[Savage Beast]

I had a similar experience. I read The Sound and the Fury FIVE TIMES! And I didn't understand it. After I read Faulkner's explanation, I was even more confused.

Then one night at a cocktail party, I met a woman who taught Faulkner in college. I said to her, "You are not leaving here tonight until you tell me what that thing is about."

So the two of us spent several hours on the sofa, and she explained everything to me, in detail and very well.

Then I re-read it. It was crystal clear.

I too was amazed.

I love The Sound and the Fury and Absalom! Absalom!. I don't know which I like better. I also like As I Lay Dying.

One of his best stories was a made-for-TV movie, back in the '60's or '70's, starring Robert Duvall. It's called Tomorrow. I have never forgotten it.

[speedy]

I concur with both of you. He was a very great, if disturbed, writer. It is worth the effort to plow through him -- and it is an effort. To read something more straightforward -- and flat-out funny -- by him, you might want to try "The Rievers," which seems to me to have little in common stylistically with his other novels. Also a very unusual allegorical work set in WW I called "A Fable." It's been ages since I read it, but again it is a different kind of Faulkner. You can visit his home in Oxford, MS. Any Thomas Wolfe fans out there?

[Ursus arctos horribilis]

"One of his best stories was a made-for-TV movie, back in the '60's or '70's, starring Robert Duvall. It's called Tomorrow. I have never forgotten it"

I too saw it once a long time back, and at three score plus, it continues to haunt me to this day.


From my youth back in Missouri I have known people like those portrayed in the movie. Simple seeming G_D fearing people who could not be swayed from their convictions once their minds were set.

Robert Duval has to be one of the best actors to be found.

[RobbyS]

It helps if you grow up talking "Southern" As I read I "hear" the voices of the characters in my head, and they "sound" like people I have met.[My mother's family is from Mississipppi and I grew up in East Texas]. I have only a slight accent, but once after reading a Faulkner novel I came away talking with a Mississipi brogue.

[Dianna]

I read The Sound and the Fury FIVE TIMES! And I didn't understand it

I think the first page should explain that there are two Quentins. Would have saved me a lot of confusion.

[Mr Ducklips]

I read "Sound" once in the '60's because I was forced to. Didn't like it at all - not smart enough I guess. I think it's my Faulkner's fault.

What possessed you to read it five times?