As I Lay Dying
(William Faulkner)

“As I Lay Dying” is the story of the Bundren family who live in Yoknapatawpha County, Mississippi. Addie and Anse Bundren have five children: Darl, Jewel, Cash, Dewey Dell, and Vardaman.

The Bundren family is extremely poor, and Addie is terribly sick. Cash Bundren builds his mother’s coffin, and while Darl and Jewel are visiting a neighbor, Addie dies. The youngest son, Vardaman, is terribly upset at his mother’s death, believing that it has something to do with the fish he caught and killed earlier.

Being so upset at his mother’s death and the fact that she is now nailed in a box, he drills holes in it for her and accidentally drills her face. While everyone is mourning the death of Addie, her daughter Dewey Dell is distracted by her unwanted, and unknown to others, pregnancy by a local farm hand named Lafe.

Addie requested she be buried in Jefferson, which is quite the trek for the family to make, but Anse decides they must do it anyway. The family sets off on their journey and loses or trades just about everything they own along the way.

The story is told from the point of view of different characters, including the post-humus Addie and many secrets are revealed. The Bundrens encounter quite a few obstacles on their journey and nearly lose Addie more than once along the way. Each character is quite psychologically complex, and this novel delves into the skeletons that everyone has and the lengths at which they will go to hide them.