Finished: As I Lay Dying (Faulkner). Lord have mercy. I have no words, but I guess I better find some. Another Faulkner novel that takes you right into his world and makes you feel everything his characters are feeling, kicking you in the gut a few times along the way, especially at the end. It's hard to put into words the weird intensity with which I relate to the Faulkner novels. I truly believe it's because I've got some deep Southern roots on my dad's side. I can literally almost hear every word uttered out of every mouth, as years of being around southern accents and speakisms just flood my brain. Of course, growing up in Texas just reinforces the impact a particular vernacular has on one's life. :-) Faulkner again uses the stream of conscious narration by several characters, slowly developing the story as we see the same situations from several viewpoints and delve deeply into the innermost thoughts and personalities of each character. A Faulkner book that I will be thinking about for a long time to come.

As I Lay Dying is the story of a Mississippi country family whose mother and wife, Addie Bundren, has died. She made her husband, Anse, promise long ago that she'd be buried "with her people" in Jefferson, Mississippi...which, with all the calamities that set in for the family, ends up being a journey that lasts well over a week by mule drawn wagon. As the story opens, Addie has not yet died; she's watching out the cabin window as her oldest son, Cash, a talented carpenter, works relentlessly on her coffin...bringing each piece up to the window for her approval. Anse, a very self-centered man, has insisted that his next two oldest sons, Darl and Jewel, take the wagon for an overnight delivery to make some money. They don't want to go in case their mother might die while they're gone, but Anse insists they go. And, of course, she does die while they're gone. Dewey Dell, 17,  is the only daughter. She spends her time fanning her dying mother, in a bit of denial that she's going to die, but mostly concerned that she's become pregnant by a local farm hand. Dewey Dell spends most of the story worrying about how she'll "take care of it" with the ten dollars that the farm hand gave her to do it with. Vardaman is the youngest son, and a little boy. He wrestles with a huge fish and drags it up to the cabin right as his mother dies. He spends the entire story thinking his mother is really the fish? His stream of consciousness is rather like that of a seven or eight year old trying to understand things that he can't possibly understand.

So, as each character narrates, we learn who they are deep inside: Cash, the responsible, dedicated, self-sacrificing oldest son; Darl, the very deep thinking, all knowing, sensitive son; Jewel, the pig-headed, impetuous, seemingly selfish, horse-loving next son; Dewey Dell, the overwhelmed, frightened, but determined, daughter; Vardaman, the young, sheltered, bewildered, scared youngest son; and Anse, the slump-shouldered, "poor me...I have the worst luck", "God has given me more than I can handle", self-centered, uncommunicative father. Amidst the angst of his wife's impending death, he more than once thinks about how he could use some money to buy a new set of teeth which he has done without for several years.

One of the most compelling chapters is narrated by Addie after she dies. You don't know whether she's speaking from the grave (or coffin...she's not actually in the grave yet) or if Faulkner has flashed her narrative back to an earlier time when she was alive. What we do learn is that she was never in love with Anse when she married him. She hated giving up her time to herself to have children who drained everything from her. She never showed much love to Cash or Darl (who both adored her)...but then she had an affair with the local preacher, Whitfield, by whom she had Jewel. Jewel was her favorite son by far. In all the flashbacks she treated him like the prince of the family. It's not clear whether anyone else knows that Anse is not his father, except for Darl, who figures it out towards the end of the story...or perhaps he's always known.

Before the family even starts out in the wagon, with Addie in the homemade coffin, a huge thunderstorm comes, raining so heavily that both of the nearest bridges over the river are washed away. Rather than be owing to anyone or taking any kindnesses or waiting one day longer to let the river subside, Anse's pride propels him to put his family's life in danger by attempting to cross the river. He, Dewey Dell and Vardaman walk over where the bridge is broken up and under water. They are able to make it over, and then watch in horror as Cash, Jewel and Darl try to get the mules to drag the wagon across. The wagon is overturned by debris and the mules are drowned, but the boys all make it across....Cash unconscious and with a broken leg. Jewel, the unlikely hero, has single-handedly wrenched the coffin from the river and hauled it up onto the bank. Anse ends up trading (among other things) Jewel's beloved horse, who he worked his fingers to the bone as a 15 year old to earn money enough to buy, to get another mule team to continue their journey. This despite the fact that a neighbor offers the use of his mule team for however long it's needed. But no, Anse again doesn't want to be beholdin' to anyone. And so, rather then having Cash see a doctor, Anse insists that they keep moving on.

With each town they stop in, the horrible stench from Addie's rotting body is worse and worse. Town people can't believe how they are desecrating her body...but the Bundren family feel like they are doing the right thing by respecting Addie's wishes. The family stops at one farm to sleep for the night, keeping Addie's coffin way out in a field so the smell won't disturb the farm owners. Darl comes to realize that dragging around his mother's decaying body, with vultures now following them along on their trip, and always circling over head, is wrong. He takes the coffin into the barn and sets fire to the barn! Unfortunately, the owner's horse, mules and cow are in the barn as well. Again, Jewel is the hero as he saves the horse, the mules (along with the owner), and goes back in for the cow...before going back in again to drag his mother's coffin out of the fire! Darl breaks down in tears over his mother's coffin, and Dewey Dell applies medicine to the burns on Jewel's back. So, again, the family sets off the next morning. The family soon figures out that Darl set the fire and that soon the farmer will probably follow them to Jefferson and file a suit against the family.

Meanwhile, Cash's leg grows worse and worse, and rather than spend money on the doctor, Anse has the boys buy some cement which they mix and pour around his leg. Of course, this only makes things worse as they finally arrive into Jefferson with Cash's foot and leg now black. Rather than spend the money to buy a shovel to dig Addie's grave, Anse actually borrows two spades from a local woman whose house he stops at and spends more time than necessary. Finally, after Addie is buried, Cash sees the doctor who rails against Anse in a passage I will include below. He says what all the readers have been thinking, I'm sure. Cash will recover, but with a much shorter leg. Anse decides that they should make a preemptive strike, for the sake of the family of course, and have Darl committed to the mental institution in Jackson for setting the fire. It's heartbreaking to watch Darl as his family turns against him...and as he has his last chapter of narration, it seems as if he truly has gone mad. Meanwhile, Dewey Dell trades sexual favors with a drug store clerk who promises her that the capsules he gives her (full of baby powder) will cause her to abort her unwanted baby. She saves the $10, but starts to doubt whether the clerk was honest or not. Sadly, Anse finds her $10 and insists she give it to him. He instructs the kids to get the wagon ready to head back home. As they sit in it waiting for their father, he comes walking up with a new set of teeth...and a new wife! He's married the woman he borrowed the spades from. The last line of the book:

    "It's Cash and Jewel and Vardaman and Dewey Dell," pa says, kind of hangdog and proud too, with his teeth and all, even if he wouldn't look at us. "Meet Mrs. Bundren," he says.

I was still reeling from each character's last thoughts when Anse pulled that last little bit of selfishness! And,  here's the passage that the doctor spoke when he ranted to Cash:

    "Don't you lie there and try to tell me you rode six days on a wagon without springs, with a broken leg and it never bothered you." 
    "It never bothered me much," he said.
    "You mean, it never bothered Anse much," I said. "No more than it bothered him to throw that poor devil [Darl] down in the public street and handcuff him like a damn murderer. Don't tell me. And don't tell me it aint going to bother you to lose sixty-odd square inches of skin to get that concrete off. And don't tell me it aint going to bother you to have to limp around on one short leg for the balance of your life---if you walk at all again. Concrete," I said. "God Amighty, why didn't Anse carry you to the nearest sawmill and stick your leg in a saw? That would have cured it. Then you all could have stuck his head into the saw and cured a whole family...Where is Anse, anyway? What's he up to now?"
    "He's takin back them spades he borrowed," he said.
    "That's right," I said. "Of course he'd have to borrow a spade to bury his wife with. Unless he could borrow a hole in the ground. Too bad you all didn't put him in it too..."

I think I need a lighter story...but what?