As I Lay Dying

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It's a hit!

This is certainly not the best "classic" I've read, but it was pretty good with only some minor flaws, which kept me from giving it five stars.

Fi... (show more)

This is certainly not the best "classic" I've read, but it was pretty good with only some minor flaws, which kept me from giving it five stars.

First of all, I see the plot of As I Lay Dying often misidentified as just being "a dysfunctional family's journey to bury their dead mother", or something like that. That is certainly a major part of it, but a good chunk of this book takes place when their mother is still living. So, it's also about a family during the final days of their mother's life.

Like the state of Mississippi I, as described in the story, this book lingers just a little too long. Maybe that's part of the writing technique. If so... brilliant. Also, I didn't really care so much for the ending. While it's not a long book, the stream of conscious writing style forces you to take it a little slower. At close to 300 no-so-full pages, it still takes a while to get through. So, I was a little disappointed by, what I felt, was kind of a lack of resolution. Yes, the main plot is completed, but I don't feel that the stories of some of the main characters were completed well enough.

That's enough of the bad, so on to what worked well.

I really did enjoy this book overall. Each character is given a lot of thought and well formed with their own unique personalities and stories (which is severely lacking in a lot of literature). I really wish more authors would invest this kind of thought into each and every character, rather than one main character and then some random "stock" personalities. The writing style is tough at first, but it adds a lot of depth to the story. Faulkner doesn't tell you what's going on, he shows you. In that way, you become more emotionally invested into the story of this family. Also, I like the way that the different pieces of the plot kind of unfold over the course of the book, rather than being given the whole picture upfront.

So, yeah, it's a good book. Put down your horrible Stephanie Meyer's books and go read *real* classic American literature. (show less)

 

 

by Kate Walsh

No, it's a flop!

Well, I know this book is highly acclaimed, but I just don't get what the fuss is about. I think what made it such a hit is that at the time it was... (show more)

Well, I know this book is highly acclaimed, but I just don't get what the fuss is about. I think what made it such a hit is that at the time it was written it was a new style of writing. The book jumps around chapter by chapter to the different members of the family and their extended friends. So the story is told from the perspective of many different people. This is commonplace now, but back in 1935 or whatever I don't think it had really been done. Plus it provides an interesting glimpse of each character (and how bizarre some of them are). It was a good book, but nothing I'm dying to recommend. The scenes of traveling with the dead lady in the wagon were long and cumbersome to get through. The good stuff (where things were actually happening in people's lives) was few and far between. (show less)

 

 

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  Rough going. I WANT to love it, but I am an idjit, ADD, philistine
  in the face of this novel (said to be one of his easiest to follow).
  It's a dark comedy, right? Or at least that is one reading of it?
  The joke's on me, I reckon. Wish I'd read it as part of a lit class. Ulysses too.
  No I don't.

   

   

  by Facebook User on Jul 23, 2008 at 03:01AM

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  Faulkner was a Nobel Prize winner and wrote `As I Lay Dying' early in his authorial career in six summer weeks in 1929 during night-shift work at a local power station. For me, Faulkner's name had long been in the background, eclipsed by other Americans such as Fitzgerald and Hemmingway, and had this not been a selected book for my local reading group, I doubt I would ever have made its close acquaintance. And my vague misconceptions of Faulkner's style and place would have never been correct... (show more)

  Faulkner was a Nobel Prize winner and wrote `As I Lay Dying' early in his authorial career in six summer weeks in 1929 during night-shift work at a local power station. For me, Faulkner's name had long been in the background, eclipsed by other Americans such as Fitzgerald and Hemmingway, and had this not been a selected book for my local reading group, I doubt I would ever have made its close acquaintance. And my vague misconceptions of Faulkner's style and place would have never been corrected.

  The book's structure, some sixty or more short chapters, with a few of these no more than a couple of sentences in length, is the first surprising feature. The next is the jostling crowd of multiple voices, mostly from the Bundren family, in whose name the various chapters are presented. The vernacular and other expository devices employed by these characters demands a reader's attention and the jaggedly unfolding narrative proves mildly disorientating and requires a little more concentration than the slim volume at first suggests. All of these features combined to make `As I Lay Dying' a far more original and experimental text for its period, than I had anticipated.

  But do they make for a rewarding or engaging reading experience? For me, on balance, they did but this story of a poor family taking the coffin and body of matriarch, Anse Bundren, back to her home town of Jefferson, Mississippi did require some application.

  The pace and coherence seemed to change dramatically at about a third to half way and from then on I did find myself increasingly unable to put it down despite still feeling at some distance from the characters. In the earlier stages, the unconventional approach brought fewer rewards. The multiple voices did not seem to provide distinct and consistent perspectives that could then be knitted into an overall narrative, nor did these separations enable me as a reader to experience those deep satisfactions that can arise from seeing the whole of a novel as greater than the sum of the parts.

  Faulkner's use of language brings a great poetic force to the writing and it was this dramatic brilliance that carried me through some of the more demanding sections. Plot lines left dangling in places and the voice of one character, the farm worker Darl with his cultured and erudite vocabulary seeming inexplicably improbable, might at times strain the engagement of a reader expecting a more conventional work. This book probably demands more disciplined study than my once-through general read afforded. Or, perhaps, the first time through should just wash over and orientate the reader towards a more deeply satisfying second sitting. If I had taken such an approach, then perhaps this undoubtedly admirable and impressive book would also have provided me with a richer and more emotionally rewarding reading experience. (show less)

   

  by Andy Miller on Dec 15, 2009 at 05:46PM

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