As I Lay Dying

By William Faulkner

"Faulkner’s greatest work"—The New York Review of Books

"One of the most perplexing novels of the modernist canon"—The Conversation

As I Lay Dying is a 1930 novel, in the genre of Southern Gothic by American author William Faulkner. Faulkner said that he w

• Language: English
• Publisher: Woolf Haus Publishing
• Release date: Sep 1, 2019
• ISBN: 9781925788150

William Faulkner

William Faulkner (1897-1962) is widely regarded as one of the greatest of all American novelists and short-story writers.  His other works include the novels The Sound and the Fury, The Reivers, and Sanctuary.  He twice won the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction and in 1949 was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature.

Reviews for As I Lay Dying

[jonbrammer-788089 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Faulkner is brilliant because he's a dangerous and mysterious writer - you can see the big themes bubble up subtle and slow from the language in his work. It wasn't until I was close to the end of the book that I realized that Cash is a Christ figure much like Thomas Sutpen represents (a Miltonian) Satan in "Absalom, Absalom". But Faulkner doesn't try to overwhelm with these themes - rather it's his language and the kaleidascopic chaos of his vision that renders truth about nature and humanity.

[quickmind · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

A somewhat tragic, yet at it's core, simple story, complicated by it's method of storytelling. I found that I was not nearly as enraptured by Faulkner's storytelling with this book, as I was when I read The Sound and the Fury years and years ago. I appreciated the artistry of it, but didn't find the story to be all that compelling, nor the characters to be all that interesting.

[alexrichman_1 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Pretty dazzling. Every character's voice is so clearly defined that you'd be able to name each one just from reading a few paragraphs of their thoughts. Like all great books, it hops nimbly from comedy to tragedy. Glad I fished it off the shelf.

[justmerosalie · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Honestly, at first I wondered if I would finish reading this book. It is just plain miserable. I read your reviews here, and for the life of me, I still cannot see what some of you considered funny. The despair just went on and on and on. As if sitting through a sweltering hot day, I just waited for something to change. If you hold on long enough, it does.Faulkner writes in a stream-of-consciousness style that carries the story well, eventually keeping the reader very involved. Eac h chapter is titled and narrated by one of the characters, some several times and others only once. The drawback is that so much of the time, it isn't clear what they are thinking of or talking about. I would not have had the patience to go on with it without finding some outside explanation to clarify what was happening. The story is simple. The mother of a poor family has died and they are taking her to her hometown to be buried. They are beset by one disaster after another. By reading the chapters as if listening to the narrators mind, the complexities of the family are outlined and woven together eventually giving a rustic scene of the dysfunctionality and psyche of the family as a whole. I'm not sure that you understand or relate to the emotions, but they are there and they are deep. Perhaps to augument their dispair. It is possible you will find yourself evaluating your own group from this viewpoint. I found it troublesome and haunting and I think you may find glimpses of yourself or those you love or hate here. Curiously, because each person starts out so far removed from the reader. they wrap up in quite a heartfelt reality. I feel a large distance from them and yet realize that parts of them are likely part of all of us. It gives them life, although it is with a dull warmth. It haunts you. I'm afraid this will stay with me for awhile, whether I liked it or not. You don't have to like a book for it to be good.Addendum: I just have to put this in here. I finished reading this book this morning. It has been on my mind all day. I so much hate one of the characters that people I see make me think "That looks like _____! I"d like to run ___ over!!!!" And what about ___ and ____?????? It's as if they are real live people, which happens when you read a book but this is more intense!!! I guess we have to say it is a "darn good book'!!!

[wagner5sarah35 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

A difficult read, but one worth the label of classic. Rarely is poverty so atmospheric in a novel, nor do characters' accents emerge in the story's telling. However, the point of view switches frequently among a wide expanse of characters, which made the book more than a little confusing to me.

[lriley_43 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

A kind of appalachian version of the Oddyssey. A classic of 20th century american literature. Narrated by numerous voices mostly told by the illiterate Bundren family directly concerned it begins as Addie (the mother) lays dying inside her home while Cash (one of her sons) is constructing her coffin outside. The journey to take her back to her hometown to be buried-- at the same time so Anse her pigheaded husband can find another wife takes the entire family through one catastrope after another most notably of flood and fire. Told in the venacular of backwoods southern people of the first part of the 20th century this book is chock full of pathos and black humor and is in my opinion the best of Faulkner's novels.

[kristelh_15 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

I enjoyed this book. Written in stream of conscious style but each chapter clearly labeled so you know who is doing the thinking. Story of the death of Addie, mother and wife and the family's trip to take her family's home for burial.

[never_sam · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

I found this to primarily be an exploration of grief and the various ways the members of Addie's family dealt with her passing. I didn't think it was a good as [i]The Sound and the Fury[/i], but was definitely typical of Faulkner. I did find the constant changing of point of view more distracting than in [i]The Sound and the Fury[/i] where there was just the four sections. If you are a fan of modernist American literature or Southern literature I would definitely recommend this book, but just be forewarned this employs quite a few unconventional techniques and formal experimentalism. Highly recommended for those interested in study literature but if you are more of a casual reader probably not something to just pick up on the spur of the moment.

[est2lm · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

This is my first Faulkner and I have to say - boy, what a book! I don't think I'll go as far to say that it's one of my favorite novels, or that he's my new favorite author, but it's definitely a book that I'm going to be thinking about for the next couple of weeks.

It is a strange book, and what makes it unforgettable is how psychological it is. The youngest character gave me the creeps because it wasn't until late in the book when I understood why he says his mother is a fish. Nevertheless, the metaphor still creeps me out a bit. The entire family to me seems a bit off their rockers, and a bit insincere as to why they are complying with the mother's wish to be buried in a town miles and storms away from where they reside. I wanted to believe at first that it was love or respect but towards the end it becomes hinted at that that wasn't the case.

What I wasn't quite able to like (though I do appreciate the work it requires) is that there is sort of a backwards foreshadowing, where something happens but isn't explained or hinted at why it happened til later in the book. Some points were a tad too ambiguous for my liking and left unclear, though other points were well-balanced between ambiguity and clear hints.

But overall, an interesting book, I'm glad I finally got around to it.

[placo75 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

I picked up this book on a whim (think, "Smart people read Faulkner, right? I like to pretend I'm smart, so I better read this book.") Man, I'm glad my vanity led me to that. This book blew me away. It is not for the literary faint-of-heart, but it is good.

[janemarieprice · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Addie Bundren lays dying while her oldest son builds her coffin outside her window. After her death, her husband and children set out to bury her in her hometown. They are beset by a variety of obstacles, not the least of which are their own personal difficulties.The first thing I thought (and loved) about As I Lay Dying, was how wonderfully Faulkner captured the feeling of the terminal illness and death of a matriarch/patriarch. How very, very long each day becomes and how extremely important and significant each small daily task becomes. Also moving is the youngest son’s reaction to the dead body: “It was not her. I was there, looking. I saw. I thought it was her, but it was not. It was not my mother.” I found this was my reaction to every funeral I’ve been to and have heard this sentiment given as advice to people attending their first. Another beautiful passage on the difficulty of caring for someone from Jewel, the third son: “I said if you’d just let her alone. Sawing and knocking, and keeping the air always moving so fast on her face that when you’re tired you can’t breathe it, and that goddamn adze going One lick less.”I am always fascinated by stream of consciousness, and Faulkner is a master. One of the biggest complaints I see in reviews of the novel are the difficulty in determining what is happening. However, I think this is one of the stronger points of the novel’s construction. After all, how often does one think factual things about oneself or family.* Also it exposes different viewpoints. Events are not always seen in the same way by each character. The post poignant of these is the chapter from Addie’s perspective. This in itself could be a remarkable and beautiful short story.I found myself fascinated by Darl’s character. For most of the book, I found him to be the more well adjusted, comprehensible one. Here is a lovely passage from early on: “When I was a boy I first learned how much better water tastes when it has set a while in a cedar bucket. Warmish-cool, with a faint taste like the hot July wind in cedar trees smells. It has to set at least six hours, and be drunk from a gourd. Water should never be drunk from metal. At night it is better still.” However, as the book moves on both his actions and thought patterns degenerate significantly. I’m still not sure what to make of his breakdown. Finally, Faulkner again deals with issues of fate, sin, inevitability, etc. The father’s feelings on roads for example: “Durn that road…A-laying there, right up to my door, where every bad luck that comes and goes is bound to find it…But I told her it want no luck in it, because the Lord put roads for travelling: why He laid them down flat on the earth. When He aims for something to be always a-moving, He makes it long ways, like a road or a horse or a wagon, but when He aims for something to stay put, He makes it up-and-down ways, like a tree or a man.” As difficult as the family’s situation becomes, I could never quite bring myself to feel like their fate is hopeless. I can’t tell if this is me projecting my optimism on the story or Faulkner not believing his own doomed characters. Thoughts? *Possible Spoiler Alert* such as ‘I am pregnant’, ‘he is not my father’, ‘I had an affair’, etc. I found this a really hard novel to address without spoilers.

[jbarr5 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

As I lay dying by William FaulknerStories of farmers as they survive with the work they do.Chapters from various family and friends. Other medical emergencies arise and how they deal with them.I received this book from National Library Service for my BARD (Braille Audio Reading Device).

[alisony-1 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

This was my first Faulkner book; I'd expected it to be fairly arduous, but once I got into the swing of the language and his style of prose I really enjoyed it. Written in a modernist stream of consciousness style, the story is about the death and burial of Addie Bundren, as observed by her children, husband, and other characters from the surrounding area. It's one of those books where nothing much happens and yet everything happens. At the beginning of the book we learn about the perceived natures of each of the family members through different narrator perspectives, and as the journey to bury Addie progresses we see their true colours emerge, concluding with different opinions of them than was originally presented to us.There were many moments of black humour throughout, often to do with poor deceased Mrs Bundren in her homemade coffin as the final journey to her hometown continually got derailed. Faulkner's method of narration left a bit of work for the reader at times, so I read the online Sparknotes for the book as I went to make sure my understanding was staying on the right track.4 stars for a very different and worthwhile read.

[jimmychanga · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

I loved it but it's almost too perfect.

[lord_boris-1 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

A book you have to invest perseverance in to get the reward. But well worth it. Each chapter is written in the first person but from a different characters perspective. So you get a multi character (17 I think) point of view. Sometimes hard going with the style used and being written in the vernacular. Black comedy. Tragedy.

[jennifersalderson · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Wonderful, wierd, fantastic book. Breaks every rule ever created about writing and still manages to captivate. This is difficult book to review because there's so many twists and suprises, all the way through to the last page, that I'm afraid of saying to much and spoiling it. Should be a required read.

[deebee1_1 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

I never thought a story about dying and death could be grimly amusing. It sounds macabre, but macabre this story was, and brilliantly, too. Addie Bundren takes awhile dying, and in the opening scene, we find her watching through her bedroom window Cash, her eldest, building a coffin for her. Finally she is dead and there the family's luckless adventure begins as they have to bring her body to Jefferson, where she came from. Anse, the husband, swears it was a promise he made her, and that he will fulfill at all costs. That the body was placed reversed on the coffin, to start, could not have boded well for the entire endeavor. Against all common sense, Anse insists on crossing the ford instead as the bridge had collapsed. A ludicrous scene follows with horse, mules, people and coffin being carried away by the waters. The coffin is intact, and surviving waters, fire, and the petty hostilities between the siblings and the sly manipulations of the lazy Anse throughout the transport, it finally entered Jefferson in a procession accompanied by vultures overhead, for now it had been the 9th day and the smell was horrible. While we learn of things that happened in the course of bringing Addie's body to Jefferson, we also learn of her life and the family's, skeletons and all, before this took place, spread in the novel's 59 chapters and from the point of view of 15 narrators. Written in a stream of consciousness style, some effort is necessary when switching from one point of view to another, as narrators can be articulate, confusing, vague or abstruse. I found this fun, though, as all these were like dots I had to connect and work out by myself. Also, by getting into each character's mind, we experience and perceive rather than "told" of what he or she goes through, and so as a reader, have to sometimes consciously detach ourselves from the narrator to "see" what is happening. For example in the case of the boy, Verdaman who thinks his mother is a fish. I had to pull back and reflect -- why did he think his mother is a fish? So there, go find out why he thinks his mother is a fish. Read the book and find out why Faulkner is a giant of literature.

[kcato_3 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Weird, weird book. I hope this review has been helpful.

[kraysaulis · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

I hated this book ... at first. It was haphazard, disjointed, difficult to understand. I was annoyed and irritated and just wanted to get through it. Something happens to it, though, somewhere in the middle. Something changes in the writing, or maybe I just got used to the style and began to understand it better. All of a sudden I got it. I got themes, I got the point. I understand the message and I could suddenly even understand the characters themselves. I finished it not loving it, but I finished it at least enjoying it.

[rossryanross · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Steam of consciousness, multiple focalizers, death, destruction, and a great ending. What's not to love?

[hcanton_4 · Rating: 1 out of 5 stars]

Hated is too good a word for my opinion of this book. It's one of the few books to which I've ever had a REALLY negative reaction. I see in comments that it is supposed to be dark humor. Well, ok, if you think a book about a dead woman and dsyfunctional offspring is funny, but when reading this book I had no clue I was supposed to be laughing. I found the book very dark and disturbing, with just really messed-up characters. Camus' "The Plague, and the movie "American Beauty" left similar bad tastes in my mouth.

[avila444 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Depressingly accurate. Why one shouldn't ignore God.

[lit_chick_2 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

2005, Random House Audio,Read by Marc Cashman, Lina Patel, Robertson Dean, Lorna Raver“… words dont ever fit even what they are trying to say at … motherhood was invented by someone who had to have a word for it because the ones that had the children didn’t care whether there was a word for it or not.”Addie Bundren has died. Her eldest son, Cash, builds her coffin as her husband, Anse, and her remaining children, Darl, Jewel, Dewey Dell, and Vardaman, prepare to travel to Jefferson where she will be laid to rest with “her people.” Addie has extracted this promise from Anse, and although it is pure madness to undertake such a journey with a corpse in the oppressive Southern heat, Anse is determined – his steadfastness more a measure of headstrong orneriness than love or honour. Not unpredictably, the journey is ill-fated from the start; a washed-out bridge sets the family struggling against the forces of nature and Cash’s ensuing injuries. Precious time is lost, the corpse is decomposing, and Vardaman is counting buzzards … Written in stream of consciousness, As I Lay Dying is presented by fifteen narrators in fifty-nine eponymous chapters; interestingly, Addie narrates a chapter, too. Thus the experience of the story is emotional as well as physical, intimately first-hand, with characters developed gradually, though none the less richly. While I am not particularly inclined to the stream of consciousness style, its purpose here is wonderfully effective. And Faulkner’s South is, of course, is not only believable, but visible and tangible. This Random House Audio edition, brilliantly read in Southern dialect and in the vernacular speech of the uneducated Bundrens, is uber-impressive: more a performance than narration.Highly recommended. “It’s Cash and Jewel and Vardaman and Dewey Dell,” pa says, kind of hangdog and proud too, with his teeth and all, even if he wouldn’t look at us. “Meet Mrs Bundren,” he says.

[pilgrimjess · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

“People to whom sin is just a matter of words, to them salvation is just words too.”The novel opens with southern matriarch, Addie Bundren lying on her deathbed with the sound of her eldest child Cash making her coffin outside her window and the story is told from various viewpoints, relatives to neighbours and even including that of the dying woman herself. Addie’s dying wish is to be buried among her own people in Jefferson, Mississippi. So to comply with her wishes her husband Anse, and children, Cash, Darl, Jewel, Dewey Dell and Vardaman set about the task of carting her coffin on what should be "a hard day's ride" for the funeral. However, the journey becomes itself a sort of rite of passage as they have to deal with fire (a burning barn) and water (a dangerous river crossing when the local bridges are washed away following a storm). The death of Addie Bundren inspires several characters to wrestle with questions of existence and identity. Her youngest child, Vardaman, associates a fish which he caught and cut into pieces just as she was her last breath with the transformation of Addie from a person into a non-person. The book is filled with moments of heroism yet Faulkner's take on such battles is ironic. The Bundrens’ effort to get their wagon across the flooded river is undermined by the fact that it occurs for a questionable purpose similarly so is Jewel's efforts to save the coffin from the fire.This is at times a difficult read as it slowly unravels the bleak nature of Addie’s life and in particular her relationship with her son, Jewel, the result of an affair with the local minister, and is populated with a cast of rather strange dirt poor southern Americans. The story is told using a stream of conciousness methodology which I'm never really a fan of personally but that being said is always something of a compulsive read as you ponder just what will happen to the family next. Whilst I did not find this a particularly scintillating read it will certainly not put me off looking up some of the author's other works.

[thornton37814 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

This is a very Southern take on the grieving process of one family told through alternating viewpoints of various persons. Addie has died; one of her sons constructs her coffin; they take the coffin on a journey to honor her wish to be buried in Jefferson. I won't go into all the things along the way. This was a re-read for me. I must say that I found the story more compelling and appreciated the literary devices and imagery far more this second time.

[jmcdbooks · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Rated: AMasterpiece. Capture poor white folks from deep south perfectly. Amazing story line told from multiple narratives.

[thatotter-1 · Rating: 2 out of 5 stars]

Disgusting, depressing, infuriating, confusing.

Good, maybe, but not enjoyable.

[mrslee_1 · Rating: 2 out of 5 stars]

As the title suggests, this is not a cheerful book. It actually makes one ill. The description of these backwoods people is appalling. I guess what makes it so is the knowledge that there truly are families like this. It is very sad. I see no reason to keep this.

[shamille_1 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Yet another book we had to read for school! This book is divided up into chapters that are basically thoughts and narrations of the characters. I'll tell you right now. the only ones that make sense are Cash, Vardaman, Addie, and the people outside the family.Basically what happens is there's this family called the Bundrens. they are poor and they are verrrry country. The father is astonishingly lazy and an underhanded subhuman. Anyway, the mom dies, and they go on a "heroic journey" to bury her. But really they have their own agendas for the heroic journey, and no one really cares about her but Jewel, and everyone thinks Jewel is weird and crazy. I don't really know what to write about.Sometimes this book is confusing... mostly it is funny though. "dark comedy" or whatever. Darl is very "philosophical" and sometimes his chapters will be about what is and is not or wasn't and can't be is. And it's not important to know what he's talking about.The best characters in the book are Jewel (because he's a sexy and trouble outcast) and Vardaman (because he's a little kid and little kids are absolutely hilarious). Vardaman really warms my heart. I love him, I do. Like one time Darl was talking to him about his philosophy. it went something like this:Darl: "Jewel's mother is a horse"Vardaman: "but my mom is a fish so how can Jewel's mom be a horse? Darl, what's your mom?"Darl: "i haven't got a mom. She was is so she isn't is so I am not is"Vardaman: "But you are, Darl!"anyway it's funny and you should read it.

[scott.bradley · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

Rich, descriptive, gritty, harsh prose worth 5 stars for individual chapters, but ultimately fails for trying too hard and is a case study in why to edit sober.

I really wanted to like this more than I did. The prose is, at moments, stunning. The opening narrations draw in the reader with rich description. You can almost taste the sweat, the dirt, the cool water from a cedar bucket.

Ultimately, however, the multi-voiced approach lacks cohesion and narrative direction. The number of voices is at moments overwhelming and at most times simply confusing. Coupled with the pseudo-stream of consciousness, it just seemed like too much.

I think the approach and style could have worked well if just told through the voice's of Addie's five children. However, even that is probably a bit much. Jewel has a natural distance/difference from his siblings that causes his voice to add little to the story. Further, the attempt at Vardaman's voice as a young child makes him seem more mentally handicapped than merely young, and is perhaps the biggest failure of the novel. Thus, I feel like an approach just through the eyes of Darl, Cash, and Dewey Dell would have kept to the spirit and style of the novel while providing a much more cohesive and comprehensible narrative. Any decent editor would have told Faulkner this, yet the novel was published "without changing a word" (not really, but still).

In the end, I can't get myself to give it even 4 stars, let alone the 5 that are warranted by snippets of Faulkner's prose.