A Death in the Family
by James Agee
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Book Summary Information
Author: James AgeeEdition: Paperback
Audio: English (Unknown); English (Original Language); English (Published)
Published: 1998-07-28
ISBN: 0375701230
Number of pages: 320
Publisher: Vintage
Book Reviews of A Death in the Family
Book Review: A Classic That Killed Me
Summary: 4 Stars
I did enjoy the prelude and first section of this classic very much. I thought they presented an excellent description of suburban life as seen through the eyes of a young boy, as well as the unspoken love criss crossing between a father and his son. But if the early sections are the best parts of this work, then I don't need to feel bad about the fact that I just couldn't finish the rest of it. I did get more than halfway through it but perhaps I've overdosed on memoirs and death since recently reading The Glass Castle, The Liars' Club, and The Year of Magical Thinking. Another book about childhood trauma, death, and shock was just too much for me. I can see that Agee was a careful, brilliant writer, but he was a starry eyed student of James Joyce and William Faulkner. Agee's type of stream of consciousness was his poetic own but closely echoed the masters and he owed them big time. At some point, I thought Agee was trying almost too hard to be "literary," and this self-consciousness made me uneasy. Dear reader, please also be aware that you have to be prepared to patiently bear the religious piety and emotional repression of the accident victim's wife, the introverted internal monologs of his son, the long and somewhat uneventful conversations of family members, and the slow elucidation of social issues tumbling through this family. I'm sorry, but I just ran out of patience and had to pull the plug on it all.
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