الصخب والعنف

Millefleur

I went into this book blind, having read everything of Cormac McCarthy's and moving onto Faulkner, first with As I Lay Dying and then this. I got about 5 pages in then went to Wikipedia, confirmed I wasn't insane with a quick skim through the overview so as not to spoil the story, and jumped back in. I won't pretend I found it an easy read; sentences needed re-reading, some pieces of the puzzle didn't click together until later, and often I found myself drawn into the text at an ever increasing pace until I hit a punctuation mark and realised I had no comprehension of what I had just read. I hope to read it again one day, armed now with a knowledge of the timeline; upon completing it I felt I'd just completed a puzzle as handfuls of the pieces were hurled at me, now I've seen the completed picture I can go back and enjoy each piece as it comes. Absorbing though confusing, well worth a read but perhaps arm yourself first with a summary.