Who is who in the book?

[Andrea]

I am reading chapter one of the book and I am still struggling to understand who is who! Caddy is the narrator's sister, right? Is Jason the name of Father? Who are Quentin and T. P.? And who is Luster?! I think this book is far too difficult for me!

[Mike]

The four sections are narrated by, respectively, Benjy, Quentin, Jason, and (third-person omniscient/Dilsey). Caddy is the sister of Benjy, Qentin, and Jason. There is another Quentin, who is Caddy's daughter. Luster is a servant (and Dilsey's grandson) whose main duty is to be Benjy's caretaker. Benjy is mentally disabled.

[Daniel]

When I read it the first time it helped to write in the margins with a pencil to keep track of the story or another alternative was to keep a journal with character descriptions.

[Jackson]

The initial disorientation of Benjy lends the rest of the novel a large part of its effect, I think. Once you get to Quentin, and later Jason, Benjy's fractured recollections start to assemble themselves into something quite tragic and powerful in retrospect.

[Ron]

I read it but needed to read a Faulkner commentary to know exactly what was going on. The layout of the novel was not right in my opinion and Faulkner was too quirky to give it coherence.