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A review by oofym
As I Lay Dying by William Faulkner
challenging
mysterious
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
2.0
This book was a roller-coaster and not a good one, I liked some parts of it but I vehemently disliked most parts of it. Look, I've read my fair share of "Difficult" books but this is what I'd call a contrived difficult book.
I'll admit this is so far the only Faulkner book I've read so I can't speak for his writing style in other novels, but I'm not a fan of his style in "As I lay Dying".
I heard so much beforehand about how this book is so profound and a masterpiece but "You have to be a smarty sharty pants to get it". THIS IS NOT A WELL CRAFTED BOOK, Nor is it mentally engaging in a well structured way.
Faulkners prose for the most part is shit, there's grammatical errors all over the place, missing punctuation and just straight up silly sentences, and I'm not just talking about the dialogue, I don't mind dialogue that has a certain dialect.
I think the main issue I have with this book is that any mysterious element feels super artificial, some books are like an incredibly complex labyrinth and it's up to the reader to find their way within it or get lost. As I lay dying on the otherhand is a very simple labyrinth that Faulkner obfuscates by putting his hands over your eyes the whole time, and this method has tricked alot of readers into thinking this was some masterpiece labyrinth created by a genius.
I went into this book wanting to like it, as I do with any book and I took my time with it. So you can't just say "Oh you didn't get it, you need to re-read". I did get it! I'm mad because I got it and I still didn't like it. I took my time with this book, I read it at a slower pace than usual, I annotated, took notes, bookmarked segments, read it in a non distracting environment. I get everything Faulkners doing and I simply think it's shit.
Vardaman's chapters are terrible, Cash has no character, Darl definitely has the best chapters but by the end he turns into some weird omniscient narrator, dewey dells storyline wasn't explored enough and I could go on and on.
The one thing I can give this book is that there's some beautifully written or very creative descriptions, yet even then Faulkner has a tendency to ruin these moments by repeating his unique descriptions untill they feel stale, and overusing the word "Profound" when describing anything to the point where you want to pull his head out of his own ass.
Glad I've finished this, mad I wasted the hours though.
I'll admit this is so far the only Faulkner book I've read so I can't speak for his writing style in other novels, but I'm not a fan of his style in "As I lay Dying".
I heard so much beforehand about how this book is so profound and a masterpiece but "You have to be a smarty sharty pants to get it". THIS IS NOT A WELL CRAFTED BOOK, Nor is it mentally engaging in a well structured way.
Faulkners prose for the most part is shit, there's grammatical errors all over the place, missing punctuation and just straight up silly sentences, and I'm not just talking about the dialogue, I don't mind dialogue that has a certain dialect.
I think the main issue I have with this book is that any mysterious element feels super artificial, some books are like an incredibly complex labyrinth and it's up to the reader to find their way within it or get lost. As I lay dying on the otherhand is a very simple labyrinth that Faulkner obfuscates by putting his hands over your eyes the whole time, and this method has tricked alot of readers into thinking this was some masterpiece labyrinth created by a genius.
I went into this book wanting to like it, as I do with any book and I took my time with it. So you can't just say "Oh you didn't get it, you need to re-read". I did get it! I'm mad because I got it and I still didn't like it. I took my time with this book, I read it at a slower pace than usual, I annotated, took notes, bookmarked segments, read it in a non distracting environment. I get everything Faulkners doing and I simply think it's shit.
Vardaman's chapters are terrible, Cash has no character, Darl definitely has the best chapters but by the end he turns into some weird omniscient narrator, dewey dells storyline wasn't explored enough and I could go on and on.
The one thing I can give this book is that there's some beautifully written or very creative descriptions, yet even then Faulkner has a tendency to ruin these moments by repeating his unique descriptions untill they feel stale, and overusing the word "Profound" when describing anything to the point where you want to pull his head out of his own ass.
Glad I've finished this, mad I wasted the hours though.