Back in junior high school (ie, MANY moons ago) I read Tom Sawyer and/or Huckleberry Finn. However I couldn't remember which one, nor did I know one story from the other (like most Americans, I've seen more film adaptations of these stories than I care to recall). So I decided to read these little jewels once again. And I'm so glad I did.

First of all, I don't believe either story is suitable for children really. Both Huck Finn and Tom Sawyer seem too, well, immature compared to the youths of today. And the crude racist language is certainly unfashionable nowadays. But as an adult one can appreciate these stories as Mark Twain's trip down memory lane, looking at life on the river with rose-colored glasses. No, the stories (..which we all know) are not realistic. But they are fun, harmless and well-written.

The Wordsworth Edition is very nice little package of both stories. And I certainly recommend reading both stories back-to-back since they flow together well.

So I recommed all middle-aged kids (like me) revisit Mark Twain's memorable boys. They will bring a smile to your face.

A wonderful edition which includes both Tom Sawyer and Huckleberry Finn (very handy for the Twain lover). It also has a red bookmark attached to the binding so you can easily find your place. The book is small and light so it is ideal for travelling and reading out of your home. It also includes a nice introduction and a comparative chronology of Twain's life. For a Twain collector, this is a lovely, readable copy.

This is a fastenating story, but not especially well written. Four young men (almost invariably referred to as 'boys' throughout the text) build a sailing vessel which they pilot down the Mississippi (through ice), around the Gulf of Mexico, up the Altantic seaboard, and back along the Erie Canal and the Great Lakes. Along the way they have adventures and mishaps, which are all told in an impatient 'there wasn't a moment to lose' manner. I think this would have been a better book if it had a little less histronics.

This is a book for all ages. It was written based on the log kept by the ship's Captain. The voyage starts in Oct., 1898 and ends in Nov., 1899. It is full of excitement but also is a story of the leadership ability of the young captain who is also the designer and builder of the boat. Once you start reading you cannot put it down!

"Pale Horse Coming" is yet another book using the fictional Swagger family of Arkansas. Hunter is a competent writer who knows his audience. Fans of the series like heroes (and villians) larger than life and substantive references to the culture of firearms. The "Swagger" series is generally good reading, but uneven in quality. "Pale Horse Coming" starts well but loses focus. Perhaps the most distracting part of the book is using famous gunman/gun writers as characters. What is meant as an homage feels thin and tinny. A note to Hunter--some of your readers are smart enough to see real life parallels without the spoon feeding.

Through the books, it increasingly difficult to differentiate between the Swaggers. The son (Bob Lee) and the father (Earl) have become nearly identical... stoics heroes who struggle with internal demons and the gift of killing.

Through the series, the Swaggers have almost comic book powers of endurance, tactical knowledge and gun skills. "Pale Horse Coming" has the bone structure of a good novel, but falls short of Hunter's other work. "Hot Springs" and "Dirty White Boys" are both examples of better writing.

"Pale Horse Coming" series feels like a Hunter, a talented writer, is paying the bills with another mass market novel. Hunter has a feel for writing the rural south and enough talent to make the book readable... but fans of the series may walk away a bit disappointed. To borrow a pop culture reference, the book comes close to the "jumping the shark."

This is a "must buy" for Hunter fans. Readers who haven't tried to series are better served by one of his earlier novels.

PALE HORSE COMING is inspired by the New Testament verse:

"Behold a pale horse: and his name that sat on him was Death, and Hell followed with him." Author Stephen Hunter must have thought the passage way cool because he milks it for all it's worth.

Earl Swagger, the novel's hero, is a sergeant in the Arkansas state police and a Marine veteran of the Pacific war against the Japanese. It's now 1961, and Earl takes time off from his day job to investigate the disappearance of a lawyer pal who's traveled on legal business to the Thebes State Penal Farm (Colored), a Mississippi prison for Negroes cut-off from the rest of the world in the swamps of the state's southeast corner. What Swagger discovers is a hell-hole of officially sanctioned viciousness that makes Stalin's gulags seem tame by comparison. As a meddling outsider, Earl is detained there himself and almost loses his life and sanity. After finally escaping, he returns to exact righteous vengeance.

The first half of PALE HORSE COMING is perhaps its best. It's the survival story of Earl amidst the horrors of Thebes, not the least of which is the psychopathic overseer, the albino Bigboy, who enjoys torturing prisoners to death with a bullwhip. To enhance the dramatic effect of Swagger's fight for his life, the Thebes facility is perhaps overembellished. Wrought in iron over its main gate are the words, "Work Will Set You Free." Haven't we seen that before, as in "Arbeit Macht Frei", associated with other camps of infamy? Somehow, I don't think Mississippi deserves such a bad PR rap - even in fiction.

The book's second half strains credulity. The author apparently has a love of the Old West as he has Earl returning to Thebes with a posse of retired gunslingers - one of whom is in his eighties - to expunge the place from the map. Swagger includes in his trigger-happy band a character named Audie Ryan, America's most decorated WWII soldier and now a movie star, who's obviously modeled on the real-life Audie Murphy. Oh, puhleeze! And it doesn't help that the U.S. government is involved with Thebes in the obligatory Sinister Secret Project - your tax dollars at work.

Had I thought that Hunter wrote the ending tongue-in-cheek as a parody, I might have been more forgiving. However, I suspect he was serious, and the result is too clever by half. As it is, I'm awarding four stars because it remains a gripping and entertaining read. And that's why I spend good money for a cheap thriller, right?

In the film PALE RIDER, which reworks the earlier SHANE with a stronger "Death rides a pale horse" theme, Clint Eastwood's Man-With-No-Name character wipes out the Bad Guys all by himself. For me, the Lone Hero has always held more appeal.

This Hunter's best book. He takes us back to 1951 and Earl Swagger - Medal of Honor and Arkansas State Trooper. Along with Earl is Sam Vincent - you remember him as the fiesty lawyer in Point of Impact.

Together Sam and Earl uncover the secret of Thebes Penal Colony in backwoods Mississippi. Sam approaches the puzzle according to the rule of law, the rational and the logical. He desperately wants to uphold the system. Unfortunately, Thebes and the human scum that inhabits Thebes do not understand the rational. They are beyond the law.

They are not beyond Earl.

Here Hunter's true genius is displayed. Pale Horse Coming is Earl Swagger at his primal and fearsome worst. Hunter has brought Earl thru a crucible that can only end one way (I won't even intimate the details - it is too good). Suffice it to say, Hunter brings Earl to a place that even the horrors of Iwo Jima can not compare.

This one ranks up there with Point of Imnpact and The Day Before Midnight. You will not be dispppointed.

Tom Sawyer is the first great coming of age American novel. In addition, Tom Sawyer is one of the most endearing characters in American fiction. This wonderful book deals with all the challenges that any young person faces, and resolves them in exciting and unusual ways.

Like many young people, Tom would rather be having fun than going to school and church. This desire to enjoy life is always getting him into trouble, from which he finds unusual and imaginative solutions. One of the great scenes in this book has Tom persuading his friends to help him whitewash a fence by making them think that nothing could be finer than doing his punishment for playing hooky from school. When I first read this story, it opened up my mind to the potential power of persuasion.

Tom also is given up for dead and has the unusual experience of watching his own funeral and hearing what people really thought of him. That's something we all should be able to do. By imagining what people will say at our funeral, we can help establish the purpose of our own lives. Mark Twain has given us a powerful tool for self-examination in this wonderful sequence.

Tom and Huck Finn also witness a murder, and have to decide how to handle the fact that they were not supposed to be there and their fear of retribution from the murderer, Injun Joe.

Girls are a part of Tom's life, and Becky Thatcher and he have a remarkable adventure in a cave with Injun Joe. Any young person will remember the excitement of being near someone they cared about alone in this vignette.

Tom stands for the freedom that the American frontier offered to everyone. His aunt Polly represents the civilizing influence of adults and towns. Twain sets up a rewarding novel that makes us rethink the advantages of both freedom and civilization. In this day of the Internet frontier, this story can still provide valuable lessons about listening to our inner selves and acting on what they have to say. Enjoy looking for fun in new ways!

This is the classic tale of a boy's life in St. Petersburg, Missouri (based on Mark Twain's [Samuel L. Clemens] home town of Hannibal, Missouri), on the banks of the Mississippi River (I believe the time frame is pre-Civil War). The original manuscript of "Tom Sawyer" was the first American novel to be submitted to a publisher in typewritten form. Tom is living in the house of his Aunt Polly with the irritating Sid, who turns him in for playing hooky from school. Tom's punishment is to whitewash a thirty-yard fence, nine feet high. With legendary skill and deviousness, he is able to get his friends to complete the onerous task! Later, he and his good friend Huck Finn go to a graveyard to swing a dead cat (to get rid of warts). They witness Injun Joe murder the town doctor and see Joe set up the evidence to appear that the drunken Muff Potter is the assailant. The boys hide out on Jackson's Island and the town believe them drowned. Of course, at their funeral they appear, falling right into the middle of the ceremony. At the trial of Muff Potter, Tom proves Potter innocent; but, Injun Joe escapes. At a town picnic, the boys (as well as Tom's girl Becky Thatcher) get lost in a cave, find Joe's treasure, are rescued, and become heroes. And, unfortunately, respectable. Tom and Huck represent typical boys, having their own adventures and dreams. It is sad to think that, in today's world of behavioral psychologists, counselors, and some teachers, both Tom and Huck would be considered abnormal and some physicians might even prescribe certain drugs to "calm them down." And, they are just being boys. The adventurous spirit of Tom and Huck should be celebrated, not repressed! Not enough adults read "Tom Sawyer" or "Huckleberry Finn."

I would recomend Tom Sawyer to anyone around the ages of nine to twelve years of age.The Adventures of Tom Sawyer is a book best for children. This is a book best for children because it is about a young rambunctious boy who gets into trouble all the time. Tom Sawyer is a normal boy.
Many exciting things happen in the Adventures of Tom Sawyer. In the beggining of the book Tom tricks his friends into white washing the fence for him.Tom falls in love,gets engaged with Becky Thatcher,and chases a box of gold. In church a dog makes a bad choice to bothera pinch bug and gets pinched and the dog runs around the church howling. And much more.
I learned that back then kids could be kids. Not like now when everyone expects you to act like you are twenty-five when your only twelve.The Adventures of Tom Sawyer tought me many things.

Considered by many to be the great American novel, Mark Twain's "The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn" is the story of a boy, Huck Finn, and a runaway slave, Jim, as they travel down the Mississippi River on a raft. "The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn" is the sequel to Twain's novel "The Adventures of Tom Sawyer". Where "Tom Sawyer" was more a care-free children's book, "Huck Finn" is a far darker less childlike book.

Judging from my rating you can see that I do not agree that this is in fact the great American novel. Twain seemed far too unsure of what he wanted to accomplish with this book. The pat answer is to expose the continuing racism of American society post-Civil War. By making Jim simultaneously the embodiment of white racist attitudes about blacks and a man of great heart, loyalty, and bravery, Twain presented him as being all too much of what white America at the time was unwilling to acknowledge the black man as: human.

However noble the cause though, Twain's story is disjointed, at times ridiculous, and, worst of all (for Twain anyway), unfunny. The situations that Huck and Jim find themselves in are implausible at best. Twain may not have concerned himself too much with the possibleness of his story; but, it does detract from your enjoyment of a story when you constantly disbelieve the possibility of something happening.

"The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn" is an important book in that it did affect much of the American literature that followed it. However, this is another novel which is more important to read for its historical significance than for its story.

I read this, since it was my school's outside reading assignment. The printing was so small, that I first thought it would be a boring read. But I soon figured that I was wrong. I found myself slowly slipping into the story as if it was all happening before my own eyes. The characters were very interesting. Especially Huck Finn seemed like a very likable person with a strong identity, wit, and a soft heart. He does not want to sit and let the world rule over him, but instead test his own ideas and proves to the world that he can be better than what the society expacts him to be. And although many say it is a racially biased book because of its frequent use of N word, nobody can deny that it was a commonly used word in the 1800 where the rogue institution called 'slavery' was considered healthy and inevitable. As a matter of fact, this is a book that actually tries to tell the world about the evilness of racial prejudice not promote it. One should read between the lines, in order to acknowledge Twain's subtle attempts. It was a thrilling experience and I recommend people to have for their own!!!!

The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, by Mark Twain, was one of the best novels I have ever read. When I was a junior in high school, I had to get signed permission to read this novel. I never thought a book could be so controversial that something like that would be necessary. I am so glad that I read it then, and again during my freshman year of college, because I think it sends a powerful message. Written in the dialect of the deep south, Twain successfully gets the reader involved in the book. When I read this novel for the first time, I did not want to put it down. The character of Huck intrigued me. Though a young boy, he had more common sense than many people years older than him. He knew what he wanted and was smart enough to know how to go about getting it. When he befriends a runaway slave named Jim, social issues are brought up and Huck is forced to follow what his heart says, instead of what society says is morally acceptable. I enjoyed how Twain portrayed Huck and Jim's journey down the river and the adventures they shared. It was a symbol of their need for freedom. By sharing the same goals, Huck and Jim become true friends. They are beyond the color barrier and realize that a person is a person, regardless of what they look like or who they are. I think much of today's society could benefit from reading this book. It helps you put things in perspective and think about what is really important in life; what others think versus how you feel. If anyone is looking for a good novel to read, one that captures interest and provokes thought, Twain's The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn is it.

Despair and guilt lay the groundwork for Larry Brown's newest novel, *Father and Son* as the South's latest voice creates the cruelest character to date, Glen Davis. This man brings you to a standstill. Within two days of release from state prison Glen has raped, killed, rejected his son and father and smashed every bone in a monkey's body. The heart punding fury of this book covers only five days, "five days you will never forget." Brown sets no restrictions on his writing or his characters. He is willing to imagine the worst and then makes you live it. Only psychological complexity squeezes out the painful glimpses of hope so desperatly desired while reading. As Larry Brown stated in an interview, "For some of them there's not going to be an easier way out - some of them are going to have to pay the price, the human price...[because] they just have to become like real folks." Nothing in *Father and Son* is disguised or sugar coated. It takes guts to read a novel such as this and own up to a reality you hope to never live.

Larry Brown's Father and Son is a compelling novel, well worth a close reading. Even the title points to psychological depths that perhaps only Faulkner at his best ever mastered. I grew up during this time and in this place. The novel rings true as Memory, though perhaps not as journalism.

Brown's narrative revolves around basic archetypal symbols and situations. On the surface, the story is a study of good vs. evil, contrasting two basic types. There is Glen, a murderous, drunken rapist who should have rotted in prison. There is also Bobby, the Sheriff, who works for Justice.

During the course of the novel, Brown introduces a host of ancillary characters, lets the reader get a sense of who these characters are, and then drops them completely. This technique perfectly matches the nature of these white trash Mississippi folk during the Summer of Love. During those days, young people were experimenting with hallucinogens as a path to rebellion. These Mississippians share a deep devotion to altering consciousness with those radical youth.

Brown chooses archetypal symbols and situations that make a deep impression on the reader. By plunging into our unconscious and shedding light in all directions, Brown works much as a Jungian Analyst does, showing us the reality of what is often dismissed as merely ephemeral. This splendid novel makes a lasting impression even after a first reading.

Brown is a Mississippi writer with enough talent to make me want to read only Southern Literature. Although Faulkner's influence is evident on every page, he is his own writer. I look forward to reading more of his work.

Father And Son by Larry Brown is one of those (sadly) rare novles that lives with you, haunting your thoughts night and day from the moment you pick it up until long after you have finsihed the story. Brown is, without question, one of the very best novelists at work in the world today. Unless you were born into money and have lived a pampered and soft life (in which case you need to ask yourself, do I even count?), you will recognize these people. dreamers. killers. Losers. people just hoping to make it through another day.

This novel in particular is everything a novel should be. it doesn't preach and it doesn't try to tell you how things are, it just shows you, warts and all. This is the book that, if i could've written any novel ever publihed, it would be Larry Brown's Father And Son. The words sing and scream on the pages and without even knowing it you care about these characters instantly. Brown has a real knck for creating villians, believeable and all too real for some perhaps. Glen Davis is a true bad seed, drawn into life by a master writer.

Read Father And Son, and all of Brown's novels, but be warned: For a long time to come you will be disappointed by every other book you pick up.

Bill Fitzhugh's "Fender Benders" is a slight departure from his previous novels. (Not that there's anything wrong with that, mind you!) It is a delightful read with some great characters and criss-crossing storylines. It's just a little dry in areas, whereas I was expecting something more along the lines of his earlier works. "Fender Benders" is missing a lot of the 'ha-ha' factor. But that's a minor nitpick.

While this novel is clearly the tale of new country music sensation Eddie Long's rise to glory... it's also a novel packed with a fantastic supporting cast and several interesting sub-stories. I personally liked the character of Jimmy, who is Eddie's friend at the beginning and volunteers to write his biography. If there are decent lines to be had in this novel... Jimmy gets most of them.

The character of Meagan (Jimmy's ex girlfriend, gasp!!) becomes Eddie's "Yoko Ono" or "Courtney Love" and is continually giving Eddie's management team conniption fits. Her vision is to insert herself as far into Eddie's life/career as possible and get all that she can. It makes for some interesting tension.

Bill Fitzhugh certainly did a great job researching this novel. There is a distinct "feel" to the novel when all the characters are in the studio trying to bring together all the elements for Eddie's first record. It just works.

Music, murder, money, cover-ups, backhanded dealings, investigations, sex and some of the best fried shrimp in Nashville. All these things await you as you read "Fender Benders."

I liked it a lot, but not as much as his other novels. That having been said, it certainly won't stop me from picking up Bill Fitzhugh's next novel. I recommend this one with no reservations. A good read all in all.

See storyline above.

When Bill Fitzhugh writes a book, you never know what you’re going to get. This time around he writes a somewhat scathing story of Nashville and the country music industry.

It seems as though Fitzhugh’s novels are becoming progressively less funny (laugh out loud). They may be less funny but the stories are still fun to read. Even though this story has no laugh out loud parts it is dosed with some little humorous gems (Jimmy’s description of a Gulf Coast casino as feeling like he was in a Dukes of Hazard pinball machine). Fender Benders is an entertaining and eye opening look at the workings of the country music industry and will make you look at Nashville in a whole new light.

Recommended.

"Fender Benders" is a murder mystery surrounding the rise of country western guitarist singer/songwriter Eddie Long. The story is rich with colorful characters including the main man, Long, his smart and cunning girlfriend Megan Taylor, his managers Big Bill Herron and Franklin Peavy, his friend and biographer, Jimmy Rogers and a host of others. There is enough intrigue, backstabbing, twists, humor and schemes to fill two books. Fitzhugh brings several issues in the book to a definite conclusion while leaving some to the reader's imagination. Overall, it's a fun read and one that will definitely hold your attention.

countless literary fiends have just flinched, i'm sure. something uneasy is crawling around under their skin, and they can't place it. little do they know it's merely me, baby-bashing a much-loved, canonized, idolized classic.

i read. i read a lot. i majored in creative writing and english because i loooove books and criticism. (does this pre-qualify me for faulkner? hardly, i'm just giving myself a few wobbly stilts worth of "reading credentials"). i armed myself. i knew it'd be tough. i'm unafraid to ask for help/use cliff notes, etc., and that's what i did.

it didn't help. oh sure, i understood it, but once unraveled it's just another incestous, suicidial, land obsessed, southern novel. i'm just not into books that take every ounce of my stamina to keep reading, books that make sense to no one but the author, and readers who've used the assistance of a zillion critics, who've spent lifetimes pouring over every single itty-bitty word in order to make some sense of it.

hooray for those who find the genius, hooray for faulkner for opening up doors that lead into hallways filled with self-induldgent experimental drivel, and self-induldgent brilliance.

i still didn't enjoy it. but i have to give it 3 stars because of where it took literature.

just be warned.

"It is a tale told by an idiot, full of sound and fury, signifying nothing"(Macbeth V.v 25-30) One day I was looking for a new book to read and I decided it was about time I read something by Faulkner. I knew nothing about Faulkner or Yoknapatawpha or The Compsons. All I knew was that he'd been compared to some of my favorite Southern writers: Tennessee Williams, Capote, and Barry Hannah. I am ever grateful that I read "The Sound And The Fury." I haven't been authentically moved in such a long time while reading. Reading each section is like reading a new book. I kept forgetting this was the same book. I've seen from the other reviews on Amazon.com that a lot of people have complained about the difficulty and stream-of-conscieness technique of the book. Well, all I can say is yes it is, I almost stopped reading this book half way through Benjy section but you have to work at it and the end result will be an amazing experience and great insight. I'm very tired of such lazy readers these days, they read ten pages of "Ulysses" and cry because they don't get the plot. If you really pay attention to the various scenes occurring throughout the Bengy sections you'll see reoccurring ones and by the end, you should be able to isolate each scene and understand it somewhat. I personally find the Quentin section the hardest to fathom. Rich in detail and thoughts often drifting one into the other. The ending of his section is perfection! It sums up the absurdities of life that is equal to Beckett and Camus. The Jason section shows the brutal side of The Compsons and the South. Once again showing how amazing Faulkner can shift view points so quickly and perfectly. The final section is told by the author but revolves mostly around the African-American slaves and Jason and Quentin's (Caddy's daughter) feud. I normally despise Cliff Notes but with this novel, they may be essential to most readers. The best part of the Cliff Notes is that they fully break down Bengy's section, scene-by-scene. Oh and make sure you get a copy of "The Sound And The Fury" that has Faulkner's appendix at the end. "The Sound And The Fury" is a story of struggle that touches the human heart and gives the reader fascinating insight into the human condition. Faulkner makes all his characters human, even the most repulsive like Jason Compson. Faulkner once said that he was just a man that tells folk tales and these tales bring us back to the impact of myth and reminds us of the fundamental human need to communicate and affect someone. Faulkner has deeply affected me spiritually and intellectually. I hope everyone will give this novel a chance sometime in their life. I've already started to dive into "As I Lay Dying" and I rarely read an author's work one after another.

I'm just finishing reading the Sound and the Fury for a college course in American Literature. Many people in my class either love this book or hate it, but I must say that it is the best book I have ever read. Faulkner breaks many of the rules we have learned about reading and writing, uses time order much in the way that the movie Pulp Fiction does, and shares the characters' experiences and thoughts through a stream of consciousness form of writing. This book is very unlike any I have read and is well worth the time it takes to understand it. Faulkner says in his introduction that in writing this book he learned how to read and I believe that in reading this book I have learned in a new way how to read.

I wasn't sure if I trusted the Barthelme brothers to tell this story until fairly late in the book, when they attempt, for maybe the fiftieth time, to explain why they continued to gamble, even in the face of their mounting losses. "Winning is better than losing, but neither is the goal of gambling, which is PLAYING. Losing never feels like the worst part of gambling. Quitting often does."

Maybe it was their demanding father, the loss of their beloved mother, or the sudden influx of inherited cash that drove them to the casino night after night. Ultimately I don't think that matters, and I think a lot of words are wasted trying to figure that out. But the book comes alive as soon as the narrative reaches the casino doors, and it contains some of the truest, and loveliest, writing I've come across about the "gaming" culture of the New South.

If this book has a moral, it is that if you're middle class you get away with doing a lot of stupid things. The Barthelme brothers grew up in a close-knit family run by a loving mother and an arbitrary, authoritarian father. Growing up, they never really started families of their own. When the parents died, within a couple of years of each other, their gambling went out of control. By their own account, they blew a quarter of a million dollars in Mississippi riverboat casinos in less than two years. At the end, they were arrested on a trumped-up fraud charge which was later dropped. They kept their jobs and their girlfriends and they got to write a book about it all.

The Barthelmes are smart guys and they analyze endlessly the sources of their gambling "addiction" (which they think lies in their family somewhere) and the fascination of gambling itself (which actually has little to do with winning or losing). There is nothing new here, of course. Still, the Barthelmes keep the story moving forward and there's a lot in here about day-to-day life in a casino.

I'm not sure there is a moral here. It's not as if the brothers learned nothing; if anything, they learned everything there is to know about gambling. It's just that they process this information through the detached and ironic consciousness that comes with being too smart for your own good. You get the idea that if they inherited another quarter million, they'd do it all over again.

I thought this book was excellent: a memoir by two brothers who lost $250,000 in riverboat casinos. They describe in detail how they would spend 12 hours or more losing thousands in the slot machines, or, more often, at blackjack. And how it escalated slowly, and then how the addiction got completely out-of-hand after both of their elderly parents died. Apparently, their pattern on each gambling spree was to lose a lot, and then spend the rest of the night (and sometimes day) winning back the lost amount. What amazed me is that even after they were indicted for a crime allegedly committed while gambling, they continued their addiction, albeit in another casino. Astounding! This memoir is remarkable on many counts. For one, it is beautifully written (both authors are writing professors), and also, they attempt to analyze their behavior, the big "WHY"? I commend them for revealing so many intimate details. It seems that perhaps the loss of their father, who had been a brilliant architect but an insensitive father to both, put them over the edge. Raised not to show feelings, coupled with their belief that their parents were their only true "community", perhaps put them in a hard, "no win" position when they died. And the only way to "win" (or attempt to) was at the casino. They are excellent at drawing out the allure of gambling - that, no matter win or lose, they were finally "feeling" something at the blackjack table. A sad tale of an attempt to deal with loss in a desperate, impossible way.

I started reading Faulkner because I never did in school, and as a writer myself, it just felt like I ought to be able to say, "I've read Faulkner."
Well, he's not easy. They don't call him the Master of Repetition for nothin'!
But, of the 3-4 of his books I've read, this one is imminently readable, funny as only Faulkner can be funny, tragic and pathetic as only Faulker can be tragic and patheticand as always, it's a helluva good story.
If you've never read Faulkner before, start with this one.

For better or worse, this book has "modernism" written all over it. It pretty much dismisses with standard narrative and only loosely follows chronological order in favor of brief passages that reflect the state of mind of the characters of the Bundren family and their acquaintances in their struggle to get their recently deceased mother Addie into the coffin, across the flood-swollen river and into the county seat for a decent burial. (The technique is called "stream-of-consciousness.") Sometimes these character-driven monologues sound natural and unforced, as with youngest son Vardaman; at other times they are florid and literary, as with second son Darl. Faulkner was criticized for putting big words into the mouth of a semi-literate man, but such criticism wasn't really fair; he was simply using words as the medium for reflecting Darl's state of mind and it was kosher to use words that Darl didn't know to do so. Switching from one character to another gives a cinematic feel to the book--but it also can make the book rough going as the different perspectives sometimes lead to clashes in interpretation or outright disagreements. Also, to stir the stew, there is occasional humor (both black and regular) and Mom "speaks" at an unusual time.

Should this book be read? Definitely, and "The Sound and the Fury" is a great companion piece. Should it be held in the same reverence as it was by English departments throughout the USA between 1950 and 1980? Probably not, but if you pick it up with an open mind you won't be disappointed.

This book should be the first Faulkner you read. Not only is it glorious, but it's the best entry point into his writing style and his body of work. The reader is given the most cues to narrator and plot (pay attention to the chapter headings), and gets a taste of Faulkner's wonderful way of putting words together and his way of commenting on family relationships, purity, sex, and the South. As is standard Faulkner fare, it's utterly depressing but a book you can't stop reading and can't help but be glad you read. The characters are memorable, and their narration is wonderful, and As I Lay Dying is home to the famous and utterly breathtaking 5-word chapter (a line delivered by Vardamann that inevitably comes to mind whenever you think of the book later).

As I Lay Dying will put you in better stead to read Faulkner's other (and sometimes even better) works than anything else, and it's well worth the read in its own right. Afterwards, I would recommend reading The Sound and the Fury, which blew me away.