Classic of the week: "The Sound and the Fury"

The title comes from Shakespeare's Macbeth, the novel is from William Faulkner. It's notable for its use of stream of consciousness, and is separated into 4 sections, each one narrated by a different member of an old-money family that's in a state of decay. The construction of the book is both impressive and baffling. In fact, if you're going to read it, you might want to do a little research on it first so that you can follow what's happening. Particularly because the first section of the book is told through stream of consciousness from the mind of a severely mentally handicapped man who recounts events completely out of sequence. Adding to the confusion is the double-naming; there are two different characters named Jason from two different generations, two different characters named Quinten-- one is a boy who commits suicide and the other is the illegitimate daughter of that boy's sister, and two different characters named Maury, but one of them is usually referred to as Benjy. It's not always clear which Jason or which Quinten is being talked about. In the literary and historical sense, this book was and still is significant, and worth reading. It's success contributed to Faulkner winning the Nobel Prize in literature. However, if you're not ready to tackle something so difficult but you want to read Faulkner, you might want to start with something a little easier, like his short novel, "As I Lay Dying," which is just as noteworthy.