A question on Faulkner

Which is Faulkner's masterpiece: The Sound and the Fury, or Absalom, Absalom!?

Cogent answers will help. I personally think it's The Sound and the Fury, because it has reverberated more in literature, it has pioneered fragmented narrative voices (IIRC), and it's more disturbing than Absalom, Absalom!

The Sound and the Fury. It is superbly crafted. The four narrative viewpoints counter each other in a more tight and balanced way than in As I Lay Dying (which was also pioneering in fragmented narrative voices) -- you can actually reconstruct certain events in the novel by overlaying different characters' versions of a particular event, and the discrepancies are often disturbing. There is a lot of subtle symbolism, like the Easter dates and symbols. Also you get how exactly Quentin is crazy, which is only implied in Absalom, Absalom!

Absalom, Absalom! does have a much more forward and deeper treatment of racial issues, but the plot is kind of ramble-ly. Personally I think Light in August is a more compelling treatment of race identity.