As I Lay Dying av William Faulkner

---my father used to say that the reason for living was to get ready to stay dead a long time.

Dom lägger Addie Bundren med axlarna i den smala delen på kistan för att bröllopsklänningen ska få solfjädras ut i den bredare delen och sen ger dom sig iväg mot Jefferson, Mississippi för att begrava henne. Det är Addies söner Darl som närvarar plågsamt uppmärksamt, Cash som snickrade kistan, Jewel som alltid hatat sin mamma och minstingen Vardaman, dottern Dewey Dell, gubben Anse, en kärra, ett par märrar och Jewels älskade häst.

Anse hatar vägen, han hatar rörelse. Dewey Dell fortsätter att vara den piga Addie gjort henne till. Darl kämpar med sin sömn och sitt förstånd.

In a strange room you must empty yourself for sleep. And before you are emptied for sleep, what are you. And when you are emptied for sleep, you are not. And when you are filled with sleep, you never were.

Addies död gör dem märkbara för varandra och det tillsammans med resan gör att Darls sista strimma begravs med sin mor.

Läs As I Lay Dying.
__________________
William Faulkner

As I Lay Dying. 1935. Vintage Classics-pocket. ISBN 0-099-47931-1
The Sound and the Fury. 1931

Ladda ner As I Lay Dying (och The Sound and the Fury)

It is easy enough to say that man is immortal simply because he will endure: that when the last dingdong of doom has clanged and faded from the last worthless rock hanging tjavascript:void(0)
Publishideless in the last red and dying evening, that even then there will still be one more sound: that of his puny inexhaustible voice, still talking.
William Faulkner's speech at the Nobel Banquet at the City Hall in Stockholm, December 10, 1950

Drown av Junot Díaz

Drown är en samling berättelser med samma pojke, kille, unge man - från Dominikanska republiken, nu i New Jersey, USA. Det är killen, hans äldre bror och deras mamma. Pappan fanns där i början, när pojken skulle vänjas av med att spy i bilen.

These were the only times me and Papi did anything together. When we were alone he treated me much better, like maybe I was his son or something.

Pappan kommer sedan tillbaka, men bara i killens fantasi:
I would see him coming from my trees. A man with swinging hands and eyes like mine. He'd have gold on his fingers, cologne on his neck, a silk shirt, good leather shoes. The whole barrio would come out to greet him.

Det är mamman som sitter och vilar en timme efter ena jobbet för att göra nästa, mamman som köper skor, skolböcker, skickar iväg pojkarna över sommaren. En gång tror också mamman att pappan ska komma tillbaka. Hon ordnar välkomstfest, han dyker aldrig upp och mamman sticker.

She didn't treat me badly on her return but we were no longer as close; she did not call me her Prieto or bring me chocolates from her work. That seemed to suit her fine. And I was young enough to grow out of her rejection. I still had baseball and my brother. I still had trees to climb and lizards to tear apart.

Berättelserna handlar om att jobba med att leverera biljardbord till hus som lagt ut gamla Washington Post på golvet hela vägen från dörren till the game room och bjuder vatten ur en pappersmugg, How to Date a Browngirl..., om att slå ner ungen med deformerat ansikte, om Aurora:

I made up this whole new life in there. You should have seen it. The two of us had kids, a big blue house, hobbies, the whole fucking thing.

She ran her nails over my side. A week from then she would be asking me again, begging actually, telling me all the good things we'd do and after a while I hit her and made the blood come out of her ear like a worm but right then, in that apartment, we seemed like we were normal folks. Like maybe everything was fine.
__________________
Junot Díaz

Drown. 1996. Riverhead Books, pocket. ISBN 1-57322-606-8


This American Life om Advice, "How to".
Act Two. How to Date a Browngirl, Blackgirl, Whitegirl, or Halfie. A how-to by Junot Diaz, from his book "Drown." (11 minutes)


Jesse Trevino - Los Camaradas del Barrio (1976)