My second foray into the world of Faulkner, I enjoyed As I Lay Dying. For some reason I was craving the stream of consciousness writing, the strange familial relations, and the meandering narrative. The story is told by 15 different narrators, which was kind of confusing but this is Faulkner. I was looking for a challenge after White Ghost Girls and this book didn't disappoint. I enjoyed trying to figure out what was really going on between the members of this family. There was teenage pregnancy, an illegitimate son, mental illness, a loveless marriage, and sibling rivalry. What more can you ask for?
Are you waiting for me to analyze this using the skills I spent four years of undergrad developing? I don't know if I have it in me right now. Clearly, As I Lay Dying begs to be analyzed. Why not delve into the issue of reliable and unreliable narrators? Faulkner works with this throughout as the novel's most reliable narrator becomes the unreliable one and vice versa. This shift comes after the debacle when they try to cross the river, but it happens gradually. I am ashamed to say that Oprah had this as her summer book club pick, along with two of his other novels, The Sound and the Fury and A Light In August. For some reason, Becky and I just can't stay away from Oprah and her book club. Not only does she discover contemporary literature by up and coming writers, but she also has her hand in the classics cookie jar. We should do an Oprah book count at the end of this year to see how many we actually read even when we began this challenge vowing to avoid books that grace her list.
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