Customer Reviews

As I Lay Dying (Turtleback School & Library Binding Edition)

5 star:		(118)
4 star:		(44)
3 star:		(27)
2 star:		(19)
1 star:		(22)

 

 

To quote the briefest chapter, the one that would surely catch your eye if you picked it off a shelf and skimmed through it: "My mother is a fish."

As with his stunning _The_Sound_and_the_Fury_ and _Absalom_Absalom_, this book makes use of the author's masterful use of stream-of-conscious writing to render an entire reality with internal monologues. The story unfolds as you construct it from the observations and responses of the characters. Though briefer and less challenging than these other two books, it's as absorbing a read as they have been for decades. When you reach the end, you can imagine that you'll pick up the book again someday, sure there's more to explore.

The structure is simple once you get the hang of it. Each chapter is the name of a particular character in the story of the family of Addie Bundren, dead in the first few pages, and being transported by her clan to the land of her birth for burial-by wagon, in the heat and dust, over rivers, for weeks, before the vacuum seal... There is no "Once upon a time." Instead, whatever that character is thinking at the instant the chapter begins is what you're reading. Soon, you know who everyone is and what she thinks of everyone else. The effect of this structure is that you can inhabit the narrative as each of the players, can see how events are interpreted differently. It's also like a mystery-someone will have troubled thoughts about something you can't quite distinguish; then, twenty pages later, you figure out what they've been talking about and you flip backward in a frenzy to see how the early references to the issue flesh out the story. This is a terribly rewarding way of reading.

This is a great first Faulkner for everyone. You develop the ability to read his complex novels by virtue of the simplicity of the story and the mostly brief chapters, each from a fresh point of view. You learn to read on if you don't get something. (Important skill: Faulkner is one of my absolute favorite authors since high school, and one of my favorite things is that you have to trust the story to tell you what you need to know in time. Not only do you get the reward of context for the occasional non sequitur, but you have the thrill of anticipation when something weird happens. This book is a great example of how, unlike Hemingway, where you have to read a basically boring story over and over to understand all the juicy stuff, Faulkner gives you nibbles of fantastic plot to hold you through the ultimate analysis.

I was re-reading this book last week, pen and highlighter in hand, when my husband walked into the living room and said, "What are you reading?" I lifted the cover. "Is it any good?" To which I replied, "No," and he responded, "Why are you reading it?" And, slightly irritated, I said, "For the same reason you are watching the American Idol Audition show. It's DEFINITELY not good, but you can't look away."

And so it is with most of Faulkner's work. As a reader, you should not go into his work expecting anything "good." You won't find an easy or clear plotline, clear language, or (and this is USUALLY a major gripe of mine) likeable characters. But even though you don't really like what you are reading, you just have to know how it ends. You have to know what makes these reprehensible people tick. And, surprisingly enough, you are usually unsatisfied in the end, but not so much that you don't want to double back and have one more look at the car-wreck that is the work of Faulkner.

And so it is with *As I Lay Dying*. It's a fascinating piece of work, masterfully crafted, ultimately depressing, and darkly funny all at once. Having been to Rowan Oak a few times, I can see Faulkner sitting in his front garden chuckling over the idea of Vardaman's infamous "My Mother is a fish," chapter and how it captivated the world with it's "brilliance."

I also have no doubt, having grown up in Mississippi, that he was writing about real people, warts and all. I'm probably related to some of them. Maybe for that reason, Faulkner reads a little differently to locals. While I certainly appreciate his literary genius, the truth and realism of what he wrote also shines through. Reading Faulkner is a little like attending a funeral in Mississippi, something that closely resembles a family reunion set anywhere else - everybody's talking at once (in the most genteel manner, except for that blacksheep son - we all know he's not his Daddy's child, bless his heart - who keeps using bad language) about stuff that would absolutely curl the toenails of anyone is polite "society." The stream-of-consciousness style reminds me very much of what I picked up on as a child overhearing these conversations in the viewing room of the funeral parlor.

So . . . read with an open mind. And if the humor throws you at first, find a copy of the short story of *A Rose for Emily*. It will help you to better understand what Faulkner considered funny. Though off on other literary journeys, I'm sure that eventually my morbid curiousity will draw me back to this trainwreck again before too long . . . just can't stop looking . . .

Many people contend that Faulkner's books are only concerned with the nature of man in the American South. Although set in the South (Faulkner was, after all, from Mississippi), I think his books explore the nature of man...everywhere.

In my opinion, As I Lay Dying is his masterpiece. The Bundren's are the poorest family Faulkner ever wrote about and their journey across Mississippi to bury their wife and mother is both harrowing and revealing.

Faulkner uses multiple viewpoint and writes perfect stream-of-consciousness. This is not the poetic stream-of-consciousness of Virginia Woolf, however, or the elegant stream-of-consciousness of James Joyce. Faulkner's unique brand is more intimate and revealing, more raw, more down-to-earth.
Each of the characters we hear from has his own unique perspective and voice, but the differences are subtle and never jarring as is the case with lesser authors. Faulkner had enormous talent; he knew there was no reason for him to "try too hard."

As I Lay Dying isn't always an enjoyable read, but it's a classic of American (as well as world) literature and definitely should not be missed.

Faulkner's great accomplishment in this novel is to use the most modern fiction techniques to create a timeless allegory that we would probably not accept in a different style. His other great achievement is to leave so much space in the story for us to participate in adding meaning. You have to pay attention to even notice what is going on, and then you can provide a variety of interpretations. This novel will never be the same for any two readers. It is a stunning accomplishment, as a result.

The story begins as Addie Bundren lays dying, fanned by her daughter, while her son makes her coffin. With her husband and five children, we make her acquaintance by learning about their actions and characters. Only once does she have a role as a narrator, and then, quite late in the story.

Her husband, Anse, has promised her that he will bury her with her family. Because of tremendous rains, the river has risen, knocking out bridges and making passage difficult. Despite this, the family perserveres in taking her unembalmed body to the intended burial site. Along the way, there are many mishaps and the family is burdened in many ways by keeping this promise. As the burial comes closer, new elements of the story are exposed and develop that totally recast what you have thought was going on. On the very last page (don't read it first!) is such a plot reversal as only a short story writer would normally have dared.

The story is a difficult one to read. So read this book when you have time to pay close attention and study the text word by word. Let me explain the difficulties you will encounter. First, the voices in the book use a Southern patois that will be unfamiliar to most. This is the language of the rural poor in the 1930s, which few have heard. Second, the exposition is mostly through thoughts, often expressed in fragmentary form, rather than through action and a smooth narrative. Third, the narration is a partial mosaic of impressions of the characters, jumping back and forth in 2-4 page segments. Their perceptions are partial, and even more partially expressed. Objectivity is shunned by Faulkner. Fourth, Faulkner wants you to fill in the gaps, and the best way to do that is to expose the gaps slowly. Only after 3 or 4 narrations by characters will the gaps begin to emerge in a way you can grasp them. Then, you still have to interpret them.

Few readers will miss the references to Moses and his search for the promised land, and the Christian parable of the Pilgrim's Progress. What is unstated is the connection to reading. Many poor Southern people of that time were taught to read with The Pilgrim's Progress as a primer. That experience helped to shape a perception and a sensibility that would influence their actions, and thus, this tale. That connection creates a wonderful series of circles here that build on one another.

At bottom though, it is clear from this book that there are secrets of the heart that are never exposed in public. When we come close to dying (our own or someone else's), these secrets begin to rise closer to the surface where we (and sometimes others) can see them.

Faulkner has one quirk in the book that I urge you to look for. While he is often conveying the thoughts of uneducated people, he will drop in magnificent phrases that are worthy of Shakespeare. He wants you to know that he is a learned man, hiding behind his humble bards. That pride creates flaws in the book, but flaws that are a delight to the reader, nevertheless. In fact, he takes this one step further by employing many of Shakespeare's favorite techniques from foreshadowing through nature's fury through using fools.

After you have read this book, I encourage you to consider what secret desires, actions, fears, and thoughts you have which you keep buried even from yourself. Then consider the potential benefits of making these known, before you lay dying.

Also, whenever things seem confused, consider how others may be perceiving what is going on. Like Vardeman, they too may think their mother is a fish. Accept their view of reality, and communicate in terms of that perception if you want to make contact. Otherwise, you will be alone even in the middle of your family, as the Bundrens were in As I Lay Dying.

Enjoy this American masterpiece! I think you'll find it irresistible and moving.

It is impossible to say how wonderful this book is because nothing I could say would do it justice. As I Lay Dying sparked my interest in Faulkner; he is now one of my favorite authors. The book is somewhat difficult to read the first time, but that is what makes it so wonderful. It is one of those pieces of literature that you can read over and over and never tire of it because you are always seeing something that was not there before.

As I Lay Dying is a tale of a poor, white family in the south. After the death of the mother, the family undergoes the task of traveling to her hometown to bury her. While the basic story may seem bland, it is actually far from it!!! Like most stories, there are obstacles that must be overcome, but what makes this story so wonderful is Faulkner's characterization. The story is told from the perspectives of various characters, each one explaining the same events from different points of views. Through this type of writing, Faulkner does not simply inform you of the characters, he lets you experience them. I can definitely say that each character touched my heart in one way or another. By the end of the story, I was cussing and crying. It was almost as though the characters and the story were based on real people and circumstances.

What else might I say that would explain how wonderful this book is? I suppose that what touched me most was how a family that people sterotyped as worthless revealed more honor, more devotion, and more heroism than could have ever been thought. It is an eye-opening book about life and responsiblity, about honor and pride. It is a book that everyone should definitely read at least twice.

This book should be the first Faulkner you read. Not only is it glorious, but it's the best entry point into his writing style and his body of work. The reader is given the most cues to narrator and plot (pay attention to the chapter headings), and gets a taste of Faulkner's wonderful way of putting words together and his way of commenting on family relationships, purity, sex, and the South. As is standard Faulkner fare, it's utterly depressing but a book you can't stop reading and can't help but be glad you read. The characters are memorable, and their narration is wonderful, and As I Lay Dying is home to the famous and utterly breathtaking 5-word chapter (a line delivered by Vardamann that inevitably comes to mind whenever you think of the book later).

As I Lay Dying will put you in better stead to read Faulkner's other (and sometimes even better) works than anything else, and it's well worth the read in its own right. Afterwards, I would recommend reading The Sound and the Fury, which blew me away.

One of the most important writers of the twentieth century in any country, William Faulkner could tell a rousing tale. Check your collective memory. You're sitting around the campfire and the the storyteller begins.

When it is Faulkner, expect the unexpected. As I Lay Dying. As Dead I Am Carried to My Homeplace. The first sentence: "Jewel and I come up from the field, following the path in single file." When they get to the cottonhouse, Darl, the narrator takes the path around, Jewel goes straight--through one window and out the other. Cash, the oldest son, is making a wood coffin. (This is a very impoverished family in an impoverished South.) Their mother Addie is dying in bed and watching the building of the coffin through an open window. "It will give her confidence and comfort," Darl tells us through his first person thoughts.

If you want a study in dysfunctional families, go no further. Anse, the father, is a n'er-do-well, who is basically indifferent to the needs of those around him. Cash, the oldest, is a mighty fine carpenter, but a little slow on the uptake, while Darl, the only one who understands this family's pathos, is mentally ill. Dewey Dell, the only girl, is not conversant with the facts of life and makes this homegoing pilgrimage with hopes of doing away with the life she is carrying. Poor Vardaman, the youngest, will suffer the most in his total lack of understanding. His mother dies. She is in a coffin. He can hear her talk inside the coffin through the drill holes to give her air (she is decomposing in the hot Mississippi heat). And Jewel, the second youngest, is his name to Addie, the special son for a special reason.

When Faulkner wrote, he discarded all notions of what a writer is expected to do: tell a straightforward narrative. Sit where you are and go back in time to any episode. Plan a summer vacation in your mind. That's the premise Faulkner worked with. The mind is not a straightforward narrator. He depicts that backward and forward movement in his stories. He challenges the reader by never indicating where on the time line he is in telling the story.

In "As I Lay Dying," he goes a step further. He never tells who narrates the story until the reader figures out that the title of the chapter is also the narrator. The first chapter is entitled "Darl." He begins the story in his prescient, omniscient knowing.

Make no mistake. The story of the Bundrens taking Addie back to her homeplace for burial is a comic-tragic one. The person who most deserves punishment for his bad deeds is the one who is most rewarded. Faulkner was no optimist. But he was a chronicler of his times and of a defeated South and of resulting decaying values years after the fact.

If you are new to Faulkner, read this novel first, now that you know the secret to its puzzle in narration. Then imagine sitting around that collective campfire and hearing this story just as Faulkner wrote it. Puzzling on paper, clear in the telling. So Faulknerian!

Many people contend that Faulkner's books are only concerned with the nature of man in the American South. Although set in the South (Faulkner was, after all, from Mississippi), I think his books explore the nature of man...everywhere.

In my opinion, As I Lay Dying is his masterpiece. The Bundren's are the poorest family Faulkner ever wrote about and their journey across Mississippi to bury their wife and mother is both harrowing and revealing.

Faulkner uses multiple viewpoint and writes perfect stream-of-consciousness. This is not the poetic stream-of-consciousness of Virginia Woolf, however, or the elegant stream-of-consciousness of James Joyce. Faulkner's unique brand is more intimate and revealing, more raw, more down-to-earth.
Each of the characters we hear from has his own unique perspective and voice, but the differences are subtle and never jarring as is the case with lesser authors. Faulkner had enormous talent; he knew there was no reason for him to "try too hard."

As I Lay Dying isn't always an enjoyable read, but it's a classic of American (as well as world) literature and definitely should not be missed.

This book has neither the emotional oomph of "The Sound and the Fury" nor the huge scope of "Light in August," but it is absolutely breathtaking as a stylistic tour de force and as an exploration of consciousness. Which is not to say that the book is at all dry; no indeed. The plot is beautifully archetypal, the characters never cease to shock, amaze, and entertain, and of course Faulkner writes like a force of nature. The weirdness of the form may throw off those who aren't prepared for it, but to some extent formal innovation was what modernism was all about. Like Faulkner's other great books, this one requires a high level of reader participation: passive entertainment is not the name of the game. But if you're willing to think about the book while you read it, you will discover the richness of Faulkner's thought about heroism, "artistic" detachment, and the way language and experience are related. Here's something to get you started: how can Darl narrate his mother's death if he's not even there?

The Bundrens of Faulkner's fictitious Yoknopatawpha County, Mississippi, are some of the most singular characters in literature I've encountered. They are not merely ignorant, selfish, and strange, but their outright stupidity exposes their ignorance, selfishness, and strangeness to both comic and tragic effect in problems that require only a modicum of education and common sense to solve.

As the novel begins, Addie Bundren is lying on her deathbed, her oldest son Cash is building her coffin meticulously within sight and earshot of her, and the family physician, Peabody, who considers the Bundrens a public nuisance, is attending to her. When she dies, her body must lie in the house a couple of days until her sons Darl and Jewel return with the wagon to transport the coffin to a cemetery in Jefferson, many miles away. Addie's husband Anse, her pregnant teenage daughter Dewey Dell, and her youngest son Vardaman are looking forward to the trip to Jefferson only as an opportunity for their ulterior motives: Anse would like to get a new set of false teeth; Dewey Dell, an abortion, or something from a drug store that she thinks will abort the pregnancy; and Vardaman, a toy train. Not one of them is in mourning.

Their journey to Jefferson is fraught with hazards. A recent flood has washed out the bridges over a river they need to cross, so they must make a circuitous route and ford the river, in which Cash breaks his leg and the mules pulling the wagon drown. On an overnight stop, they store Addie's coffin in a barn, which catches fire during the night. All the while, the decaying body attracts buzzards and disgusts onlookers, while Vardaman confuses his mother with a fish he had caught the day she died. Darl, the most sane and conscientious one in the family, knows that the journey to Jefferson is a farce and attempts to sabotage it. He is placed in a mental institution for his action, which only relieves him from having to be around his family.

The novel is divided into 59 sections, each narrated with a distinctive voice and perspective by one of the Bundrens or their acquaintances. As with the Compson family in "The Sound and the Fury," information about the Bundrens and their secrets is revealed little by little throughout each character's narration, and Faulkner makes some (but not as much) use of the stream-of-consciousness technique. Faulkner's characters are much bigger, deeper, and more complex than anything that can be said about them. I can think of no other writer that gets as far inside his characters' heads and makes them so real, as though the reader were sitting right next to them and talking to them.