As I Lay Dying is William Faulkner’s harrowing account of the Bundren family’s odyssey across the Mississippi countryside to bury Addie, their wife and mother. Narrated in turn  by each of the family members—including Addie herself—as well as others, the novel ranges in mood from dark comedy to the deepest pathos. It is considered one of the most influential novels in American fiction in structure, style, and drama.

Amazon reader “Notaprofessional” offers this help in following Faulkner’s signature stream-of-consciousness narrative technique:

“The structure is simple once you get the hang of it. Each chapter is the name of a particular character in the story of the family of Addie Bundren, dead in the first few pages, and being transported by her clan to the land of her birth for burial–by wagon, in the heat and dust, over rivers, for weeks, before the vacuum seal… There is no “Once upon a time.” Instead, whatever that character is thinking at the instant the chapter begins is what you’re reading. Soon, you know who everyone is and what she thinks of everyone else. The effect of this structure is that you can inhabit the narrative as each of the players, can see how events are interpreted differently. It’s also like a mystery–someone will have troubled thoughts about something you can’t quite distinguish; then, twenty pages later, you figure out what they’ve been talking about and you flip backward in a frenzy to see how the early references to the issue flesh out the story. This is a terribly rewarding way of reading.

This is a great first Faulkner for everyone.”

 

Linda’s note: This is my first Faulkner so I’m in no position to know whether it’s a “great first Faulkner for everyone.”  I do know I thoroughly enjoyed reading it,,,at least I did once the strangeness wore off.  Still, I got seriously hung up on this passage at the end of the Darl section immediately preceding Cash’s first section :

He cannot empty himself for sleep because he is not what he is and he is what he is not. Beyond the unlamped wall I can hear the rain shaping the wagon that is ours, the load that is no longer theirs that felled and sawed it nor yet theirs that bought it and which is not ours either, lie on our wagon though it does, since only the wind and the rain shape it only to Jewel and me, that are not asleep. And since sleep is is-not and rain and wind are was, it is not. Yet the wagon is, because when the wagon is was, Addie Bundren will not be. And Jewel is, so Addie Bundren must be. And then I must be, or I could not empty myself for sleep in a strange room. And so if I am not emptied yet, I am is.

I read this passage to my brother (Norris) and sister-in-law (Willie) who were in town for my brother’s 55th Westside High reunion.  The following is what came of that mention:

Willie asked me to give you a little help on the quote. I guess I’m too late for your book club meeting, but things have been hectic here.

William Trowbridge
Westside class of ’59, Faulkner scholar (Vanderbilt PhD), and currently poet laureate of the state of Missouri.

The quote is an example of the stream-of-consciousness narrative technique that James Joyce made famous and Faulkner (a Joyce fan) sometimes adopted in his own works. The idea is to portray how the mind works below the level of rational discourse, to go deeper into the way humans perceive. In this novel, Faulkner deals with, among others, the big themes of existence vs. non-existence and illusion vs reality. It’s been a number of years since I’ve read this novel, but i believe this passage shows what’s running through the character Darl’s mind on the family’s way to bury his mother. He’s thinking of sleeping as ceasing to exist (sleeping is “is not”), emptying himself. But, ironically, he couldn’t empty himself if he didn’t exist, so emptying himself is also proof of his existence.  He believes he keeps his mother alive in a way by having her in his mind, but when the wagon reaches the grave site, she “will not be.” This whole passage contains some paradoxes, which Faulkner seemed to see as characteristic of human existence and perception.  The notion of the rain seeming to “shape the wagon” touches on the idea of reality vs  unreality i.e. for Jewel, the wagon seems to come into existence by being “shaped by the rain” and it will cease to exist when Addie is buried and the wagon is put away. Faulkner intended to portray an epic journey through this lowly family’s travels to bury the mother, so he was shooting for big themes. And did you notice the comic elements?

Hope this helps.

Best,

Bill

During her discussion, Paula referenced two reviews that deserve our reading: one from the Seattle pi  and one from the New York Review of Books.

She also featured several film and/or audio clips of Faulkner.

First, let’s hear how he pronounced “Yoknapatawpha:”

There’s also audio from his speech accepting the Nobel prize for literature:

And, finally, recollections of the time he spent at the University of Virginia: