A review by kahell
As I Lay Dying by William Faulkner

4.0

The first few chapters were confusing af but it makes sense eventually and the payoff is worth it. The lesson I got? The mistakes of the dead don't disappear when they die, and it's worse when those same mistakes are compounded by the living.

Admittedly, at first I was confused why the townspeople seemed to despise Anse but nevertheless helped him out of a sense of forced pity, but as the story progressed I understood. Here's a man who's so obsessed with never owing anything to anybody that he manipulates everyone to give their help free of charge, meanwhile thinking he deserves it as an honest man. It's a naive kind of selfishness where the person itself doesn't even realize they're being selfish, or if they do they mask it by boasting the sacrifice they have endured all their lives. And yet until the end, he never gets his due. In the end, it's still his children who suffer same as they have suffered before. Of them all, it's only Darl who was able to escape.