A review by kristidurbs
Let Us Now Praise Famous Men: Three Tenant Families by Walker Evans, James Agee

3.0

I have no idea how to begin to review this book. It is a work of stark journalism, an inside look into the lives of three tenant and sharecropper farming families in the deep south during the 1930s. The photography alone would be worth the cost of the book. Agee's writing attempted a grandiose artistic work that honored the lives of the families he documented; it certainly was ambitious and didn't shy away from making the reader feel utterly inadequate to read his work. Ultimately, his prose clothed the realism in esoteric, poetic stream of consciousness that even Faulkner and Joyce would envy. Do I give it 4 stars for the artistic vision? Or 2 for its obtuseness and pretentiousness? I guess I have to settle on a 3: worth reading, if you're up for the undertaking. Reading this one is a marathon-like task.