The hard part of reading these stories is Faulkner's writing style. He uses stream of consciousness, which is how we think normally. For example, have you ever been just doing something and then a memory is triggered? Of course. Have you had to listen to someone who interrupts his own story about an event with something like, "Oh, that reminds me of this time when I..."? You just want to tell them to focus! That is what I felt like as I read The Sound and the Fury.
As I Lay Dying was the better of the two books. Even though it was a story told by like 15 narrators, at least the story was straight forward. In The Sound and the Fury, there are only 4 chapters: April 7, 1928; June 2, 1910; April 6, 1928; April 8, 1928; and an appendix that lists what happens to the characters later. Not only are the chapters not in chronological order, but within those chapters there are time shifts!
I am not a college professor. Should I need to teach one of these books, I will study them in more depth. I read As I Lay Dying twice, and I will probably read The Sound and the Fury again, but not now. I did watch three lectures on YouTube by a Yale professor on As I Lay Dying. I will watch more in the future.
But now I have read two more classics and I see why I should have read them. For that, I am happy.
Now to read East of Eden by John Steinbeck.
