Before reading ...

I have no idea what to expect from The Sound and the Fury. Having never read Faulker before, I know nothing about him, other than that he is a Southern writer. I actually have had limited exposure to American writers in general and welcome this chance to expand my reading horizons.

However, the novel's title, The Sound and the Fury, does little to draw me in. It rings hollow and I get the sense that the book will do more to evoke an atmosphere and create an effect than to tell a story--an approach I generally dislike. Moreover, the title is ominous; the word 'fury' in particular forebodes violence and anger--a foreboding intensified by the term 'sound'. The red clouds depicted on the cover add to the sense of a storm brewing among the book's pages and it is with feelings of nervous anticipation that I prepare to start reading.