A review by jeffmauch
As I Lay Dying by William Faulkner

3.0

Well, after numerous tries with a couple of different Faulkner novels, I finally got through one, though barely. I know Faulkner won the Nobel Prize for literature and that this novel is regularly considered one of the best of the 20th century, but I just don't for the life of me understand why. It's a simple story at heart, an incredibly poor and rural dysfunctional family heading off to bury their matriarch. It's unique in that each chapter is told from the perspective of a different narrator and there are probably 15 or so narrators throughout the book, some repeated, some not. It's a tough read for a number of reasons, the narrators, keeping characters and perspective straight, and being written in a rough southern drawl that is spoken a bit differently depending on the character and their age. Now that I've had a few days to take a step back and consider it thoroughly, I see slight glimpses of why it's considered a masterpiece, but not nearly enough to justify it's lofty perch in the annals of literature. I think this is one people go crazy trying to find more an more layers within that just aren't there. My advice would be if you're looking for a good book about the south during roughly this time period, go read Huck Finn, it's better in almost every way.