The Most Humane Faulkner Novel Yet

It's hard to believe how good Faulkner has gotten in his fifth novel, especially after seeing how he started off in Soldier's Pay. Though As I Lay Dying may have some of the most bizarre characters to date, I've found the Bundren family to be the most complex and believable of the lot. None of these characters are perfect by any means: there are no heroes like Donald Mahon or Dilsey here. However, I didn't find myself really antagonized by any of these characters either, like I was with Cecily Saunders and Jason Compson. 

Cash may not be much of a talker, but he is fiercely loyal to his family. I found myself wondering, with his carpenter's tools and self-sacrificing nature, if he wasn't supposed to in some way resemble Jesus. We've talked about religion in Faulkner before, and there are definitely strong undercurrents at work here in the lives of the characters. Sometimes he takes the whole "silent sufferer" thing a bit too far, and it does more harm than the good he intends it to. In any case, as I was reading along, I wanted to hear more of Cash than I did of anyone else. 

Darl, the narrator for the majority of the time, is more cerebral than any of the other Bundrens (the live ones, anyway) and a deemed a "queer one" by the neighbors. While his gift for intelligence provided some of the most beautiful and poetic passages of the novel, his seeming un-feeling for his family makes him hard to relate to. He has this incredible intuition, bordering on clairvoyance at times (he describes Addie's death in great detail, though he is miles away at the time), but he never seems to use it to really help anyone: he is too stuck inside his own head.

Jewel may be the hardest character of all to relate to, however. At the beginning he seems like another Jason Compson, but as the novel progresses and the journey to Jefferson grows more arduous, he shows a spirit of loyalty and determination that ends up saving the family numerous times (saving Cash's tools, trading in his horse, rescuing the Gillespies' livestock). Though often abrasive and foolhardy, I think Jewel may be the most heroic of the Bundrens.

Dewey Dell and Vardaman are perhaps the most pathetic characters. They are simply children, thrust into tragic circumstances beyond their maturity level--the death of Addie for Vardaman and an unexpected pregnancy for Dewey Dell. They were the ones I felt the most compassion for, because each is left essentially on their own to deal with these unfortunate things, and both have to muddle their way through the best they can. Anse is similar to them in that he never really seems to have learned how to take care of himself. I didn't find him manipulative or callous, just naive.

Addie may be the one to draw the most criticism from readers: she hates her children (except for the one that seems to like her the least, Jewel) and her husband, she has an affair. She's the one I felt the most sorry for, though. The Bundrens are leading a pretty miserable existence, and she is the only one who is painfully aware of it. Social norms and lack of exposure to the world have left her a very big fish in a small pond, so to speak, and she cannot adapt to her environment. That seems the most tragic situation of all.

In short, I loved this novel because there were no obvious good versus evil dichotomies, no heroes, no villains. Just people.