Kati's review
Let Us Now Praise Famous Men
by James Agee
Kati's review
Let Us Now Praise Famous Men by James Agee
Kati's review
rating:
This book is the musings of James Agee about a short period of time he spend wandering Alabama and living with three tenant families there. It is complemented by some wonderful, compassionate and compelling photographs taken by Walker Evans. I must say that I had a difficult time getting through this book. It was one of the slower reads I've had in a long time. I kept getting lost in the language. Agee uses lots of colons and very little other punctuation; also he speaks in a highly descriptive poetic fashion. I would lose the subject by the time I got to the verb, that kind of thing. Nevertheless this book was written with a militant love for the tenant farmers described. Agee sees the good of the world in them, but does not wish to saint them in any way... just resist their societal demonization. You'll need some time and some good strong coffee... it's best not to read when tired, but it is a strong book and good in different ways then novels are good.
