As I Lay Dying
By: William Faulkner
Summary
After Addie Bundren, A wife and the mother of five small town children passes on, her family takes on the responsibility of transporting her remains to Jefferson. But a two day trip is not easy when you are carrying an unbalanced coffin carrying the decaying corpse of your mother. Along the way the group will face danger and psychological scarring
Review
As I Lay Dying is a complicated book which could be difficult to understand to people without good literary skill. But that aside, the book is very dark. And without much of a happy ending. Some might even find it to be disturbing. Not for the faint of heart. But if you are fascinated by the grim reality of this planet, and like reading (again this is not easy to read at first) then give it a shot. If you value your sanity, or want a happy story free of sorrow, misery, and decaying corpses, then run very far away. The story is told through the eyes of fifteen different narrators across fifty-nine chapters, adding to the already difficult combination of old literature and southern lingo. To sum this up, the only audience I could justify recommending this to is the brightest of malevolent minds.
Characters
*Addie Bundren- The mother of the five children and the wife of Anse
*Anse Bundren- The father of all of the children, save for Jewel and Addie's husband
*Cash- Eldest of Addie's offspring, skilled carpenter
*Darl- Second eldest of the offspring
*Jewel-Third eldest of the offspring
*Dewey Dell- fourth eldest and the only daughter
*Vardaman- youngest of the offspring
Favorite quote
"my mother is a fish"
-Vardaman
I liked this quote because it explains what goes on in the head of a child who is too young to comprehend the exact meaning of the permanence of death. The day his mother died he had caught a fish, which they ate for supper. The fish was dead, his mother was dead, therefore in his mind his mother is a fish.