Goodreads Mobile | see what your friends are reading

Dec 17, 2009

Evan rated it:

Faulkner is just one of those authors you either love or hate. However, if you want to try your hand at him (and you really should, at least once), this is a good place to start. The time line and the narrative voices to this book are not as fragmented as they are with many of his other stories, and it does follow a very basic path.

But still, Faulkner is not by any means easy. Hemingway's iceberg theory--that there should be 3/4 of the real story hidden from the reader--ironically More...

0 comments like (73 people liked it)

Oct 19, 2011

Bram rated it:

Without straying from his inimitable voice, Faulkner delivers a more professional, calculated effort here than with his novel of the year prior, The Sound and the Fury. There are more novel-y aspects to As I Lay Dying, and Faulkner emerges as the master of the slow- or late-reveal, which might be described as reverse-foreshadowing. As an example, Faulkner will provide a character scene that’s fraught with emotion and history and meaning, but he won't explain the context. There’s dramatic elec More...

30 comments like (27 people liked it)

Jul 17, 2010

Matt rated it:

I'm no copyright lawyer, but it seems like Faulkner's estate could have sued the hell out of the makers of National Lampoon's Vacation. There is the obvious corpse-carting similarity, but I can almost hear the familiar refrain of Lindsey Buckingham's "Holiday Road" bleed into the scene of the Bundren's fateful river crossing. (Pre)DMCA violations were definitely afoot, at least in spirit.

This is the book for those who find Faulkner's other well known works to be intimidatin More...

9 comments like (28 people liked it)

Dec 16, 2009

Alisha rated it:

Aside from the fact that the title is taken from a line in "Agamemnon" (which makes it already unbearably cool) this is a breathtaking book. It took me about four chapters to get used to Faulker's style of writing- the dialects, the chapters each being from another character's perspective, his way of having no narration so you have to figure out what is going on from the half-conversations the characters have themselves... but god, once I adjusted, I was completely floored. This is a b More...

0 comments like (15 people liked it)

Jun 19, 2008

Jason rated it:

i'm re-reading a lot of this for my thesis...Vardaman and the extended metaphor of the mother/fish are sort of the jumping off point for what i'm doing...
the more i look into this text the more i realize how carefully Faulkner was when he wrote it...almost every word is packed with significance...
it's very concentrated...
i read once that he wrote it in a very short time, with very few re-writes...i wonder of that's accurate...it seems far too artful to have been conceived off t More...

7 comments like (6 people liked it)

May 30, 2008

Matt rated it:

I've noticed that, in the past couple years (and maybe this has to do with workshop in some oblique psychological way?), the books that move me and linger in me the most are ones that I have a rather contentious relationship with at first. And that's definitely what happened here. For the first half of the book, I just wanted old Billy F to write something that MADE SENSE and was UNDERSTANDABLE. The language obscured the characters, and so I found myself unable to distinguish one from another More...

0 comments like (9 people liked it)

Jun 06, 2008

Chris rated it:

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here

0 comments like (6 people liked it)

Aug 27, 2008

AmyAmy rated it:

I know you're "supposed to" love this book because it's Faulker, but I HATED IT! I know you're "cool" and "intelligent" if you read Faulkner, but I can't stand him. Sorry, I don't know what he's talking about (and at the risk of sounding immodest, I am bright). I DON'T think it's cool and "hip" to write in a confusing manner, and I don't try to impress others by liking ambiguity. I had my fill in college with snobs who pretended to like this stuff. So More...

4 comments like (22 people liked it)

Jan 14, 2008

Paul rated it:

This was the first novel I read in college, and I've taught it three times since then, probably read it at least 7-8 times by now. The characters are so implacably strange, and their journey so painful and ridiculous at the same time. It's actually a very blackly humorous book, and the humor comes out more and more with each reading. Faulkner at his best.

0 comments like (7 people liked it)

Jun 17, 2011

Elliot rated it:

When I mentioned to a close friend that I chose William Faulkner for my AP Lit author study, he said, "Ah. Prepare to spend a lot of time in a 15 mile radius."

Faulkner wrote as hyperlocal author, but he created As I Lay Dying as a mythic portrayal of something so much greater than the events in one country town, so much greater than a family's travels to bring their dead mother to her chosen grave. As I Lay Dying is a mythology of the tragicomic absurdity of human existence More...

2 comments like (6 people liked it)

Nov 18, 2007

colleen rated it:

Contains what is quite possibly my favorite passage in all of literature. Darl musing:
"In a strange room you must empty yourself for sleep. And before you are emptied for sleep, what are you. And when you are emptied for sleep, you are not. And when you were filled with sleep, you never were. I dont know what I am. I dont know if I am or not. Jewel knows he is, because he does not know that he doesnt not know whether he is or not. He cannot empty himself for sleep because he i More...

2 comments like (5 people liked it)

Apr 17, 2007

Matt rated it:

One of my students has commented about this book, and, quite understandable, simply said, CURSES. This has been a consistant comment by my students. I can come to only this conclusion.

I would like to preface this by saying I find few traits in people that allow me to immediately judge their character. You may wear the stars and bars, and I'll give you five minutes before I come up with who you are. I can, however, say quite safely that if you don't love this book, something is wr More...

3 comments like (4 people liked it)

Dec 17, 2009

Paula rated it:

fabulous horror, horribly fabulous. Faulkner is one of those rare talents whose use of language makes it feel as if the story is coming out of the center of one's brain, rather than the normally staid input directly through the eyes. You have to love these people, in spite of their gross stupidity, for their persistence and enduring fortitude to what little threads carry them through the persistent agony of existence. If only they had lavished one-tenth of the care on Ma in life that they did More...

0 comments like (2 people liked it)

Feb 07, 2009

Stefani rated it:

I think it's very easy to dismiss this book as boring, nonsensical, and difficult to follow at first. I felt frustrated by the dialogue of some of the less articulate characters, such as Anse, who tended to repeat the same sentence over and over until the repitition played like a broken record in your head; "She's a-going, her mind is set on it,". However, the more I read, the more the dialogue began to make sense to me and more like a true reflection of what each character was thinkin More...

0 comments like (2 people liked it)

Dec 13, 2011

Dominic rated it:

Every writer, I must think, wonders if language is enough. Can words capture the human experience? Surely that was the Modernist's essential question--for much of their work alienates casual readers and even challenges them to throw it across the room. As I Lay Dying, like the work of other Modernists like Virginia Woolf, James Joyce and T.S. Eliot, requires hard work. Inspired by the Cubists, Dadists and the Surrealists, William Faulkner sets out here to answer questions about the nature of More...

3 comments like (1 person liked it)

Nov 16, 2009

K.D. rated it:

This is my first book of William Faulkner - one of the greatest American novelist. I am not giving him a 5-star rating because this is one of the hardest-to-read novels since I started my reading obsession a year back. Normally, it takes me only up to 20 pages for me to adjust to the rhythm of the novelist for his characters to form life. However, I was already on page 40 and I could not understand what I was reading. I had to Google the book to know that the chapter titles are actually the name More...

2 comments like (3 people liked it)

Jan 05, 2010

Jessica rated it:

One of the stranger ones I've read, and the second by Faulkner. Based on the two (Absolam, Absolam!), I can't say I'm a Faulkner fan.

At least I was able to understand this one...most of it that is. And the details I didn't get, I read afterwards in the Cliffs Notes book summary. I must say that the summary made the book sound so much better than it was.

One detail in particular that had me doubting the book to begin with was the fact that each story was told by a differen More...

2 comments like (1 person liked it)

Oct 01, 2011

Carolyn rated it:

Faulkner described this book, very pretentiously, I might add, as his 'tour de force', by which he would either 'stand or fall'. Can we cue up the cartoon whistling sound when someone falls from the edge of a cliff? And maybe follow it up with a dramatic 'splat!'.
It is awfully hard to identify with a book whose characters seem to be unforgivably ridiculous. There are many references to the character Anse's constant 'misfortune'. Seems to me that he and his children deserve everything they More...

2 comments like (4 people liked it)

Mar 16, 2009

Alan rated it:

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here

2 comments like (2 people liked it)

Oct 13, 2008

Melanie rated it:

I re-read this book and I still love it. I've heard it said that there are no loveable characters, and I stick to my stance that it isn't true. The dad is of course an SOB with no redeeming qualities. But almost every one of the other characters I can sympathize with. But, I love Cash. I was reading this trying to remember why. I think he is one of the best developed characters in the book, although maybe a bit indirectly as he doesn't say much. He is dedicated to work, everything he does, More...

1 comment like (2 people liked it)

Sep 14, 2008

Joel rated it:

I respect Faulkner, but I can't say I love him. Still, this book was something. What that something was, I'm still figuring out.

The novel tells the story of the Bundren family in their quest to bury their recently deceased (well, she's alive but on her death bed when the story opens) mother, Addie. And if you thought your family was dysfunctional, you haven't read enough Faulkner yet. Think turn of the century white trash and you're getting close. The Bundrens are a muddled mass of s More...

3 comments like (5 people liked it)

Aug 17, 2008

Michele rated it:

I've realized over the last couple of years, that my definition of literature, having attended primary, secondary, and post-secondary schools in Canada, is distinctly Commonwealth/British. I took one American lit class as an undergrad (and loved it! but that's because the prof was amazing - too bad he moved on to bigger and better things). But aside from that, most of the American lit I've read is SF or other popular fiction. There's a huge segment of literature written in English that I know li More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Jun 04, 2008

Eri-chan rated it:

I have to admit that I'm not entirely sure what my reaction to this book was. I picked it up mostly because I've never read anything by Faulkner and know that he is regarded as one of the great American writers of the 20th century. I make it a point to expose myself to as much "classic" literature as I can. However, the writing style through me for the proverbial loop - it struck me as way ahead of its time - and I had a difficult time following the plot and understanding the character More...

0 comments like (2 people liked it)

Jun 23, 2010

Charles rated it:

11/30 Currently about half-way through the book, thanks to a good friend who lent it me for Thanksgiving break. A few things Faulkner does, in my mind, that make this superior to Ulysses, that other great work of stream-of-consciousness:

1) Polyvocality. Meaning, there are several voices that are represented. (I wish James Joyce had done this more often in Ulysses.) Sometimes you're even lucky enough to experience a scene from several perspectives -- and how often do we get to d More...

3 comments like (1 person liked it)

Mar 12, 2011

Kim rated it:

Love it, of course, because it's Faulkner. This is a great Faulkner starter, for those who are intimidated by his work. I read it for the first time in high school and fell in love with this book and his work generally. This is an "epic journey" story for a Southern family. It's beautifully crafted, delving into each character's psyche with a different tone and writing style. One of the best!

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Mar 02, 2008

Kirk rated it:

This is my favorite Faulkner because I find it the most structurally sound of his novels---his "major" novels that is. It's built around a technique that I (humble namer of techniques that I am) call writing at right angles: that is, you juxtapose points of view so the plot still progresses linearly but in a refracted way. Of course, Absalom, Sound-Fury, and Sanctuary all have multiple povs, too, but they're more likely to be built like a gyre or spiral, circling back on significant mo More...

0 comments like

Nov 28, 2008

Gregg rated it:

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Oct 21, 2011

Jocelyn rated it:

Reading this book is like watching someone struggle for breath. Each chapter narrated by a different person displays grief in many ways, some with understanding and others without sense. How this odd family copes with the loss of a family member is so well portrayed by Faulkner.

A friend of mine warned me that Faulkner was very wordy, so I went into this book a little apprehensive. I definitely didn't agree to begin with, but I've come to conclude that his verbose style is probably i More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Apr 10, 2008

Suzi rated it:

Some say it's his greatest book. All I know is that you feel drained and satisfied at the end. It's like Shakespeare and Tobacco Road and stink and death and stupidity and nobility and pers-a-friggen-verance...... god knows. Get it done. Mama is rotting in her hand-made wood coffin, and they are taking her to where she wanted to be buried, and it's a long trip, and it's hot, and mama's corpus delectible ain't doin so well, and the trip is arduous and......... every character in it... well, w More...

0 comments like

Aug 21, 2008

Morgan rated it:

I loved how Faulkner used 13 different voices as narrators to help the reader piece together the puzzle that is this book. Faulkner had a great appreciation for the cubist painters of his time, especially Picasso, and has been described as a cubist painter of words. I never understood what that meant until I read As I Lay Dying. A brilliant crossing of mediums. My favorite passages is;
"He had a word, too. Love, he called it. But I had been used to words for a long time. I knew that More...

1 comment like (1 person liked it)

reviews