The Sound and the Fury Summary: William Faulkner Author (Oprah’s Book Club)

This next book that was recommended by Oprah is called The Sound and the Fury by William Faulkner. This is one of Oprah’s favorite authors because of the way he writes his stories, many times in first person. William Faulkner had this to say about his book. “It’s the book I feel tenderest towards. I couldn’t leave it alone, and I never could tell it right, though I tried hard and would like to try again, though I’d probably fail again.”

Here’s a The Sound and the Fury summary: The story is about a family with old wounds the time could not heal. It is told over a few decades in four different sections, set in the 1920’s around a southern family. The Compsons are struggling with an absent mother and a father who passed away early. The oldest son commits suicide while one of the daughters becomes pregnant before marriage. Of the two other brothers, one is cruel and insensitive, and the other is mentally challenged.

You hear from most of the family as they tell the story. You get the most honest story from Benjy because he is mentally handicapped and does not distort the truth for his own good. You also hear from Quentin and Jason, who is the evil one of the brothers. Caddy is the central person in the book. She is the sister that the brothers are fixated with and the stories all revolve around her.

You also hear about the mother, Mrs. Compson, who can not take care of herself, never mind a family. The father; Mr. Compson, passed away early in the lives of the children and did not do enough to keep the family in their aristocratic lifestyle and are now just about poor. The one person in the family that has any control of events is Dilsey the housekeeper.

This is truly a great read, hard to put down once you start. The way Faulkner constructs his characters are so well developed you feel that you known them like your own family.

The novel is set in the South during the 1920s, when the Compson family is struggling. The father dies early; the mother is always absent and complaining; their oldest son kills himself while away at college after falsely admitting to incest; their daughter gets pregnant out of wedlock; another son is harshly insensitive and cruel; and a third son is mentally challenged.