Review
A Very Confidently Written Novel
As I Lay Dying
WILLIAM FAULKNER
Vintage, 267 pages, $16.95
BY DANIEL TURINO
This review is of the novel As I Lay Dying written by William Faulkner. William Faulkner was born in New Albany, Mississippi and was the first born of four sons. He was born on September 25th, 1897 and died on July 6th 1962 in Byhalia, Mississippi at the age of 64. Faulkner has published many novels in his career. Reaching a variety of genres, for example, As I Lay Dying has been often referred to as a “dark comedy” compared to other novels being quite bizarre and complex. From the early 1920’s to the outbreak of World War II he has published 13 novels and numerous amounts of short stories. Faulkner was known as a very confident writer, along with a fairly experimental writing style. He specifically wrote As I Lay Dying in approximately 6 weeks and once completed he did not revise it or change one word. The novel As I Lay Dying is told by 15 different narrators over the course of the whole novel. The novel has a total of fifty-nine narrative sections, with the first section belonging to Darl Burdren who introduces us to his brothers Cash and Jewel and his dying mother, Addie. The novel shows it’s relation to Faulkner’s real life when it states that the Bundrens live on a rural farm in Mississippi in the 1920s. As stated in the previous paragraph, this is a similar setting as to where Faulkner grew up and started his writing career. In the early sections of the novel, we hear narration from all three brothers, as well as Anse, their father; Vardaman, their youngest brother and Dewey Dell, their only sister. Jewel and Darl set out on a trip to Vernon to earn some money. They ideally wanted to return home before their mother dies, however, they unfortunately did not make it back in time. After the death of Addie, the family sets out on a journey lead by Anse, the father, to the town of Jefferson. On this journey they had to put up with constant
As I Lay Dying
WILLIAM FAULKNER
Vintage, 267 pages, $16.95
BY DANIEL TURINO
This review is of the novel As I Lay Dying written by William Faulkner. William Faulkner was born in New Albany, Mississippi and was the first born of four sons. He was born on September 25th, 1897 and died on July 6th 1962 in Byhalia, Mississippi at the age of 64. Faulkner has published many novels in his career. Reaching a variety of genres, for example, As I Lay Dying has been often referred to as a “dark comedy” compared to other novels being quite bizarre and complex. From the early 1920’s to the outbreak of World War II he has published 13 novels and numerous amounts of short stories. Faulkner was known as a very confident writer, along with a fairly experimental writing style. He specifically wrote As I Lay Dying in approximately 6 weeks and once completed he did not revise it or change one word. The novel As I Lay Dying is told by 15 different narrators over the course of the whole novel. The novel has a total of fifty-nine narrative sections, with the first section belonging to Darl Burdren who introduces us to his brothers Cash and Jewel and his dying mother, Addie. The novel shows it’s relation to Faulkner’s real life when it states that the Bundrens live on a rural farm in Mississippi in the 1920s. As stated in the previous paragraph, this is a similar setting as to where Faulkner grew up and started his writing career. In the early sections of the novel, we hear narration from all three brothers, as well as Anse, their father; Vardaman, their youngest brother and Dewey Dell, their only sister. Jewel and Darl set out on a trip to Vernon to earn some money. They ideally wanted to return home before their mother dies, however, they unfortunately did not make it back in time. After the death of Addie, the family sets out on a journey lead by Anse, the father, to the town of Jefferson. On this journey they had to put up with constant