As I Lay Dying (Collected works of William Faulkner) (Vintage International)

by William Faulkner

E. L. Doctorow (Foreword)

Selected by the Modern Library as one of the 100 best novels of all time

From the Modern Library’s new set of beautifully repackaged hardcover classics by William Faulkner—also available are Snopes, The Sound and the Fury, Light in August, Absalom, Absalom!, and Selected Short Stories

One of William Faulkner’s finest novels, As I Lay Dying, originally published in 1930, remains a captivating and stylistically innovative work. The story revolves around a grim yet darkly humorous pilgrimage, as Addie Bundren’s family sets out to fulfill her last wish: to be buried in her native Jefferson, Mississippi, far from the miserable backwater surroundings of her married life. Told through multiple voices, As I Lay Dying vividly brings to life Faulkner’s imaginary South, one of literature’s great invented landscapes, and is replete with the poignant, impoverished, violent, and hypnotically fascinating characters that were his trademark. Along with a new Foreword by E. L. Doctorow, this edition reproduces the corrected text of As I Lay Dying as established in 1985 by Faulkner expert Noel Polk.

• ISBN10: 0375504524
• ISBN13: 9780375504525
• Publish Date: 28 November 2000 (first published 1 January 1930)
• Publish Status: Active
• Publish Country: US
• Publisher: Random House USA Inc
• Imprint: Modern Library Inc
• Edition: New edition
• Format: Hardcover
• Pages: 256
• Language: English
• URL: https://penguinrandomhouse.com/books/isbn/9780375504525

Reviews

[Michael @ Knowledge Lost]

As I Lay Dying is a classic American novel that was written by William Faulkner. This book follows the journey of fifteen different characters as they set out to fulfil the wishes of the recently deceased Addie Bundren; which is to be buried in Jefferson. Faulkner shifts between the fifteen narrators throughout book; one of them is even the deceased; who is expressing her thoughts from the coffin. As the book continues you can see the characters develop with each narrator’s perceptions and opinions.

This book is best known for its stream of consciousness writing technique; which can be one of the biggest struggles with this book. It’s a dense read and if you don’t pay enough attention and try to delve deep into this book you will struggle to enjoy it. I made the mistake of starting reading book out as like a novel and it took me a while to pull myself up and approach this novel in the right mindset. But eventually I did start enjoying this book for what it is; and that is as a piece of literature that helped pioneer the stream of consciousness narrative and the interior monologue.

Faulkner was never an easy author to read but I hear this is his most accessible novel so I’m worried about reading anything else of his. I did enjoy exploring his literary style and just seeing the techniques he used for this novel but this really isn’t everyone’s idea of a fun read. There are some interesting characters in As I Lay Dying and some very ironic and dark elements to the story. As for the plot and scenery I did find it lacking but that really wasn’t what Faulkner was trying to achieve.

William Faulkner has famously said that wrote the novel in six weeks and that he did not change a word of it. This in its self is a pretty impressive statement but if you look at the techniques and the novel as an overall piece of high literature this statement is more impressive that I originally thought; it makes me feel like a failure. As I Lay Dying is not going to be for everyone, it is a dense novel but for lovers of literature it is interesting to dive into something that has been analysed deeply. I’m not going to go into the side of this book because I doubt I could really do it justice. The style of this book is interesting, the prose are worth a deeper look and overall this book was just fascinating.

[jamiereadthis]

We’re quite obviously tackling death here and, I’m happy to report, the right way: the absurd way. The look-out-your-window-watch-your-son-build-your-casket way. Cash in particular is a treat, the most ingenious and generous of the colossally stubborn, comical, righteously misguided Bundrens. With Vardaman, and Addie herself, my standouts of the story. There’s a little bit of heartbreak hidden in the seams, as always. The quiet calamity tucked underneath the loud, but we don’t get tragic here, we stick to the simple blackguarded indignant absurdity. It takes some work to sort out the story, to see through the madness when you’re not being told what to see, and I’m ever-awed at how much of it Faulkner entrusts to the reader. The complexity is so rich, the patience so rewarded. I can see how it could drive some people nutty and I guess I wouldn’t fault them that, but God, I love it.

“Sometimes I think it aint none of us pure crazy and aint none of us pure sane until the balance of us talks him that-a-way. It’s like it aint so much what a fellow does, but it’s the way a majority of folks is looking at him when he does it.”

I know this may be a "classic" but suffice to say it was the worst, most pointless book I have ever read.