As I Lay Dying by William Faulkner

I have an admission to make. I hate stream-of-consciousness writing. And, I think it is incredibly annoying when a novel's narrators are switched every chapter. And, I could not care less about the sordid lives of backwoods hicks. And, I absolutely abhor their speech patterns.

So I guess from the outset this book did not have much going for it. What happens? A Southern matriarch dies. As she had expressed a desire to be buried in her hometown, the family uses everything they have to get her body there. Unfortunately, they fall apart, literally and figuratively, along the way.

One son is sent to an asylum. Another has to sell the love of his life, his prized horse. Another damages his leg permanently. Another thinks his mom turned into a fish after dying. The daughter finds out she is pregnant, out of wedlock. The father is selfish and oblivious. The book concludes with his second wedding, the day his deceased wife is buried.

To top it all off, the mother rots away in her traveling coffin for most of the story. Faulkner, from what I understand, had a deep fascination for the people of the South. Why he should construct such an unflattering testament to their depravity is slightly confusing. I suppose he was only trying to present life as it is, as any good author should strive to do.