As I Lay Dying — The Dead Broke Burying the Dead

In As I Lay Dying, William Faulkner writes a stream of consciousness tale of a poor Southern family, the Bundrens, burying their mother. It is an epic journey that takes 9 days and numerous trials and tribulations, including floods and fire. Even though I grew up in the Mississippi Delta, this is the first time I have read any of Faulkner’s works. He grew up in Oxford, Mississippi, and captures the people of the South well. I knew many people growing up that would feel right at home in the Bundren family.

One of my favorite quotes of my childhood, was from a farmhand that would ask me “Why do you brush your teeth, they are just going to rot out anyway?”, as he grinned at me with mostly rotting teeth in his mouth.

Their mother, begins to deteriorate while they slowly make their way to Jefferson county to bury her. Some of them have secrets they are hiding which come out in the journey and one of them is driven mad by the stress and shipped to an insane asylum. Death is hard, and being poor even harder.

The story definitely captures the essence of ignorant people struggling on life’s margin. I alternated between smiling at mannerisms I recognized to shuddering at the implosion of a family.