As I Lay Dying
by William Faulkner · first published 1915
48% recommend43% neutral9% critical
Why HN recommends it
A readable entry point into Faulkner, more accessible than The Sound and the Fury. It is one of his best works and a book many return to.
Common criticism: Some find it a hard or dull read, especially when taught in high school.
Summarised by Claude from recommending comments
Written in stream-of-consciousness style with multiple narrators, the story follows a journey wherein the family of a dead woman try to transport her body to her birthplace in Mississippi in accordance with her wishes. When a ford across a river is flooded they are forced to take a roundabout route and it becomes a desperate race to complete their mission before the body begins to decompose.
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…Junot - Brief Wondrous Life Of Oscar Wao, The Döblin, Alfred - Berlin Alexanderplatz Dos Passos, John - 42nd Parallel, The Edwards, Frank - Strange People Elliot, T.S. - Waste Land, The Faulkner, William - As I Lay Dying Figes, Orlando - A People’s Tragedy Fitzgerald, F. Scott - Great Gatsby, The Flaubert, Gustave - Madame Bovary Friedrich, Otto - Before The Deluge Gillete, Charlie - Sound Of The City: The Rise Of…
on “David Bowie’s Top 100 Books (2013)” ↗Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi's Flow: the Psychology of Optimal Experience William Faulkner's As I Lay Dying & The Sound and the Fury Julian Jaynes' The Origin of Consciousness in the Breakdown of the Bicameral Mind Peter Medawar's The Art of the Soluable Designed by Peter Saville Nietzsche's Twilight of…
on “Ask YC: favorite books” ↗…reading Wise Blood by Flannery O'Connor, because O'Connor is wicked and funny. Favorite book? As others have pointed out, this is a ridiculous question -- my favorite kind! Some books I love: Lolita, As I Lay Dying, The Ghost Writer, Goodbye, Columbus, Blood Meridian, Anna Karenina, Where I'm Calling From, Huck Finn, Dubliners and on and on. I read mostly literary novels, but I read fairly widely -- genre stuff…
on “Do you read?” ↗…of great advice for writing non-fiction (creative mostly, but also technical and business writing). It's a little dated, but a lot of what he says is timeless. About a year ago I reread Faulkner's _As I Lay Dying_ which is one of my favorite books. I can't explain why, but I think about it often.
on “Ask HN: Which book have you re-read recently?” ↗Faulkner wrote As I Lay Dying in 6 weeks. That's genius.
on “Is genius simply the product of hard work?” ↗as i lay dying by william faulkner
on “Ask HN: What's the "best" book you've ever read?” ↗…like a shutdown script for my mind. Afterwards I feel completely disconnected from what I'm working on, worrying about, or struggling with. Some novels that I've used in the past: War & Peace, Ulysses, As I Lay Dying, Moby Dick. 3. Frequent breaks. While working I make sure to pause regularly and often stop altogether, walk-around, etc. This helps and hurts because it can interrupt flow, but the big benefit is that…
on “Ask HN: What do you do to boost your creativity and/or productivity?” ↗…books I've enjoyed reading most this year are ones I ought to have read in high school some 15 years ago, but just never did because I didn't enjoy reading and never made the effort: The Great Gatsby, As I Lay Dying, and am currently reading Cry, The Beloved Country
on “Ask HN: Best books you've read in 2015” ↗…including yachts. Reading is good. The choice of reading material matters. I don't count "The Cat In The Hat" and "Teen Magazine" the same as "The Grapes of Wrath", "Hamlet", "The Scarlet Letter", and "As I Lay Dying".
on “Study finds learning music won’t make children smart” ↗My favorite of his is As I Lay Dying. I find it much more readable than The Sound and the Fury. The latter is his most famous, and McCarthy's favorite work by Faulkner. But Faulkner himself said As I Lay Dying was his magnum opus.
on “Cormac McCarthy, Novelist of a Darker America, Is Dead at 89” ↗Yes, exactly what huthuthike said. As I Lay Dying. Sound & Fury is great but a much more challenging read.
on “Cormac McCarthy, Novelist of a Darker America, Is Dead at 89” ↗…me. If you read the most famous single book of three different authors I feel like you wouldn’t get too much out of it. I would rather die knowing I read Shakespeare and Faulkner than read Othello and As I lay Dying. This kind of list format takes what should be an organic exploration of other humans who are praised for their writing and turns it into a checklist of disconnected pieces. Maybe you read half a play…
on “Books to read before I die” ↗…Twist - Dobyns, Stephen: Common Carnage - Dobyns, Stephen: The Church of Dead Girls - Doyle, Roddy: The Woman Who Walked into Doors - Elkin, Stanley: The Dick Gibson Show - Faulkner, William: As I Lay Dying - Garland, Alex: The Beach - George, Elizabeth: Deception on His Mind - Gerritsen, Tess: Gravity - Golding, William: Lord of the Flies - Gray, Muriel: Furnace - Greene, Graham: A Gun for Sale…
on “Stephen King: Can a Novelist Be Too Productive? (2015)” ↗William Faulkner claimed to have written "As I Lay Dying" in one draft over the course of 6 weeks. He was almost certainly lying.
on “Ask HN: How do I teach myself better writing skills?” ↗We were assigned Faulkner in high school (in Ohio). I just wish it hadn't been As I Lay Dying.
on “Ask HN: Are books worth it?” ↗