As I Lay Dying

A poor Mississippi family loads their dead mother into a wagon and sets out to bury her in the town she came from, and almost everything that can go wrong on the road does. William Faulkner published this short, radical novel in 1930, telling the Bundrens’ journey through fifty-nine brief chapters and fifteen narrators, each voice pressing in with its own grief, guilt, and private motive. Flood, fire, decay, and Anse Bundren’s stubborn selfishness turn a simple errand into a grim, blackly funny ordeal. Faulkner’s stream-of-consciousness form lets us hear thought as it forms, raw and unguarded. It stands among the boldest works of American modernism and rewards close, patient reading. This free PDF and EPUB edition makes it easy to begin.