In Search Of. . . Written Words: As I Lay Dying
My Mother is a fish.
~Vardaman Bundren
Addie Bundren was dying, that started everything. Her dying wish was to be buried miles away in her home town, and she placed the burden of taking her there on her family.
However, life preoccupied the family more than their mother's death. Jewel and Darl leave the day she dies to sell lumber. Cash can only think of making his mother's coffin. Their father, Anse, can only think of getting his new teeth.
Dragging Addie's coffin containing her decaying body in a wagon, the family treks to the burial ground. They rescue the body from a flood and from a fire to get it there. Finally, after nine days in the hot, humid Mississippi summer, the Bundrens bury their mother.
Before they leave the next day, Anse Bundren introduces his children to the new Mrs. Bundren.
Faulkner wrote As I Lay Dying completely in stream of conscious, which basically means that the reader experiences the characters thoughts as they have them. Unfortunately, it's not just the thoughts of one character. It's the entire Bundren family, including Addie, and some of their neighbors as well.
Each chapter or section tells the events from a different character's point of view. In a way, having so many narrators gives a more complete view of the story. The problem comes from the execution.
In using stream of conscious, the reader basically sees the characters jumbled half-thoughts put down on paper. At times it was confusing, especially when Faulkner would use a pronoun without an antecedent. He would say he, she, or it and never tell the reader what or who he was referring to.
The stream of conscious isn't the only problem. The characters in the book for the most part are unlikable. To begin with, most of them, Addie included are taking the trip for selfish reasons. Addie's lack of connection to her family compels them to bury her far away from home in her family grave; however, it works to many of their advantages. There's an undertone about the book that sounds like the family saying "if we didn't need to go to town, you'd be buried here."
Also, the Bundren's seem to be emotionally and maybe a little mentally stunted. After Addie dies, Vardaman correlates his mother with the fish he caught and killed earlier. He also drills holes in the coffin so she can breathe, inadvertently drilling holes into her face. Darl rationalizes that he "is not" because his mother changed from "is" to "was" leaving him entirely motherless. He also tells Vardaman that Jewel's mother is a horse. Cash doesn't seem to have any emotional involvement and neither do Anse and Dewey Dell.
Obviously, I didn't like this book. I can't stand stream of conscious or pointless actions. However, it did win the Pulitzer Prize, so what do I know, right? Now, before you take this review to heart, remember, this is just one person's opinion. Some people like this book.
For me, from a writer's stand point, it's not very well written. The stream of conscious in it reads like actual thoughts, interrupting themselves and making wide, looping circles around to the original thought. It made it hard to read and comprehend.
I will say this though, I blazed through the book, so I could get it over with faster.
