This has to be one of the easier Faulkner books to read, and I would suggest it as a good starting point if you want to start reading Faulkner. It is typical of his work: hard to understand until you grasp his technique.
It is written in first person present tense from the viewpoint of about 15 characters. Some of the characters are used only once and then forgotten, others are followed throughout the novel. It is the story of the Bundren family as they bury their wife/mother. The burial is not the focus, of course, but the journey to deliver her body. Even that is subvervient to the characters, and the characters are subservient to the world of the Bundrens. It is a perfect example of the Southern Gothic.
It is necessary, of course, to piece together what is happening as you read along. In that sense it's very similar to a mystery novel, although you are not solving a murder or a crime, you are attempting to understand what is going on. That is the appeal that the novel has to the literary experts. It presents a puzzle that must be pieced together.
Needless to say that I, or any other unkonown author, could not get away with such a puzzling novel. No one would bother to take the trouble to read this if I submitted it.
As I read it I started to realize some of the tricks that Faulkner uses. When he wants to exercise his literary prose, he uses the character Darl. When he wants to use the stream of consciousness style he is so famous for he uses the child Vardaman. The incidental characters are usually the most lucid and easiest to understand - Tull, the doctor Peabody, Armstid, Moseley.
I also enjoyed the subject matter, the hapless and unlucky family that nothing seems to go right for. If it weren't for bad luck, they'd have no luck at all.
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