A review by mana_elena
As I Lay Dying by William Faulkner

challenging dark emotional tense fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

Stream of consciousness is a writing style that I tend to struggle with. I appreciate that Faulkner's style of stream of consciousness acknowledges how we might not feel the need to complete thoughts where we know all the contexts, and it's interesting how we can be literally in a character's thoughts and still feel such a distinct distance from what they are experiencing when we have to piece together from context what they are referring to. (Or maybe I'm stupid and that distance does not exist for people with basic reading comprehension.) As a result this will be a bit of a ramble, probably not worth the read but I need to put my thoughts in order.

An interesting juxtaposition in this book (for me) is the comparison between obvious evil and mundane evil. Every device in the book (it seems to me) is meant to highlight Anse's failings, even chapters narrated by himself. If the book had only been about how he, a leech of a person,

had completely desecrated his wife's dead body while convincing himself he was honoring her last wish and nearly killed two of his sons in the process

, it would have struck me as pointless, showy, and self-serving.

However, Anse is surrounded by people who are recognizably unpleasant.

Anse's wife felt she could make up for cheating on him by replacing the "stolen" child with a new one. She only married him because constantly harbored disdain for apparently everyone around her. The person she cheated with was the priest (if I understand correctly?) And he uses her death as an excuse not to confess, despite the fact that Anse, the person he must confess to, is very much alive.

Cora, who puts on a meek, Christian demeanor, may have her moments but still recognizably leans on her religion to offer substance to her natural inclinations. Many people shake their heads for Anse's children and yet no one looks after them. By putting Anse in the context of people who's failings are all understandable (and sometimes because of Anse), I felt that the book asked whether the plain uglinesses of more digestible characters were really so much better than Anse's - fully allowing the answer to be yes. We are allowed to find other characters much more sympathetic than Anse while seeing the consequences of their actions compared with the consequences of Anse's actions.

Dewey Dell's place in the story feels simultaneously self-evident and completely opaque. The contrast between the A-plot of burying a dead person and the B-plot of dealing with an unintended pregnancy is obviously appealing in contrasting life and death and where it is and isn't wanted. It seems clear to me, also, via discussions with druggists, that we are meant to take note of the responsibility Dewey Dell is taking versus the responsibilit  Lafe is taking for the pregnancy. Namely, Lafe is willing to supply a good amount of money but not a marriahe, and Dewey is expected to make the trip into town and find a pharmacist willing to help her even while her mother is being buried (a fact Cora adjacently remarks upon with disgust.) On the other hand, Dewey is often treated with a lack of agency in the matter, both by others and herself, a fact that is striking to the extant that shame will follow her anyway and she will still presumably have to take care of a child. I feel confused about her being taken advantage of by a clerk while trying to get rid of the kid. On the one hand it just seems accurate to the setting and is necessary for that reason. On the other hand it feels like piling on the shit. On the first hand again, the overarching theme of the book seems to be the scale of evil, so it does have a place here.

This book touches on so many ideas in such a short span of time, and I think Faulkner conveys the breadth of the issues and complexity of his characters lives in a very skillfull way with what little window we get into their lives. It makes sense that nothing feels concluded when the book ends and it seems only natural that the suggestion of a cycle starting up again is how the book should end. I might assert that the audience has a right, at the end of a book that insists on cycles, to feel like a lot of work was done to end up nowhere. I am 90% sure that is the intended reaction.

Cash deserved better. What a coherent dude. He suffered so much from being an eldest child.