The impact on a reader by a highly influential book, is so subtle that its characters and situations become perceptible at different courses of life and at offhand times. Our myopic view of life becomes more vulnerable, rather than it bringing substantial changes to life by its impact. Life is a tale, full of sound and fury, signifying nothing.
The famous quote from Shakespeare’s Macbeth and precisely the phrase “sound and fury” might have been the inspiration for the title of the book The Sound and the Fury by William Faulkner.
I read this book five years ago, and it still remains my favourite. Set in Mississippi, US, during the 1900s, it follows the decline of a white aristocratic family. The layout of the novel has been set into four chapters, of which the first three are narrated by the three brothers — Benjy, Quentin and Jason, in a stream of consciousness style.
The narration flows to and forth, with less attention to time and chronology of events. All of the three have a strong obsession for their sister Caddy, who has an illegitimate child, Miss Quentin. The fourth chapter, narrated in the third person, leads us to the climax where Miss Quentin escapes with the money that Jason has been stealing for so long.
The novel and the monologue style of tale were so unique, but universal, which can happen in any part of the world. Throughout the story, I felt personally haunted by racism, sin, corruption, feebleness and the rare chance to sense the minute nuances of human life and its nothingness.
— The reader is a Dubai resident.
