Damn you William Faulkner!!!

[Sanoske]

I am currently reading The Sound and the Fury by William Faulkner. I know it's a classic piece of American Literature, but personally... I hate it! Oh my god, this is the most annoying novel I have ever had to read, and I am not even finished with the first section.

I know the other 3 sections won't be as bad as the first, but it's still horrible. Sparknotes.com says:

This first section of The Sound and the Fury is very difficult to navigate. Benjy, whose eyes are our only window on the Compsons thus far, is one of the most incomprehensible and challenging narrators in all of literature.

Argh....

Also the fact that the narrator has absolutely no concept of time whatsoever is a tiny bit disorienting. When the story jumps from 1928 to 1913 and then to 1904... all on the same page, and with no real warning besides italics... the story tends to lose some of its coherency. And also when something in the "present" triggers a memory, and then something within the memory triggers another memory... /sigh

The second section better be more readable... because I'm leading the damn class discussion on it this Thursday...

I'm hoping the book will pull itself together for me by the end, but as of now... I'm just not enjoying it. I know others on these boards have read Faulkner... any suggestions on how to read this monstrosity?

 

[Mr.Wonko]

I haven't read The Sound and the Fury specifically, but I've found for other Faulkners, or any book rife with dialect, that it helps to read the dialogue out loud. If it's too confusing and making your brain hurt, scan it, and use a resource like www.gradesaver.com to get the rest. That's the lazy way though, nothing beats a close read-through on your own.

 

[Sanoske]

Thanks. I've been using Sparknotes.com, but I still gave it a good read through. The extra source really helped to make sense out of it thought. Now I just have to write the response, and start on section 2. :? :? :?