As I Lay Dying: The Corrected Text

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Author: William Faulkner
Publisher: Vintage
Category: Book

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Rating: 4.0 out of 5 stars

209 reviews
Sales Rank: 2548

Media: Paperback
Pages: 267
Number Of Items: 1
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.5
Dimensions (in): 8 x 5.3 x 0.6

ISBN: 067973225X
Dewey Decimal Number: 813.52
EAN: 9780679732259
ASIN: 067973225X

Publication Date: January 30, 1991
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•	Paperback - As I Lay Dying - The Corrected Text
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•	Unknown Binding - As I lay dying
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•	Audio Cassette - As I Lay Dying
•	Hardcover - As I Lay Dying (The collected works of William Faulkner)
•	Turtleback - As I Lay Dying: The Corrected Text
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•	Paperback - As I Lay Dying
•	Hardcover - As I Lay Dying: The Corrected Text (Modern Library)
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•	School & Library Binding - As I Lay Dying (Turtleback School & Library Binding Edition)
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Editorial Reviews:

Amazon.com Review
Faulkner's distinctive narrative structures--the uses of multiple points of view and the inner psychological voices of the characters--in one of its most successful incarnations here in As I Lay Dying. In the story, the members of the Bundren family must take the body of Addie, matriarch of the family, to the town where Addie wanted to be buried. Along the way, we listen to each of the members on the macabre pilgrimage, while Faulkner heaps upon them various flavors of disaster. Contains the famous chapter completing the equation about mothers and fish--you'll see.

Product Description
As I Lay Dying is the harrowing, darkly comic tale of the Bundren family's trek across Mississippi to bury Addie, their wife and mother, as told by each of the family members--including Addie herself.

Customer Reviews:

Showing reviews 1-5 of 209

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Something to do with Substantial Sandwiches September 5, 2010
Armantin Varona (Colorado Springs, CO, USA)
If a sandwich was created from the pages of literature's best, it would be a sizeable feast that nobody--except those with the biggest of mouths--would be able to bite without a knife's assistance. The literary sandwich would be difficult to chew and even harder to swallow. But how satisfying it would be with its fresh lettuce, its delicious tomatoes. And if every copy of AS I LAY DYING was torn and made into a sandwich, I do dare to say there would be little difference between it and former one mentioned. For in Faulkner's brilliant novel, nearly every pleasure literature provides is present. It is a difficult work, but one that rewards careful readers.

What contributes to AS I LAY DYING'S difficulty is how steeped it is in the abstract. Bringing symbolism to the foreground is a choice writers with less skill would suffer from. But Faulkner is able to successfully build a story--a touching one, too--out of metaphors and symbols. True: one can ignore the literary elements. Really, though, doing so would be eating the spaghetti with no sauce, drinking the soup with no noodles. I cannot develop any personal views on many of the most powerful symbols for the fear of spoiling one or two of the myriad surprises in the novel. However, do pay attention: the Bundren's journey to Jefferson is not all about death and it is not, like Darl says, a single person's journey. "It takes two people to make you," he says, "and one people to die." Honey-worded but not correct as the narrative proves.

The most important theme in the book is the meaningless of words. Vardaman, Addie and Darl all obsess over words. Vardaman has trouble dealing with death and the state of existence. Almost manically, he transforms his mother into a fish: "My mother is a fish." And why isn't she? If she is not alive, then what is she? Darl too thinks through such problems, but being older and more pensive, his solutions are more complex; they involve both philological and philosophical ideas. Really, Darl's character reads like an amateur philosopher--wise enough to ponder, but not wise enough to form a substantial notion. Finally, Addie's character: all that needs to be said about her is the last sentence. It proves right all three of the characters who wonder how the abstract and is able to be properly represented by a group of letters.

Of course, if one gazes long enough, the eyes will find a flaw. One does not need to peer for a while before finding faults in AS I LAY DYING. As the narrative is split into a multitude of point of views, perhaps too many, it is challenging to wholly grasp what is occurring, especially because Faulkner and his characters do not try to aid your efforts. Many times, the reader is left to interpret what was only whispered, not yelled. The novel, then, is frustrating to read. It is far worse, however, that one of the novel's strong points is dulled the more one flips its pages: its beautiful phrases. If Vardaman had only once said his mother was a fish, if Darl only once reflected on existence in peculiar ways, had only once told Jewel his mother was a horse, the instances would be memorable. Alas they happen so often, they become platitudinous.

Yet, even with its flaws, it is a book that any interested in literature cannot skip. As most great books, it is better writing an analysis than a review. I have done what I could and hope to have convinced you that AS I LAY DYING must be read

1 out of 5 stars

Faulkner's Practical Joke September 1, 2010
P. Winn (S. Korea)
I don't like this book. I am not going to provide a lengthy explanation, because all of you who rated this 5 stars will just condemn me as a moron, and all of you who don't like this book will only agree with what I have to say.

I agreed with most of the one and two star ratings (beyond the argument that it was "confusing"), and did not feel obligated to write a review other than to hopefully lower the overall rating of this novel.

5 out of 5 stars

One of the greatest American novels, it deserves the praise it receives. August 19, 2010
Young Minimalist
Though most find The Sound and the Fury Faulkner's best (I agree; it is an incredible book), As I Lay Dying remains my favorite work of his. Faulkner's writing style is incredibly unique and sets itself apart from other stream-of-consciousness authors (Woolf, Joyce, etc). The Bundren family's tragedy makes for wondrous reading; the characters are brilliantly realized. Opinion is opinion, yet I cannot find any substantive reason for someone disliking this. Granted, As I Lay Dying is quite deep and esoteric at times, so I guess that could be an explanation. All in all, As I Lay Dying is a masterpiece of American Literature. Read this book; you will not be disappointed. 5/5.

5 out of 5 stars

one of the best... August 8, 2010
L. Walker
Many of today's readers shy away from Faulkner. For a long time The Sound and the Fury was standard high school reading, which turned far more students off to the author than on to him. Understandably, Benji's section can be tricky to negotiate. The trick to reading Faulkner is to just read, and read, and read. When the reader stops to try to understand every sentence, then the flow is interrupted and the meaning is never revealed. As I Lay Dying is not as difficult as say Absalom, Absalom, and it is broken into many small chapters and different voices. And Addie's chapter is in my opinion the best writing in the history of American writing.

4 out of 5 stars

Satisfied with my first Faulkner experience July 13, 2010
C. Curran (Clifton, NJ USA)
Whew! Well that was no easy, beach-y summer read! It definitely took me a good 50 or so pages to get into this novel. I found the stream of consciousness technique that Faulkner uses very challenging at first, especially because he also alternates between many different narrators (throughout the beginning of the novel I found myself flipping back to the beginning of each section to double-check on who was narrating it!). However, once I was able to read the book for an uninterrupted stretch of 100+ pages at a sitting, I was finally able to catch on and 'fall into' the world of Yoknapatawpha County. Having spent years in the deep South and having relatives from very rural areas of Louisiana, I can say that Faulkner absolutely nails the dialect and turn-of-phrase of rural Southerners, to a T. He was clearly a talented writer, and I was shocked to discover that he wrote this particular novel in only 6 weeks!

In the end, I did like "As I Lay Dying." I don't know that I enjoyed it, as it was often a little too depressing and gritty for my taste. Plus I found myself still confused about bits and pieces of metaphor and symbolism even when I was done reading the novel (talk about making your reader use inference--whew!). But overall I am impressed by this novel and very satisfied with my first venture into Faulkner's works...I hope to read a few more of his novels in the not-too-distant future. That is, when I've rested up for round 2!

Showing reviews 1-5 of 209

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