Forty years after its original publication, James Agee's last novel seems, more than ever, an American classic. For in his lyrical, sorrowful accou...
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May 12, 2011
Chris
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Agee's autobiographical masterpiece was still in unfinished form when he died—a labour of love for him, he apparently tinkered with its content and structure endlessly. What he was producing was a remarkable, plenitudinous look at a relatively mundane subject: the effect of the death of a young, strong, and good man on his wife, children and family. We are introduced to this average, likeable Tennessee family—based upon Agee's own childhood—dealing with their daily share of struggles, troubles a
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Sep 10, 2007
Nick
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This isn't a difficult book but it's certainly not traditional. There is practically no profluence beyond the natural causality of a single incident--the death of a good man. In other words, there are no surprises, nothing is coming that you don't already know, no real "narrative" reason to turn the page.
Rather, the book is held together by a string of incredibly detailed descriptions of highly emotional moments in one family's life. The vivid inner lives of the characters More...
Rather, the book is held together by a string of incredibly detailed descriptions of highly emotional moments in one family's life. The vivid inner lives of the characters More...
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May 29, 2011
Jeanette
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James Agee died very suddenly in his early forties after he'd been working on this novel for several years. Those who published it posthumously had to piece it together as best they could, so there are some sections that don't quite fit where they were placed. However, this is still a very powerful piece, and won the Pulitzer Prize in 1957.
The story itself is very simple. In 1915, a young man with a wife and two children is instantly killed one night in a car accident. The book fol More...
The story itself is very simple. In 1915, a young man with a wife and two children is instantly killed one night in a car accident. The book fol More...
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Dec 28, 2010
Monica
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original note: This book so far is giving me some comfort.
It's on a list of the 101 best novels since 1923 that I haven't studied yet, but think it may sit better with me than the 1001 previously discussed.
This Bantam edition I guess I've had since 1983. It says it's the 13th printing and portions were previously published in The Partisan Review, The Cambridge Review, The New Yorker, and Harper's Bazaar: all publications worthy of such incredible writing. One half to three qua More...
It's on a list of the 101 best novels since 1923 that I haven't studied yet, but think it may sit better with me than the 1001 previously discussed.
This Bantam edition I guess I've had since 1983. It says it's the 13th printing and portions were previously published in The Partisan Review, The Cambridge Review, The New Yorker, and Harper's Bazaar: all publications worthy of such incredible writing. One half to three qua More...
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Dec 08, 2011
Tabitha
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This was the second time that I read this book in a two year period and it is as gorgeous and grotesque as I remember.
"She wanted to hold her niece at arms' length and to turn and admire this blossoming. She wanted to take her in her arms and groan unto God for what it meant to be alive(p120)."
"Suddenly there opened within her a chasm of infinite depth and from it flowed the paralyzing breath of eternal darkness. I believe nothing. Nothing whatever." ( More...
"She wanted to hold her niece at arms' length and to turn and admire this blossoming. She wanted to take her in her arms and groan unto God for what it meant to be alive(p120)."
"Suddenly there opened within her a chasm of infinite depth and from it flowed the paralyzing breath of eternal darkness. I believe nothing. Nothing whatever." ( More...
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Nov 21, 2009
Julie
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When I told Brendan that I'd finished "A Death in the Family" he asked me how it made me feel. Not, "What did you think of the book?", but "How did it make you feel?"
I felt those hideous, unspeakable emotions that arise when contemplating the death of a loved one. I felt the suffocating sorrow knowing the worst was yet to come for the characters: after the ceremonies end and friends and family slip away to return to their lives, you are left alone and t More...
I felt those hideous, unspeakable emotions that arise when contemplating the death of a loved one. I felt the suffocating sorrow knowing the worst was yet to come for the characters: after the ceremonies end and friends and family slip away to return to their lives, you are left alone and t More...
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Dec 01, 2009
Chris
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Heartbreaking and raw. I don't believe I've ever read a book or seen a movie that so realistically portrays a death in the family and what every single member goes through; the weaving of conversations and thoughts between the characters, and being an outsider looking in, some of the conversations and things that were said to Mary and the children. People think they are doing good and mean well, when actually they are saying all the wrong things. And that priest, I wanted to kick him out the doo
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Dec 16, 2009
Lisa
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I read this book for my fall freshman year of college, for an English lit course, and it made a huge impression on me. I think I’ve reread it only once, and that was decades ago, but it remains a powerful influence.
I think that this book does a better job than any other I’ve read of communicating the innocence of young children and of portraying how their perceptions of events can be different from those of adults.
The writing style is lovely and the book is very well writ More...
I think that this book does a better job than any other I’ve read of communicating the innocence of young children and of portraying how their perceptions of events can be different from those of adults.
The writing style is lovely and the book is very well writ More...
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Oct 31, 2007
Brian
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Agee was working with so many different points of view, with being inside the psyche of adults and children, struggling through the depth and complexity of their thoughts and feelings. He must not have been able to keep at the intensity required to pull this book from the innermost recesses of his soul for long periods. And even with its richness and complexity, I feel that he was probably still working on the prose - there is a longing incompleteness to the book. There is a genuineness about
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Feb 07, 2012
Ben
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James Agee, screenwriter of The African Queen and The Night of the Hunter, was a prolific film critic and sometime novelist. A Death in the Family, published after his early death of a heart attack at the age of forty-five, would earn him the Pulitzer Prize and international acclaim. Though the novel was incomplete at his death, its constituent elements had been completed and it only befell its editor, David McDowell to organise his work into its final form. This meant including Knoxville: Summe
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Dec 05, 2011
David
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I was really looking forward to this book. It is spoken of so highly, was graced with a Pulitzer Prize and published posthumously after the untimely death of its young author. However I waited in vain for it to catch fire and was quite disappointed overall. It clearly packed much more of a wallop when first printed but now seems rather dated and less powerful than it once was. At least to me.
Certainly there are lyric passages of great beauty, the most famous of which would be the More...
Certainly there are lyric passages of great beauty, the most famous of which would be the More...
Aug 17, 2011
Christopher
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I am greatly impressed by this posthumous novel. It's a finely detailed, semi-autobiographical work that examines the effects of the accidental death of the father on a small-town Tennessee family. Agee's prose is the clearest, least cluttered of his major works, while still maintaining a subtle level of artistic aspiration. Agee uses the fine lens of his prose to focus on the feelings of each of the major family members (Mary, wife and mother; Rufus, son aged about 6; and Catherine, daughter ab
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Jun 07, 2011
Khayman
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A Death in the Family by James Agee (Reviewed by Khayman Brunswick and Andrew Puente).
This book. . . It's strange. We can't define the audience. The objective seems to be an experience, the death of a loved one, which is universal, so the audience could be about anyone who can comprehend the reading. The novel is told through third person and multiple people. It takes place in Knoxville, Tennessee. The year is 1915, and Jay Follett has suffered a fatal car accident. Jay, being the pr More...
This book. . . It's strange. We can't define the audience. The objective seems to be an experience, the death of a loved one, which is universal, so the audience could be about anyone who can comprehend the reading. The novel is told through third person and multiple people. It takes place in Knoxville, Tennessee. The year is 1915, and Jay Follett has suffered a fatal car accident. Jay, being the pr More...
Oct 14, 2010
I just finished the book A Death in the family by James Agee. James was born November 27, 1909 and passed away on May 16, 1955. His hometown is in Knoxville, Tennesse but his residence is New York, New York. He has written many books, magazine articles, and poems. Also he has many awards for his literature that he has written.
In this book a father passes away after a car accident. The family thinks he was drunk when it happened. He loved to drink, and did it quite often. Jay is the More...
In this book a father passes away after a car accident. The family thinks he was drunk when it happened. He loved to drink, and did it quite often. Jay is the More...
Oct 22, 2009
Steve
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It is impossible for me to inject any levity into a review of A Death in the Family. No “headline” here, as has been my wont in other reviews. Yes, the pretext for the novel is a death in the family, but the subject matter is the experience of life.
The best captured experience of life here is from the point of view of a 6-year-old boy in the context of the untimely death of his father. If someone were to ask me what it was like to be a little boy, I would refer them to this text. The More...
The best captured experience of life here is from the point of view of a 6-year-old boy in the context of the untimely death of his father. If someone were to ask me what it was like to be a little boy, I would refer them to this text. The More...
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Aug 26, 2009
Lauren
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A death in the family by james Agree is a book about a family that experiences a tragic death ( as explained in the tittle). when Jay Folit gets a call in the middle of the night from his brother saying that his dad is in the hospital. Jay can tell the brother is sober and it could be a false alert, when jay goes down to see his brother he soon finds out that his father is fine he leaves in a huff then gets hit by a car on his way home and killed. After this the brother and the family all are de
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Jul 24, 2009
Debbie (Readerbuzz)
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There are good reads that satisfy and are thoughtful and have lovely writing. And then there are the truly great reads that leave the reader longing to start the book over and reread it just as soon as one turns to the final paragraph. A Death in the Family is a great read.
The story is very simple. Jay Follet, the dad and the husband in the family, receives a call from his brother that his father is very ill and is near death. Jay goes to be with his father and on his return is kille More...
The story is very simple. Jay Follet, the dad and the husband in the family, receives a call from his brother that his father is very ill and is near death. Jay goes to be with his father and on his return is kille More...
Oct 13, 2011
wally
rated it:
good
not positive of the time, though it is a time when horse or mule-drawn wagons are not uncommon, one cranks a vehicle with a length of tool to start it, and so on...
knoxville, tennessee i take it.
21% into the story and one man has gone....north...i take it....to see the old man who lies dying...got the call from a brother, a drunk brother, a drunk baby brother...who must have other issues as well...he gets the call middle of the night, gets up, gets ready, his wi More...
not positive of the time, though it is a time when horse or mule-drawn wagons are not uncommon, one cranks a vehicle with a length of tool to start it, and so on...
knoxville, tennessee i take it.
21% into the story and one man has gone....north...i take it....to see the old man who lies dying...got the call from a brother, a drunk brother, a drunk baby brother...who must have other issues as well...he gets the call middle of the night, gets up, gets ready, his wi More...
Jun 26, 2011
Annisa
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Tebal : 246 pages on ebook
Sama sekali tidak mengherankan kalo buku ini memenangi Pulitzer Prize pada tahun 1958 dan masuk ke dalam Times 100 best novel of all times. Menurut saya, buku ini adalah salah satu buku terbaik dalam menggambarkan emosi dari karakter-karakter yang ada di dalamnya. Jika dibuat filmnya, mungkin akan dibutuhkan aktor/aktris yang sangat jagoan untuk bisa menggambarkan emosi dalam keheningan. Tapi itulah juaranya written stories, dengan alfabet a sampai z adegan ya More...
Sama sekali tidak mengherankan kalo buku ini memenangi Pulitzer Prize pada tahun 1958 dan masuk ke dalam Times 100 best novel of all times. Menurut saya, buku ini adalah salah satu buku terbaik dalam menggambarkan emosi dari karakter-karakter yang ada di dalamnya. Jika dibuat filmnya, mungkin akan dibutuhkan aktor/aktris yang sangat jagoan untuk bisa menggambarkan emosi dalam keheningan. Tapi itulah juaranya written stories, dengan alfabet a sampai z adegan ya More...
May 20, 2011
Kenyon
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James Agee's 1957 novel was published posthumously (he was a thrice-married drinker and smoker, dead of a heart-attack at 45) and awarded the Pulitzer Prize for fiction in 1958. Until the publication of this semi-autobiographical novel (Agee's father was killed in a car-crash when he was six), Agee's reputation was that of a solidly second-tier magazine writer and prominent film critic for The Nation. He dabbled in screen-writing as well, garnering writing credits on such classics as the Bogart
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May 21, 2010
Julianne
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This book is lyrical and evocative, just as the reviews would lead you to believe. However, of the two works of Agee's I have read, I prefer Let Us Now Praise Famous Men, because I found that book to be more surprising, challenging, and powerful. I don't think the difference between them is the difference between fiction and non-fiction. I can readily believe that Agee could write fiction just as good as his nonfiction, for there are portions and passages of this book that seem perfectly pitched
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Feb 14, 2011
Joe
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This moving portrait of a family dealing with the loss of a young father does not take on the full weight its well-wrought structure can bear. James Agee clearly wrote this autobiographical novel out of a profound love and appreciation for all the members of the family, each of them coming off as blessed and well-intentioned despite their flaws. However, his flattering portrait lacks a real conflict, and the only antagonist he produces, a self-assured priest with little empathy, is seen for onl
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Nov 27, 2010
Amanda
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Amazing. Depressing. It was totally engrossing and very well written, and yet not something I would want to reread soon, because it IS depressing, but something I do want to reread in the future, and I wish I could sit in on a college class discussion of it.
The majority of the book only covers two days, and deals with one family's reactions to death, from children to a spouse to other relatives-- going into their inner thoughts and momentary selfishnesses and vanities and all the impo More...
The majority of the book only covers two days, and deals with one family's reactions to death, from children to a spouse to other relatives-- going into their inner thoughts and momentary selfishnesses and vanities and all the impo More...
Feb 09, 2009
Cynthia
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Agee's book is about loss, or should I say LOSS. The main character suffers the loss of the most important, or at least one of, the most important people in her life. She leans on the love of her family and God but even with those loves she's still essentially alone and lost in pain. Unfortunately most of us old folks have weathered such losses and gotten through them somehow. It's hard to let the loss make you a better, more loving, a stronger person but the only other alternative is to bec
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Oct 31, 2011
Linda K
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I hardly even know what to say about this incredible book. Although about death and all the sadness for so many people, it is so profound in the way it describes so much of what is felt and said and experienced. I felt at times that I had almost written the words myself.
In the first part we get to know the man who will die and his son and their relationship. Also, that of he and his wife. The second part deals with his death and how his family is told of the news. The last part is More...
In the first part we get to know the man who will die and his son and their relationship. Also, that of he and his wife. The second part deals with his death and how his family is told of the news. The last part is More...
Jan 21, 2011
Monty
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This novel of poetic prose takes place in 1915 and is focused around the lives of a nuclear and extended family and includes the unexpected death of one of the family members. The book was published in the 1950s so there is nothing pc about talking with children about a mother's pregnancy, grief, being bullied at school, religion, racial prejudice and so on. Through the thoughts of grade school aged Rufus, the reader gets a glimpse of his thinking process about being bullied, of his father's d
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Apr 02, 2011
John
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The advantage of not having been an English major in college is that all the classics are new to me. This book, the only novel by James Agee, may be the finest novel I have ever read. It is the only one he ever wrote and it was published posthumously in 1946, two years after he died. Agee was well-known in his life-time for a work of non-fiction about depression-era tenant farmers, "Let Us Now Praise Famous Men," and for his movie reviews.
"A Death in the Family," More...
"A Death in the Family," More...
Jan 22, 2011
Lisa
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Not the easiest read, yet I was captivated by this book. This novel was published posthumously in 1957 and won the 1958 Pulitzer Prize (Agee died in 1955). It is based on events that happened in Agee’s own childhood. Agee’s father went out of town to visit his father, who had had a heart attack, and was killed in a car accident on his way home. The novel is set in 1915 Tennessee. The plot focuses primarily on the few days comprising Jay Follett’s death and funeral, with a few flashbacks fro
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Aug 03, 2009
Lisa
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I enjoyed this book very much. I've been digging into old classics and this is one of my finds. While this can be a sad topic on the surface it's well done in it's character and setting development. I felt I could have been right beside the characters, living among them, as the story unfolded. There was so much detail but it kept my interest. I got very attached to the characters. Also, there is a very young boy, Rufus, who is a very focal part of the story. I thought the perspective James Ag
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Dec 30, 2011
Judy
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How have I not read this book before? Winner of the 1958 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction, this is an autobiographical account of the death in a car accident of the father of a young family. The writing is unhurried, deliberate,and lyrical, focusing in on various characters affected by death, including the man's brother, wife, six-year-old son and four-year-old daughter. Flashbacks create a picture of who the man was and illuminate the depth of his relationships. As my own father was killed in an acci
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