This is a three course meal with four masters of narration as our cooks. I could listen to them read the menu at Cheesecake Factory and be enthralled. I must say, Edoardo Ballerini is top tier. A wonderful wonderful rendition of Faulkner’s work.

𝑻𝑯𝑬 𝑺𝑶𝑼𝑵𝑫 𝑨𝑵𝑫 𝑻𝑯𝑬 𝑭𝑼𝑹𝒀 𝒃𝒚 𝑾𝒊𝒍𝒍𝒊𝒂𝒎 𝑭𝒂𝒖𝒍𝒌𝒏𝒆𝒓 brought to a fresh audio experience by @blackstonepublishing that is available now. Thank you for the access via @netgalley!

This is a story of the decline of a southern family who believed themselves to be victims of a culture shift after their heights of glory in the era of slavery. Sound a bit familiar?

Told in 4 parts, this family tale begins with Benjy, a intellectually disabled man of 33 whose narrative skips a bit in time and stream of consciousness. I found his part to be fascinating in the level of compassion Faulkner wrote him. I didn't expect there to be clear understanding within some of Benjy's internal monologs.
The 2nd part was Quentin whose bizarre preoccupation with the virginal reputation of his philandering sister, Caddy, had me reflecting on the purity culture of my youth and the similar damage it caused.
The 3rd section is from Jason's perspective and I can't say how deeply I loathed him. This is the younger son whose role changed as various family members left and he did not relish these responsibilities, despite the favor bestowed upon him by his hypochondriac mother. Jason seems to most ferociously embody the patriarchal, racist, anti-Semitic views held so tightly by many southern white men in the early 1900's.
The 4th section is a 3rd person narrative that tells the final piece, often focusing on the observations of Dilsey, the Black woman who aids this family. She is the only one who seems to not be drug into the abyss and I am not a little bit glad.

The decline of the family is sad, only in the sense that they refuse to look outside their own quests for individual power and prestige, mirroring the famous soliloquy in Macbeth from which the title is drawn (beginning with Tomorrow, tomorrow, tomorrow...). There is a reason this is a classic, as the themes are unfortunately timeless.

The audio was really fantastic. There were 4 different narrators to take each part and that made it so easy to follow. I have read it is a difficult one due to narrative styles and punctuation choices.

Thanks to NetGalley and Blackstone Publishing for the digital copy of this audiobook. I am leaving this review voluntarily.

I read a lot, and my schooling didn't include many classics besides Romeo and Juliet and a Sherlock Holmes story in 9th grade. As an adult, I took college classes on Hemingway and Fitzgerald. I passed on Faulkner at the time. This was my opportunity to remedy that.

I feel like because I just couldn't get into this story that I'm not a literary intellectual, because I just don't understand WHY this is a classic. It's erratic, it's overwritten, it sounds like Faulkner is trying to hard to be great. Maybe it was groundbreaking at the time, I don't know. I mean, he won the Pulitzer, so maybe it's just me.