William Faulkner

The Sound and the Fury is the story of the Compson family, a bourgeois Jackson, Mississippi family in the early 1900's. The novel is divided into four sections, each told by a different character. The three Compson sons, Benjy, Quentin and Jason Compson, and the family's black servant, Dilsey Gibson, each have their own section in which they tell their collective story.

Describes a family's struggle to get their mother properly buried, while they encounter catastrophes of flood and fire, as well as the chaos of their own feelings.

At the heart of this 1930 novel is the Bundren family's bizarre journey to Jefferson to bury Addie, their wife and mother. Faulkner lets each family member--including Addie--and others along the way tell their private responses to Addie's life.

Joe Christmas, who appears to be white but is part African-American, kills Joanna Burden, a spinster with whom he has had an affair. He is captured, castrated, and killed by outraged townspeople.

A charter boat operator in the Caribbean breaks his policy of neutrality and takes a job transporting a resistance member to Martinique.