As I Lay Dying

By: William Faulkner

Narrated by: Marc Cashman, Robertson Dean, Lina Patel, Lorna Raver

Length: 6 hrs and 51 mins

Publisher's summary

Selected by the Modern Library as one of the 100 best novels of all time

From the Modern Library’s new set of beautifully repackaged hardcover classics by William Faulkner—also available are Snopes, The Sound and the Fury, Light in August, Absalom, Absalom!, and Selected Short Stories

One of William Faulkner’s finest novels, As I Lay Dying, originally published in 1930, remains a captivating and stylistically innovative work. The story revolves around a grim yet darkly humorous pilgrimage, as Addie Bundren’s family sets out to fulfill her last wish: to be buried in her native Jefferson, Mississippi, far from the miserable backwater surroundings of her married life. Told through multiple voices, As I Lay Dying vividly brings to life Faulkner’s imaginary South, one of literature’s great invented landscapes, and is replete with the poignant, impoverished, violent, and hypnotically fascinating characters that were his trademark.

Along with a new Foreword by E. L. Doctorow, this edition reproduces the corrected text of As I Lay Dying as established in 1985 by Faulkner expert Noel Polk.

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(P)2005 Random House, Inc. Random House Audio, a division of Random House, Inc.

Critic reviews

"For range of effect, philosophical weight, originality of style, variety of characterization, humor, and tragic intensity, [Faulkner's works] are without equal in our time and country."--Robert Penn Warren

This is mostly a survey of machine learning techni

This classic does not really tell a story or develop characters but instead expresses ideas about life through constantly shifting stream of consciousness and inner monologs. The narration fluidly shifts from character to character and inner to outer. There are dozens of points of view and single characters represent multiple narrations. Events are non-linear and repeated from multiple perspectives.

This is a difficult listen and the multiple readers helps, but the audible version is still harder to follow than the written work. If you haven’t read this book on paper, I wouldn’t recommend the audio and a first way to experience the material. If you have already read the book and enjoyed it, you will likely find the audible version interestingly different. If you read the book and did not understand what was going on, you might give the audible version a try.

The four narrators were excellent, but still could quite handle the many narrator points of view as well as my inner voice when reading the print version.

Frustrating, annoying, but ultimately satisfying

What made the experience of listening to As I Lay Dying the most enjoyable?

The ending. This was a challenge and I felt like giving up at times, but the last act was satisfying.

What about the narrators’s performance did you like?

They sounded exactly like you'd expect the characters to sound. I'm not from the South, though, so I can't vouch for the authenticity.

Did you have an extreme reaction to this book? Did it make you laugh or cry?

I got angry at times listening to this. It was hard to know what was going on. Frankly, I benefited a lot by consulting SparkNotes. I was close to throwing in the towel on this, but, well, I kinda wanted to say I've read a few Faulkners, so I kept at it. It was a good decision because the characters and the story grew on me.

Any additional comments?

I've listened to many audiobooks, this was definitely one of the more challenging ones. Had to hit the rewind button quite often.

Faulkner is the conscience of a region

He does not disappoint in this tale of a poor white-trash family on an odyssey into the limits of love and loyalty. I teach this book in my AP Lit class, and I absolutely love this rendition of it.

Tragic Expose of Race, Poverty & Religion in 1900s

Long after the chains of slavery were taken off the black race in America, the bondage of religion, lack of Education and poverty clearly kept our black American brothers and sisters incarcerated in an ignorant, fallacious substandard existence that requires lunacy to escape. Oh, how Faulkner surely shook up the literary salons of the privileged throughout America and the world with this piece.

phenomenal

loved it absolutely positively adored every single sentence. personally my favorite piece of Faulkners works.

The writing style

Even though I can admit, the writing style is beautiful. I just cannot get into it. I just don’t think I’m a fan of his but I wanted to be :-)

Interesting

Interesting look at the ugliness of grief and selfishness with glimpses of humor here and there.

One of Faulkner’s finest novels

This was a pleasant way to reread this novel. I read along in my book as I listened to this performance. It captures the feeling that the reader moves from mind to mind as the story is revealed. It moves like a train, slowly picking up speed, then steadily driving to the foregone conclusion. This would be a good place to start, if one wants to get into one the greatest writers in the 20th Century.

Great story Great reading

If you are a fan of William Faulkner you will enjoy this…

The reading captures the southern way of speaking in such a way that makes the surface of the Faulkner story somehow even more rich…

What an ending...

I can't comprehend how I feel emotionally about this book. I do concede it is a masterpiece. I just read The Sound And The Fury which pales in comparison to As I Lay Dying. I could probably read the former 10 times and still not have the best grasp on what is going on with the story. As for the latter, I could probably reread the story and understand it (just as I have now) but feel completely differently about it, and that is how a Southern Gothic novel should maintain its mysterious aura. It's difficult for me to say whether the ending was: a happier way to end a depressing book, an ridiculous way to end an angering book, or the other two permutations. Some gem quotes I thought were: "It takes two people to make you, and one people to die. That's how the world is going to end." Cash on being crazy and Armstid on Anse's demeanor. Also, Faulkner is the undisputed champion of stream-of-consciousness, and I've read Joyce and enough Woolf to make that assertion.