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3.7 AVERAGE
3.7 AVERAGE
This is an amazing book, and when you read it, it's hard not to be, like, totally knocked out. It's a performance, maybe in the way that Rudhdie's MIdhnight's Children or Maggie Nelson's Argonauts is, where there's this barrelling sense that what you're reading is something different than anything you've read before, that it dissolves the boundaries of what books are supposed to do and refashions them into something fresh and new.
In the case of this book, the idea is that Agee and photographer Walker Evans go to rural AL in 1937 or so and embed themselves with a sharecropper family to report on life there. Evans' photos are well-known, and rightly so, but I think Agee's side of the report is less read. Which is understandable-- it's 400pages of prose, and it only rarely gives you the details you want, even when it breaks down what people wore in the morning during the week and what they wore to church on Sunday, or the exact dimensions of their house. Agee spends a lot of time thinking through what he is doing, trying to capture a lifestyle in words, and he's smart and passionate and interesting, and he gets very carried away with himself it it's amazing and sometimes boring and sometimes baffling, but very cool.
One thing that comforted me, sort of, was that Agee, at least here, is not racist and not sexist. He's not perfect, but he does seem to understand the pressure that African-Americans face in the Jim Crow South, and he sets out to ennoble them. This isn't the same as just letting them be who they are, of course, but it's a lot better than the alternative. Likewise, he seems conscious of the straitened circumstances of the women he encounters, though he also seems to see them as objects, one to lust after, quietly, and the others to pity. They never quite step forward with the fullness of Gudger, and maybe this is grading on a curve, but it is so much better and more progressive than I think it could have been.
In the case of this book, the idea is that Agee and photographer Walker Evans go to rural AL in 1937 or so and embed themselves with a sharecropper family to report on life there. Evans' photos are well-known, and rightly so, but I think Agee's side of the report is less read. Which is understandable-- it's 400pages of prose, and it only rarely gives you the details you want, even when it breaks down what people wore in the morning during the week and what they wore to church on Sunday, or the exact dimensions of their house. Agee spends a lot of time thinking through what he is doing, trying to capture a lifestyle in words, and he's smart and passionate and interesting, and he gets very carried away with himself it it's amazing and sometimes boring and sometimes baffling, but very cool.
One thing that comforted me, sort of, was that Agee, at least here, is not racist and not sexist. He's not perfect, but he does seem to understand the pressure that African-Americans face in the Jim Crow South, and he sets out to ennoble them. This isn't the same as just letting them be who they are, of course, but it's a lot better than the alternative. Likewise, he seems conscious of the straitened circumstances of the women he encounters, though he also seems to see them as objects, one to lust after, quietly, and the others to pity. They never quite step forward with the fullness of Gudger, and maybe this is grading on a curve, but it is so much better and more progressive than I think it could have been.
Based on the average reviews of 4+, I was hoping to read an excellent book. Instead, I was lost in a mountain of words which seemed to exist on the page for no other reason than for the author to write them. I thought the photographs told a more thoughtful story.
This book is an abomination. I dont care that its one of the only accounts of the south we have during this time. James agee should be dug up and arrested for the crimes he committed against these people. Books reads like a rich fuckup from new york who was looking for a big ticket problem to co opt for fame back home. His actions and words are disgusting and if I could I’d rate this book negative one billion. Stop recommending it to university students or ANYONE for that matter.
This is a singular book. As a collaboration with the photographs of Walker Evans, it records the lives of four families of tenant farmers in Alabama during the Great Depression. But it is also an anti-documentary that resists the political leanings that characterized many depictions of the rural working class. Agee makes an ironically despairing effort to capture the very life-force of these tenant farmers with his words, denying the possibility to embody them with human language, but creating an artistic masterpiece in his attempt. These not-so-famous men, women and children are praiseworthy, not for their worldly accomplishments but for their humanity. And Agee's language has nearly the magic needed to bring them and himself to the reader as divinely living creatures.
dark
informative
sad
slow-paced
*read for class
Specifically, we read James Agee's story on Emma (we also read Emma's response, but that isn't on Goodreads so we're lumping them together). I think its funny. that James Agee makes Emma out to be this simple girl, but I think that her article was much better than his (even though he was the writer out of the pair). He version is so much easier to read and does her story justice compared to his.
I also didn't know that James Agee was actually from Knoxville which is where I am from. So that was a cool fun fact. Makes me want to read A Death in the Family which is Agee's novel set in Knoxville.
Specifically, we read James Agee's story on Emma (we also read Emma's response, but that isn't on Goodreads so we're lumping them together). I think its funny. that James Agee makes Emma out to be this simple girl, but I think that her article was much better than his (even though he was the writer out of the pair). He version is so much easier to read and does her story justice compared to his.
I also didn't know that James Agee was actually from Knoxville which is where I am from. So that was a cool fun fact. Makes me want to read A Death in the Family which is Agee's novel set in Knoxville.
What?
What is this?
What is this?
Why is it so beautiful?
And then dull?
And then arrogant? And then the most humble thing a Harvard kid has ever written?
Why do I want to make every ethnographer I know read it? Even though it aggravates me?
What is this?
What is this?
Why is it so beautiful?
And then dull?
And then arrogant? And then the most humble thing a Harvard kid has ever written?
Why do I want to make every ethnographer I know read it? Even though it aggravates me?
"The essences of anguish and of joy are thus identical: they are the explosion or incandescence resulting from the incontrovertible perception of the incredible."
challenging
dark
informative
reflective
slow-paced
I came to James Agee late in life, after decades of fellow readers insisting I "must" read LET US NOW PRAISE FAMOUS MEN before I die. The entry in James Mustich's "1,000 Books to Read Before You Die" only reinforced that prescription. And so several months ago, I succumbed to my curiosity and dove in, ready to praise men famous and not-so-famous. What I didn't expect was to be greeted by a Wall of Words: Agee took the reins off his pen and just let it fly across the page! On most pages, every white space was filled with brick and mortar from that wall o' words. Digressive, full of detours, soaked with rumination and lust, "Let Us Now Praise Famous Men" is unlike anything you've ever read and, in some cases, wanted to read. It's not what I expected and, even after taking it slow through these pages, I'm still trying to decide if it was worth my time or not. Your country mileage may vary.
challenging
informative
reflective
slow-paced