Rating: 
Summary: The South's Greatest Writer
Review: "As I Lay Dying" is the story of the death of Addie Bundren, the matriarch of a poor, rural, Mississippi family, and the family's subsequent trek across the countryside to bury her in a small town in Alabama, according to her wishes. The novel is typical Faulkner, as it is told through the minds of each Bundren family member and their neighbors. Each chapter is short, usually only a couple pages, but is filled with colorful, emotional descriptions from its respective narrator. Even Addie gets the chance to give her thoughts through an odd, posthumous account of how her family began, that reveals what an unhappy woman she was. Often, Faulkner's "The Sound and the Fury" is graded higher than "As I Lay Dying" by literary critics, but I enjoyed this one more than the former. Faulkner's characters and stories are frequently hard to follow, but if one sticks with them, he or she will come away with a painting of life in the Southern United States that is unrivaled by any other artist.
Rating:
Summary: As I Lay Reading
Review: Just as Ahab and Ishmael and the characters in Moby Dick grapple with chaos(and a particularly American brand of chaos)in the form of a white whale(the symbolism of which is never altogether clear), characters in Faulkner grapple with a chaos in the form of a county which no one can pronounce. Only Faulkner himself seems to have been able to speak the strange Indian name of that county. That invented land is one where the American brand of experience is played out but no one is ever completely at home in it, chaos is always reasserting its dominant role over every human order. Faulkner is a modern. And our, so far, greatest one. This book is the place to start. It is experimental but not too very difficult. The story is told through a rotating cast of voices and the effect is tremendously rich. These characters are not necessarily brilliant but sometimes the things they say are poetry. The Darl character is a particualr favorite of mine. I want to quote a few of his lines but don't want to ruin your chance at finding them yourself at the proper time in the proper context. Read this and you will thank yourself and William for the experience.
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Summary: Modernist Tour-de-Force
Review: This book represents the most faithful and perhaps the best use of stream-of-consciousness in the english language. The disjointed narration is troubling for some readers, but is essential to Faulkner's technique: dissociation of thought and language.See my essay on the subject if you're interested: http://www.jvoegele.com/essays/
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Summary: Lyrical novel
Review: The title of this novel comes from Homer's Odyssey. As I lay dying are words spoken by Agamemnon in Hades as he recounts his homecoming murder by his wife. While touching on the Greek classics I must mention that this novel reminds of Sophocles' tragedy Antigone, the story of a sisters repeated attempts to bury her brother. Leaving ancient Greece we find ourselves in late 1920s Mississippi as the Bundren family prepare to take their wife and mother Addie ,who is about to die, to her home town for burial. When she dies, early in the novel, they take the coffin by wagon and must endure flooded rivers and fire among other obstacles to get her there nine days later. The story is told through multiple first person viewpoints of the family members, neighbors, and the people they meet along the way. I could write several pages about just one or two of these chapters, indeed several books have been written about this novel. Two I would recommend are "As I Lay Dying" by Andre Bleikasten and "As I Lay Dying Stories out of Stories" by Warwick Wadlington. This is truly fine literature. "As I Lay Dying" is superb writing and one powerful, lyrical novel.
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Summary: He declines to accept the end of man
Review: The end of the millennium lists that bristled with the best of the best all listed Faulkner but often disagreed on which of his novels is most representational, the "must" read. Several named AS I LAY DYING and now that I've read it, I can see their point. I could not put it down, reading it in a day. While some people have trouble with the Faulkner style, I find it to be a long cool drink. AS I LAY DYING belongs to the author's early productive period, coming out the year after THE SOUND AND THE FURY, in 1930. Faulkner wrote it in six weeks, though it has the well-planed feeling of a work that was carefully aged. Its structure resembles THE SOUND AND THE FURY with a series of monologues through which the story emerges of a rural family taking an overly long trip rife with misadventures and other agenda to bury its dead. The story itself is remarkable, but add the psychological texture of the monologues and it is profound. Faulkner balances the tragedy and exasperating absurdy with ease. Every time I read Faulkner, I am astounded by his artistry and risk-taking. Once again I am reminded of the creativity that bloomed through American novel writing in the early to mid 20th century. Most of today's fiction pales beside it. A note to those who are still acquiring a taste for this author: Read him and trust him. What seems confusing or unexplained at first is eventually reconciled. A note about this edition: it has some notes at the end about the original typescript and its production but unlike many reprints of classical works it does not have a critical introduction. That's okay: reading this is a very full, personal experience that needs no middle man to negotiate its impact.
Rating:
Summary: Purposefully Ridiculous
Review: Beautifully written and intricately planned, "As I Lay Dying" is a testament to Faulkner's genius. True: he is not for everyone, but you learn how to read the great writers as you go, and Faulkner is no exception. "As I Lay Dying," is very somber in tone, but ridiculously humorous at the same time, which throws many people off because they do not realize it is supposed to be humorous as well. If one approaches it with an open mind, they will learn to love it. Great Literature is not supposed to be spoon-fed.
Rating: 
Summary: Please, don't believe the hype
Review: First of all, I'm an extremely avid reader of literature. From Gogol to Chaucer to Proust to Joyce to Calvino to Marquez, I'm not someone who can't appreciate "classics." I merely say this to fend off the defense this book's supporters often use, which is that people who malign this book are simply not up to the task of Faulkner. It's not my intellect, sadly, that makes this book a towering failure. Faulkner is clearly, QUITE clearly, trying to write a classic. In that direction, he writes extremely pretentious prose, attempting to reach poetry but only reaching self parody. It's really quite a train wreck, and I think a great deal of people are merely impressed by the effort and words instead of its quality; this is limp, heavy prose. This does not approach artistic greatness from any angle. The characters are largely one-dimensional, and the dialogue is subsumed in the illogical mire of uneducated idiots speaking in highly stylized, pompous language about trite daily events. People who the story have quite clearly made clear to not be of the highest intelligence or erudition start spouting stupendously arcane and obsolete words in bad, high school imitation lyrical prose. It's really a sad affair, as Faulkner can be a very good writer when inspired. However, he was inspired by the muse of arrogance on this novel. Overall, it is really not worth the read, let alone in the annals of great books. To even compare this to Crime and Punishment or Hamlet or even of the truly great works of fiction is pure folly and marks you as an amateur as far as true literary criticism. Matthew
Rating: 
Summary: Watching Paint Dry Is a Better Alternative
Review: William Faulkner is considered as one of the best authors in American history. But after reading this book, I must disagree. The novel is about a southern family dragging the corpse of the mother through the state of Mississippi to get her buried at the proper place... (I have to keep myself from laughing when writing this)... while encountering different obstacles such as broken bridges and flooding rivers. Along the way one family member breaks his leg and another seeks an abortion. The novel is written by different members of the family through short narratives and dialogues. The family is hopelessly anachronistic: pouring cement to fix a broken leg and looking for an abortion in a pharmacy. This book constantly reminds me of the "Beverly Hillbillies", except it's as much dull as the "Hillbillies" is humorous. Personally, I fell asleep numorous times while reading this book, and unless you're forced to read this or is a Faulkner devoutee, don't buy it.
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Summary: What a book!
Review: I decided to read 'As I Lay Dying' as it was alluded to in a crit of 'Le Planetarium' which I read; it's the first Faulkner text I have read and it was incredible - much better than 'Le Planetarium'. The characterisation in the book is lively and intelligent and the use of shifting perspective is both innovative and well-handled.
Rating:
Summary: BLLLAAAAHHH!!
Review: I had to read this book for my second semester Honors Literature class at Northern Arizona University, and I respectfully disagree with all other reviewers that praised this work. I found it dreadfully dull and boring, and loathed reading my daily self-allotment of pages each night. The personality quirks of the characters were ridiculously aggrandized, particularly that of Clara. If you're looking for something better than dull - this book is a must-skip.
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