Last night I finished this little novel. It is my first time reading Faulkner, though I have heard his name mentioned many times. He was awarded the Nobel prize for literature in 1949, and As I Lay Dying is often recognized as one of his greatest works.
It is a strange book, and the events that brought it about are equally strange. Faulkner worked the night shift at a power plant when he wrote it, claiming to have written it at work every night between the hours of midnight and 4:00 a.m. He also claimed to have written it in a single draft and that it was published exactly as he first penned it. I am skeptical of that last claim, but who knows?
The novel follows a family -- a weakling, cowardly father; three adult sons; a teen-aged daughter; and the youngest child, a little boy -- as they travel in a wagon to bury their mother. The mother spends most of the story in her coffin, and by the end of their journey the smell of death follows the family wherever they go. The narrative is provided by fifteen characters in the book, and the title of each chapter bears the name of the character narrating it. The reader not only reads about the events and who says what, but also becomes intimately acquainted with the internal dialogue and the sometimes confusing and conflicting thoughts of each person, as well as their perceptions of other people.
What makes the style fascinating is that we learn about a character from his or her inner dialogue, then we learn how that person is perceived. For example, the son named Darl inwardly speaks in a beautiful poetic prose and his thoughts are profound. Yet the way he speaks to others and the things that he does contradict what we have observed from his inner dialogue. Darl is a strange young man in the eyes of the other characters, but as readers we are presented with the book's most poetic and tragic personality. His incongruency makes him compelling.
The downside to the book is -- for better or worse -- the stream-of-consciousness style isn't something we generally recognize as good reading in today's world. I have seen 21st Century books written like this and they have terrible reviews on Amazon, in which the style itself is panned. I never knew that a Nobel prize winner wrote like this. Frankly, it took me awhile to get used to it and to orient myself with how it even works. Then I thoroughly enjoyed it. I'll have to give these kinds of works another look when I see them in the future.
As with every literary masterpiece, this story is running around in my head right now, doing its work. The therapy of literature is that it does its work without much effort on my part except for enjoying a story. This novel is causing me to examine myself and to find whether my thoughts, actions and words are congruent. I'm wondering what beauty exists in the minds of the people we depreciate and condemn in our culture. I feel my perspective shifting.
Anyone interested in reading As I Lay Dying can find it here for free.
It is a strange book, and the events that brought it about are equally strange. Faulkner worked the night shift at a power plant when he wrote it, claiming to have written it at work every night between the hours of midnight and 4:00 a.m. He also claimed to have written it in a single draft and that it was published exactly as he first penned it. I am skeptical of that last claim, but who knows?
The novel follows a family -- a weakling, cowardly father; three adult sons; a teen-aged daughter; and the youngest child, a little boy -- as they travel in a wagon to bury their mother. The mother spends most of the story in her coffin, and by the end of their journey the smell of death follows the family wherever they go. The narrative is provided by fifteen characters in the book, and the title of each chapter bears the name of the character narrating it. The reader not only reads about the events and who says what, but also becomes intimately acquainted with the internal dialogue and the sometimes confusing and conflicting thoughts of each person, as well as their perceptions of other people.
What makes the style fascinating is that we learn about a character from his or her inner dialogue, then we learn how that person is perceived. For example, the son named Darl inwardly speaks in a beautiful poetic prose and his thoughts are profound. Yet the way he speaks to others and the things that he does contradict what we have observed from his inner dialogue. Darl is a strange young man in the eyes of the other characters, but as readers we are presented with the book's most poetic and tragic personality. His incongruency makes him compelling.
The downside to the book is -- for better or worse -- the stream-of-consciousness style isn't something we generally recognize as good reading in today's world. I have seen 21st Century books written like this and they have terrible reviews on Amazon, in which the style itself is panned. I never knew that a Nobel prize winner wrote like this. Frankly, it took me awhile to get used to it and to orient myself with how it even works. Then I thoroughly enjoyed it. I'll have to give these kinds of works another look when I see them in the future.
As with every literary masterpiece, this story is running around in my head right now, doing its work. The therapy of literature is that it does its work without much effort on my part except for enjoying a story. This novel is causing me to examine myself and to find whether my thoughts, actions and words are congruent. I'm wondering what beauty exists in the minds of the people we depreciate and condemn in our culture. I feel my perspective shifting.
Anyone interested in reading As I Lay Dying can find it here for free.