of whom is obsessed by the memory of their sister Caddy who is at the heart of all that happens.

Benji who is mentally handicapped and who Caddy cared for, since their mother was incapable of doing so, still waits for his sister to return.  Quentin's chapter is set in 1910 during his first year at Harvard.  When Caddy gets pregnant, Quentin is devastated and in a bizzare attempt to protect his sister's honor he suggests that Caddy tell their parents that he is the father.  It's not true but in Quentin's mind letting people think it was incest would be preferable to Caddy being unmarried and pregnant.  Caddy nixes this idea and decides instead to marry a wealthy young man who has no idea the baby isn't his.  When he discovers the truth he divorces Caddy and she is disowned by her family.

In Jason's chapter we are once again in 1928.  Jason is a bitter, hateful man who blames Caddy because her husband had promised him a lucrative banking position years ago which fell through once Caddy's marriage ended.  When Caddy left home she gave her baby daughter Quentin (named in memory of her brother) to her parents to raise but when her father died, Jason became the head of the family.  Jason treats seventeen year old Quentin badly and has been pocketing the money tnat Caddy has been sending her daughter for years.

Dilsey the Compson family's cook and housekeeper is the focus of chapter four, the final chapter.  Dilsey has been caring for her own family and the Compsons practically her entire life and in chapter four we spend a day with Dilsey. It's Easter Sunday and the Compson family is in an uproar (let's just say that Caddy's daughter Quentin has had the last laugh on Jason).  As poor Benji sits in the kitchen upset by all the commotion, Dilsey decides to take him to church.  As Dilsey, her daughter, her grandson and Benji head to church Dilsey and her friends she meets along the way talk about the guest preacher from St Loiuis.  No one has heard him preach before but everyone is excited and there is a nice moment where the minister is preaching and Dilsey has her hand protectively on Benji's knee listening to the sermon.  Benjy is quiet too, no longer afraid and what Faulkner might be saying at the close of the book is that it's Dilsey's values that are the Southern traditions worth keeping.

But then again I don't think The Sound and the Fury can be summed up so succintly.  Truth be told I was lost a good part of the way through.  I was able to give a recounting of the plot thanks to Spark Notes and to properly review this book I would need to read it again more slowly and also read what the critics have said.  But lost as I was I could definitely sense The Sound and The Fury's greatness.  I would be open sometime in the future to giving this novel another go or maybe try another Faulkner novel that is a bit more accessible because he's worth the effort.