William Faulkner

As I Lay Dying is Faulkner's harrowing account of the Bundre family's odyssey across the Mississippi countryside to bury Addie, their wife and mother. Told in turns by each of the family members-including Addie herself-the novel ranges in mood from dark comedy to the deepest pathos. [Suggest a different description.]

As I Lay Dying

“I set out deliberately to write a tour-de-force. Before I ever put pen to paper and set down the first word I knew what the last word would be and almost where the last period would fall.” —William Faulkner on As I Lay Dying As I Lay Dying is Faulkner’s harrowing account of the Bundren family’s odyssey across the Mississippi countryside to bury Addie, their wife and mother. Narrated in turn by each of the family members—including Addie herself—as well as others the novel ranges in mood, from dark comedy to the deepest pathos. Considered one of the most influential novels in American fiction in structure, style, and drama, As I Lay Dying is a true 20th-century classic. This edition reproduces the corrected text of As I Lay Dying as established in 1985 by Noel Polk.

My first Faulkner and I was just blown away. From the beginning, I have no issue admitting it was different and confusing -- it took me a minute to figure out who was even related to the dying Addie. So many names are tossed your way and sometimes one of these new characters (or possibly new yet, still) just says "my brother" and you're left completely in the dark as to who that is (for the moment).

Then, should you stick with it, you can easily get a sense of Faulkner's style. You can tell he is withholding some information from you and you need to be okay with that, trusting the master to reveal it fully when the story's ready (though hints were undoubtedly dropped). Ultimately, you're only in the dark if you're not paying attention. I like that the story requires some engagement and for the effort you're rewarded with a writing style you've simply never seen before (and likely won't find anywhere else). This prose is poetry, beginning to end.

The story of the Bundrens and their journey to Jefferson is phenomenal. I highly recommend "As I Lay Dying".

Evan

This is a must-read.

  

My first Faulkner and I was just blown away. From the beginning, I have no issue admitting it was different and confusing -- it took me a minute to figure out who was even related to the dying Addie. So many names are tossed your way and sometimes one of these new characters (or possibly new yet, still) just says "my brother" and you're left completely in the dark as to who that is (for the moment).

  

Then, should you stick with it, you can easily get a sense of Faulkner's style. You can tell he is withholding some information from you and you need to be okay with that, trusting the master to reveal it fully when the story's ready (though hints were undoubtedly dropped). Ultimately, you're only in the dark if you're not paying attention. I like that the story requires some engagement and for the effort you're rewarded with a writing style you've simply never seen before (and likely won't find anywhere else). This prose is poetry, beginning to end.

  

The story of the Bundrens and their journey to Jefferson is phenomenal. I highly recommend "As I Lay Dying".

emmy 

His multi-layered narrative, told through the perspectives of various characters, offers a profound exploration of human experience and the intricacies of grief, loss, and family dynamics. 
What struck me most about the novel is Faulkner's innovative use of stream-of-consciousness technique, experiencing their innermost thoughts and emotions in raw, unfiltered form.
It’s like Faulkner captures the disjointed nature of human consciousness and the subjective nature of truth, inviting readers to question the reliability of perception and memory.

Patrick Book

Miles Silverstein

Saad

The key to reading As I Lay Dying is to give in. Let Faulkner be, frustratingly, Faulkner. A lot of the time, the words (and a lot of the time even the sentences) make no sense at all. But Faulkner paints scenes and you can only grasp a few strokes of his brush at a time.

Tip to anyone who plans on reading this: don't attempt or try or expect or even hope to understand the plot. However, if you WANT to understand some of the plot, look up Wai Chi Dimock's lectures on youtube. She does a terrific job of uniting the readers against Faulkner, surrounding him and making him yield some answers. Also some cool parallels are drawn with Greek mythology and literary epics. 

I may not love this book, but I am grateful to it for getting me into Yale courses freely available on youtube.

Louis Norton

Thought I’d give Faulkner a go as people often reference his lineage to McCarthy. At first I wasn’t sure he measured up, and I was struggling with the dialect a fair bit-and some of the- I don't know what else to call this- wagon-choreography was a little confusing- but around that halfway point at the river I was pretty blown away. Obviously some really impressive prose and descriptions of nature- as with Cormac calling it “descriptions of nature” does a disservice to the level of artfulness and thematic depth that’s in those passages, but still, super pretty descriptions of water and birds and fields. Pretty gutting (and very clever) ending as well.
My fave passage: “How do our lives ravel out into the no-wind, no-sound, the weary gestures wearily recapitulant: echoes of old compulsions with no-hand on no-strings; in sunset we fall into furious attitudes, dead gestures of dolls.”

Joanne Chavali

Good plot line but the stream of consciousness writing is just not for me! But it was worth sticking it out to the end, futility of life and all that jazz.

don't read this book, look at it. i love faulkner's novels for his literary techniques, way moreso than his plots. this book is fantastic, i may have loved it more than the sound and the fury. make sure you read this twice to catch all his techniquesssss oh god :)



it's not difficult to see them as long as you study what's in italics and what's not. i had to read this novel backwards once i was done to figure out what was going through each of the characters' heads. each character has their perks; make sure to catch them all to really understand this novel. cheers :)

Derek Graf

Michael Springer

It seems that every time I finish and review a book, I remember two books I've read in the past. Thus, like the Hyrda of Greek mythology, my unreviewed books continue growing. So I'm going to work on going back and writing reviews for books that are already on here when I have a chance. Here we go.
 
As I Lay Dying was my first Faulkner, and I was excited to give him a read. But DAMN did I have a hard time getting through this book. I rarely consult the Cliffs notes when I'm reading for pleasure, but in this case it was necessary. Not because I didn't, in a purely plotline sense, understand what was happening; I just wasn't sure why I was supposed to care. 
 
One of my favorite authors is Cormac McCarthy, who is constantly compared to Faulkner. The two of them write frequently about the south, and they have some stylistic similarities. So, if I were to go back now and reread this one, it's possible I'd think it's awesome. But, I doubt it. As I read McCarthy, I'm awed. As I read this one, I felt mostly disoriented and bored. 
 
In the end, I didn't understand why this book is considered a classic. Is it because you have to work so hard to figure out what Faulkner's point is? Is it his occasionally poetic writing? Is it a purely historical significance, because of how he challenged the medium of novel writing? 
 
It's not like I don't see some good things in his writing. But, I don't really get why he should be read in high school. This seems like the exact thing that would give high schoolers the sense that reading is boring, and a lot of work. Methinks that's not the first impression we should give students.

Vilandra

This was the worst book I have ever read.

Recounts the Bundren family's odyssey across the Mississippi countryside to bury Addie, their wife and mother, through the eyes of each of the family members.

The Corrected Text

Ryan LaFerney

As I Lay Dying is an astounding book and a deceivingly challenging one at that. It's probably the most popular of Faulkner’s Yoknapatawpha County stories. It's a short, dark, and compelling novel set in what he called “my apocryphal county”, a fictional rendering of Lafayette County in his native Mississippi. 

As I Lay Dying, Faulkner's novel of 1930 about a Southern family of poor whites narrated by its members and their neighbors, its events refracted through multiple points of view, is accessible yet somehow dense; poetic yet plain. It seems simple on the surface, As I Lay Dying tells the story of the Bundren family as they attempt to move a coffin to Jefferson, Mississippi. What makes As I Lay Dying challenging and so innovative is its narrative voice. The book is narrated by 15 different characters over 59 chapters. It is the story of the death of Addie Bundren and her poor, rural family's quest to bury her - but it becomes so much more than this simple journey. It becomes a novel about the inner lives of each character. As they talk they reveal what Addie calls their own "secret and selfish though" -their private responses to Addie's life and their own separate reasons for undertaking the perilous journey to bury her. What first appears to be a simple task– transporting a coffin to a burial ground– quickly transforms into a journey that will change the family forever.

This jigsaw puzzle of perspectives forces the reader to piece together the story bit by bit. Each chapter is labeled with the narrator’s name, though Faulkner writes his characters so distinctly that the reader would likely be able to identify the narrator even without the helpful note at the top of the page. Over the course of the novel, we learn the many secrets this family has been hiding, including knowledge that only certain family members know. Many shocking revelations are revealed throughout. And the ending - is a doozy!

Truly, the brilliance of this sometimes difficult novel lies in Faulkner’s compulsive, bleak unfolding of Addie’s history and her relationship with her beloved son, Jewel, the result of her affair with Rev Whitfield, the local minister. In counterpoint to this, we also meet her family, an extraordinary cast of weird southerners – Cash, Darl, Dewey Dell and Vardaman Bundren. Dewey Dell, the teenage daughter, who is trying to get an abortion, is probably the most sympathetic character throughout the novel. It is interesting that Faulkner chooses to contrast the death of the matriarch with her teenage's daughter pregancy. I'm not sure exactly why this is, but I'm willing to meditate on this for a bit.

This was my second time reading this classic novel. I read it once in my early twenties. Now that I'm in my thirties, I am seeing this novel differently. Families are often built on secrets, on difficult personalities, members often selfish and compulsive. If anything, this novel reminds me that I must love my family well and choose not to be selfish if I can. 

I'll be curious to see how I relate to this novel next time I read this novel.

linda

Phew I finally finished this book. I don’t really understand it. I found the narrative really confusing. I will update once talk more about it in class.

Kevin. j Mercil 

My first complete Faulkner. Several attempts in the past ended in failure. It took me a while to fully understand what was going on , and as I progressed I begin to enjoy his writing style. This will not be my last Faulkner.

Rick Dobrowolski

I probably didn't like this book because I'm not a fan of stream of consciousness writing. However, even if I was, I still do not totally understand why this book is so high on top 100 books of all time lists. It was not bad, but I also didn't think that it was all that good.

jm laine

Sabetha Danes

Rather sad read, but it also made me giggle at points. I enjoyed the format it was written in, jumping around to people.

Richie B

3/5 stars. 

Really, really good and worthwhile read overall. 

This book was written so well! Faulkner's writing style is so beautiful and descriptive, it makes me want to become a better writer. The stream of consciousness style lends really well to this character driven narrative. I liked how each chapter was narrated by a different character, it kept things fresh and interesting as a reader. I loved the whole tone of this novel, I can't really explain but I liked the dark humor and irony in it. I'm not going to lie, this was a very difficult novel to read. A lot of times I had to turn to the litcharts chapter summaries to understand what was going on completely. The first time I read Dewey Dell's first chapter I didn't even realize it was about her being pregnant. A lot of things flew over my head, but that is more of a personal problem than anything. That being said, I still think William Faulkner is a literary genius and want to read more of his novels.

Meriem💫

Melody Izard

This was a parallel book to be read along with J.M. Coetzee's "Life and Times of Michael K". That was the only thing saving it. I never was quiet sure what I was reading. Never quite sure what I was supposed to think. And I was looking forward to our book group discussion - and I missed it. Faulkner, sometimes I just want to slide your ol' creaky coffin off in the creek and mosey on my way.

香玫

i feel like i should get down on my knees and pray and honestly just become a born again christian so i don’t have to go to hell because i have to assume that eternal damnation is just reading this book over and over and over until the end of time

Alexia Cambaling

As I Lay Dying is a bit of an odd one for me. I’m torn between liking it and finding it just okay. It’s my first Faulkner novel and finishing it left me torn if I want to pick up another one or save it for another time. It is evocative and best read in the summer when you can really feel the hot sun and be transported to what Faulkner’s describing. At the same time, as human and messy his characters are, I don’t feel like I connected with his writing enough to truly care about them, even though if I were to look at it objectively, this book is good, just not quite my cup of tea.

Deborah Baker

What can I say?! I loved this book, but then again it is William Faulkner. He was one of the best storytellers of all time. Love Southern Fiction, especially Faulkner.

Christina Hufford

I have to say, for the first third of the book, I wasn't sure what I was getting myself into. It's a very difficult read, the language is dense and at times it's very confusing who is talking, and what in the world they're talking about. You get used to it, though; gradually, the book kind of teaches you how to read it, and once you've gotten the hang of the language, let me tell you, the pay-off is fantastic. 

At its heart this is a book about the journey of a very dysfunctional family. Good things happen to characters who do not deserve it, and bad things to characters who deserved better. Its told in such a way that most of the story is inferred; once you get the hang of the jumbled timelines and switches in points of view, it's a bit like piecing together a mystery, and it is a LOT like being dropped into a real family's lives as a stranger, for you spend a lot of time glancing from one character to the next, working out why this one has a grudge against that one, what the backstory is there, why he did that, etc. Struck me as a very cerebral read; it doesn't flat-out tell you what's going on, and for that reason you have to work harder as a reader to follow. But because of that, like I said before, the pay-off is that much sweeter. I felt so connected to the characters by the end (and so *angry* at the selfishness of one of them, omigod, I was fuming so much I wrinkled my book) and you really begin to appreciate the work and talent required of Faulkner to be able to pull something like this off. 

So, if you can whether through the first fifty pages or so and not get impatient or frustrated, I promise, you'll get used to the confusing parts and it'll become a seriously immersive, crazy experience. And I mean CRAZY. I think my favorite part was the scene at the river, because after pages and pages of coffin-building and characters mumbling, all of a sudden EVERYTHING STARTS GOING WRONG. From that scene onwards, the book became a story about a family completely falling apart out of one man's stubbornness and selfishness, and it went from a difficult read to a heart-breaking one. :(

As I Lay Dying

Reviews