As I Lay Dying by William Faulkner

Faulkner의 다른 책 The Sound and Fury를 우여곡절을 거친 후에나 (몇번 다시 읽고 인터넷에서 내용을 찾아본 후에나) 드디어 이해하며 읽을 수 있었고, I was able to truly appreciate it. So I wanted to read his other books. I have heard of this book since my time in college, and my husband told me he really liked this book. So I waitlisted for the ebook from the library and waited a few weeks - then when I started reading it, it was so good and interesting that I finished it in a few days. Well, I guess the book is also quite short.

 

This book introduced me to the style of "Southern Gothic". I thought it was a perfect case of it. Some grotesque but comical things that happened (drilling through mom's face, cash's broken and burned leg, etc.) fit the description very well, not to mention just the despicable state of living? life of the Bundren family (or the lazy father at least).

I very much enjoyed the stream of consciousness narrative in this book - I thought it much better and EASIER than the Sound and the Fury. I read from Wikipedia that Faulkner wrote this book from midnight till 4am every day for six weeks while he was working as a night shift of some kind of a powerhouse at a university. And he did not change one word after he wrote it. Although I believe that "stream of consciousness" style is very forgiving, I thought it was very impressive.

 

It was really hilarious (without intending too hard) - I actually laughed out loud in one of the chapters narrated by Verdaman (not sure about the spelling but the youngest one) that had just one sentence "my mother is a fish." and I laughed so hard at the end of the book.

The publisher had some questions to help understand and think about the book at the end and I found them very useful.

It was one of those books that make you think that you don't need much money to enjoy your life. I enjoyed every moment of reading this book.