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From the Bookshelf of On Paths Unknown…

The Sound and the Fury

William Faulkner

Start date: August 24, 2024

Discussion: FAULKNER'S SOUTH- SOUND and FURY

Discussion leader: Traveller

Why we're reading this: Several members have requested a discussion of this head-scratcher. Notoriously, Faulkner told his agent …more
[close] Several members have requested a discussion of this head-scratcher. Notoriously, Faulkner told his agent about the novel: "Read this, Bud. It's a real son-of-a-bitch … This one's the greatest I'll ever write." Many people have since agreed with Faulker's characterization of this unconventional experimental novel, but we are not afraid, since we know that multi-angled, hard-to-read fiction makes good fodder for discussion!

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Group Discussions About This Book

Showing 2 of 7 topics — 273 comments total

FAULKNER'S SOUTH- SOUND and FURY

* TS and TF Thread 1 - Spoilers for April Seventh, 1928. Benjy
By Traveller · 77 posts · 14 views

last updated Sep 02, 2024 06:09AM

TS and TF Thread 2 - Spoilers for June Second, 1910. Quentin
By Traveller · 90 posts · 8 views

last updated Sep 10, 2024 12:31PM

showing 3 of 3 topics view all »

What Members Thought

Jun 13, 2010 Jonfaith rated it it was amazing

It was January in North London. During the three days I crept through this marvelous novel, the rain only paused for a combination of brilliant sun and arctic winds. Most of the conversations around me were in Srpski and somehow Faulkner's viaduct pointed to familiarity: you see--avarice, disability, and failure are rather common in Indiana. ...more

23 likes · Like · see review

Mar 25, 2008 Brad rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: faves, classic, lost-reviews

This review was written in the late nineties (for my eyes only), and it was buried in amongst my things until recently when I uncovered the journal in which it was written. I have transcribed it verbatim from all those years ago (although square brackets may indicate some additional information for the sake of readability or some sort of commentary from now). This is one of my lost reviews.

This is a mesmerizing display of authorship. Every one of the four parts is powerful in its own right. Benj ...more

12 likes · Like · see review

Aug 27, 2008 Nate D rated it it was amazing

Shelves: favorites, read-in-2010

I had been meaning to read more Faulkner. And then I was reading more Faulkner. And then I was finally reading this. This where I should have started.
"You'll like it," she said.
"But you're reading and you're looking for a good place to stop for a break in the action for a break in the paragraph but there isn't one or for a break in the sentence but there isn't one and it's gone on for pages,and you're still in the middle of a sentence and you're "
We went away. We were outside.
"It isn't really li I had been meaning to read more Faulkner. And then I was reading more Faulkner. And then I was finally reading this. This where I should have started.
"You'll like it," she said.
"But you're reading and you're looking for a good place to stop for a break in the action for a break in the paragraph but there isn't one or for a break in the sentence but there isn't one and it's gone on for pages,and you're still in the middle of a sentence and you're "
We went away. We were outside.
"It isn't really like that," she said. "You just have to pay attention a little. But also not worry. To just enjoy. And it is worth it. It matters."
I hadn't been this excited about a book in months. I couldn't tear my eyes off the pages, hearing nothing of ringtones, of the preachers of their hellfire to the bowed commuting heads, of the sellers of their shrewdly disguised spent batteries, until it was Bedford Park blvd, and I past my stop, and I late and still with my eyes on the page, catching the back-running train and my eyes still on the page, walking the length of West Kingsbridge and my eyes still on the page and thoughts reeling back to Quentin's, walking Cambridge with thoughts reeling back to Mississippi. The disorientation of the prose, its virtuosic modernism is not just for show. It is a powerful device. It is one thing for the author to tell the reader. It is quite another to bury them in it, to force them to feel.
"The characters are so strongly burned into these pages," she said. "They haunt you. They are archetypes but full-formed. They matter."
I was in the hospital, nodding to security and waving a badge. I was walking past the cafeteria and still with my eyes on the page.
I had previously attributed the time-fractured narrative to Vonnegut, to Slaughterhouse Five. But The Sound and the Fury is far earlier and far defter. Visions of three generations of self-doomed Compsons are naturally conveyed, linked in memory by place and preoccupation in ways that make absolute sense with the characterizations of the narrators.
This could go on, but it's already quite an awful enough review, isn't it? I was trying to do something and I was trying to do something and I should stop. And when I finished, I could only begin again. The novel becomes clearer as it goes, but the later, more solid perspectives are more removed from the primary events, primary events largely conveyed before the reader is prepared for them in the first and second sections.
"And it's funny," she said. "It's easy to forget how actually funny Faulkner can be. Well, and horrifying. Well, and devestating."
And I should stop
But I'm walking and still with my eyes on the page. I'm at the office door already, key in hand, and still with my eyes on the page. I should stop, but I'm already 40 pages in again, the morning after finishing. I should stop, but I could write about this in much greater depth, and probably will have to as I revisit this in pursuit of the hypnotically fascination questions still left open on the first pass. I should

...more

11 likes · Like · see review

Jul 13, 2012 pearl rated it really liked it

Shelves: literary-fiction, southern-lit

... it is hard believing to think that a love or a sorrow is a bond purchased without design and which matures willynilly and is recalled without warning to be replaced by whatever issue the gods happen to be floating at the time...

1 like · Like · see review

Jun 27, 2009 Catherine Mustread rated it really liked it

Shelves: classics, historical

Read this after visiting Faulkner's home in Oxford, Mississippi. Gave me a great feel for the setting. ...more

Like · see review

Aug 20, 2008 David Katzman rated it it was amazing

Nov 11, 2008 Flora rated it it was amazing

1 like · Like

Jul 16, 2009 Russell rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: hot-damn-favorites, faulkner, xo, 2024-2028

Aug 19, 2009 Joseph Michael Owens marked it as to-read

Mar 01, 2010 Juniper rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: books-i-own, literature

Mar 22, 2010 Traveller marked it as temporarily-stalled

Aug 16, 2010 Jim rated it really liked it

Shelves: classics, fiction, 1001-books

Oct 17, 2010 Stephen marked it as to-read

Shelves: novel, owned

Mar 08, 2011 Ellen rated it it was amazing

May 10, 2011 Aloha rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: 1-favorites, a-own, a-audios, a-ebooks, genre-literature, z-faulkner-william, b-pov, 2015-faulkner

1 like · Like

May 10, 2011 Mark marked it as to-read

Jul 06, 2011 Terry rated it really liked it

Jan 10, 2012 Tej marked it as to-read

Oct 12, 2012 Jonathan rated it it was amazing

2 likes · Like

Oct 21, 2012 Kate Sherrod marked it as to-read

Jan 28, 2013 Emily Higgins marked it as to-read

Jan 30, 2013 Stephen Bruce rated it it was amazing

Shelves: favorites, united-states, 20th-century

Mar 07, 2013 Bill marked it as to-read

Jan 26, 2014 Kristen marked it as to-read

Jun 19, 2017 Russell rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: surfeit-2017, faulkner

6 likes · Like

Feb 01, 2015 Jibran marked it as to-read

Shelves: 100-works-of-world-lit, nobel

Feb 11, 2015 Russell marked it as to-read · review of another edition

Shelves: faulkner

Jul 06, 2015 Lindsay marked it as to-read

Jan 17, 2016 Maia added it

Jan 28, 2016 Damon marked it as to-read

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