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A review by chris_dech
As I Lay Dying by William Faulkner
4.0
I gave this a 3-star rating earlier, but I feel that I must amend it not even a day after I put it up.
As I Lay Dying is, despite its length, a challenging read with depth and insight. The plot and even the characters themselves one must put more effort into constructing than with a typical novel. This, I feel, is much due to the way it was written. Faulkner's use of multiple perspectives to tell the story, in my opinion, mimics real life, where there is an overarching event going on, but everyone involved in it has a slightly different but deeply personal view and experience. It is absolutely genius how Faulkner carries the subjectivity of real life over to the novel, and is perhaps the strongest part of the book.
The story itself is short but Faulkner manages to fit a compelling, fascinating, sometimes perverse and unnatural story into this book that doesn't even pass 60,000 words. It is rather slow in the beginning, but once the characters begin to properly head towards their goal, the book does not stop.
4/5, I must reread.
As I Lay Dying is, despite its length, a challenging read with depth and insight. The plot and even the characters themselves one must put more effort into constructing than with a typical novel. This, I feel, is much due to the way it was written. Faulkner's use of multiple perspectives to tell the story, in my opinion, mimics real life, where there is an overarching event going on, but everyone involved in it has a slightly different but deeply personal view and experience. It is absolutely genius how Faulkner carries the subjectivity of real life over to the novel, and is perhaps the strongest part of the book.
The story itself is short but Faulkner manages to fit a compelling, fascinating, sometimes perverse and unnatural story into this book that doesn't even pass 60,000 words. It is rather slow in the beginning, but once the characters begin to properly head towards their goal, the book does not stop.
4/5, I must reread.