Saturday, April 27, 2019

AS I LAY DYING


Support Independent Bookstores - Visit IndieBound.org

As I Lay Dying, William Faulkner, Random House, 1930, 231 pp
 
I read this esteemed classic by the Nobel Prize winner for Tina's Group. I am glad we chose it. I have read a good deal of Faulkner, mostly the novels published from 1940 and on. Therefore I knew what I was getting myself in for but worried that the other reading group members would find it rough going.
 
Even I, who have been reading some heavy doses of stream-of-consciousness writing over the past many months, was dismayed at first. My blogger friend Dorothy at The Nature of Things not long ago gave me permission to seek help when confronted with a difficult work, so I went on-line and found a character list. There are five children in the Bundren family.
 
As their mother lays dying we get to know them, each taking chapters in turn. In another challenge these characters speak in both dialogue with each other as well as interior monologues, the stream-of-consciousness passages. No quotation marks are provided so you just have to get used to that.
 
It is a dreary tale. When mother Addie Bundren finally dies, father Anse Bundren (one of Faulker's deeply misogynist, southern backwoods males) declares they must take the body back to the town where Addie was born, because that was her dying wish.
 
They do this but it takes forever in a mule-drawn wagon, with the rain, the flooding, the washed out bridges, and then the heat. So gritty. All the many family problems haunt their journey, alternating between various dysfunctions and the dark humor Faulkner inserts into the disastrous incidents they encounter.
 
By the end though, I knew why this novel is often called one of the greatest American novels. The majority of our reading group were similarly impressed. The member who suggested it had done his research and we benefited from it, though thankfully he did not dominate the discussion. 
 
There was a dissenter who purely hated every page and was not won over, but that is the fun of reading groups.

18 comments:

  1. Great commentary on this book. I hand read it twice. I have also found it challenging. With works that are this difficult I also sometimes look for help online and elsewhere.

    As you point out, the jouney over all things wet Is something else.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thanks, Brian. I think the book bears rereading. As do many other novels of Faulkner's.

      Delete
  2. Just seeing this cover induces great anxiety in me - thanks again, CIS Lit, senior year of high school :-/

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Hard for you? Well, I understand.

      Delete
  3. Glad you liked this novel... I read a William Faulkner for a college English course and it was pure agony! I'm not sure I'd want to give his works another go.

    ReplyDelete
  4. This sounds like a book I could use in a Buddyread! I'll keep it in mind :)

    ReplyDelete
  5. It's been decades since I read this book, but I remember needing character charts and summaries to help me along. In the end, I appreciated it and thought it deserved a reread. Unfortunately, it hasn't happened yet.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I also think it helped me to have read all those other books by him first.

      Delete
  6. One of those books I always meant to read but, still haven't.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Maybe you could talk your reading group into reading it!

      Delete
  7. I don't think I would enjoy this as I often struggle with stream-of-consciousness, but maybe I'll try it one day. I'm glad you liked it!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I think I may be overcoming my struggle with the style. This one made me realize that the stream-of-consciousness is happening inside the character's mind. I kind of knew that but this time it was really brought home to me.

      Delete
  8. Glad you got this one out of the way.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Are you? It wasn't that bad actually.

      Delete
  9. Ohh his works are tough reading! I have only tried & gotten thru 2, but I did appreciate them. Kudos to your persistence with this one.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. It takes an intrepid reader to get through any Faulkner book. I salute you back!

      Delete