I don’t mean to discourage anyone from reading this book, but I can’t say I found it very enjoyable. The diction of the characters may put off many modern readers, but more so for me, it was their actions that made it difficult to complete. Due to their pride and, um, ‘gumption,’ I’m sure none of the inhabitants of the book would ask for pity, but it is really difficult to sympathize with people who continue to make such stupid and selfish decisions.
The structure of the book, a series of short chapters each from the first-person perspective of a different character should make this a page-turner; however, being trapped in the repetitive wasp’s nest that is the mind of Dewey Dell or the maze of inane logic that guide’s Vardaman’s actions is a trial.
The humor is both obvious and fleeting, and though there are some quotable passages, the nuggets of wisdom seem for the most part artificially placed there by the author rather than a natural outgrowth of the dialogue or plot.
When they do finally bury the 9-day+ old body, the supposed reason for the extremely difficult journey they undertake to Jefferson, it is barely mentioned. Perhaps this anti-climactic ending is symptomatic of their “take it as it comes” attitude to life and death, but more so, it serves to underscore the ulterior motives of all persons involved.
The simple or single-mindendness of the Bundrens makes them incapable of functioning individually, and their selfishness makes them incapable of functioning as a family unit. Darl through his (to everyone else, uncanny) powers of perception and observation might arguably live outside the restraint of ignorance, violence, and hypocrisy; however, he tends to use his empathy and knowledge to taunt everyone else, for example Jewel and his inability to express his love for his mother. Even when he finally takes action to bury (cremate) his mother, Darl does so at the expense of everyone else in his family and community by burning a barn (an act which endangers the livelihoods of the farmer and the lives of the animals and those who try to retrieve them).
The person who has the clearest understanding of those around him, and often serves as the only equalizing force for Jewel’s violent nature (e.g. his prevention of a potentially fatal knife-fight on the road to Jefferson), Anse’s incompetance, or Vardaman’s confusion, is in the end declared insane.
The town-folk are portrayed in just as distateful a light as the country-folk, leading to a creeping universal cynicism. If Faulkner is trying to temper tragedy with irony it only makes his version of humanity that much easier to abandon.
