A review by kamckim
Let Us Now Praise Famous Men by James Agee

4.0

This was such an interesting book. In 1936, Agee was on assignment to document the plight of poor, white share-croppers in Alabama. Walker Evans was assigned as his photographer. Together, the work they did vividly portrays in artistic detail the lives of "the common man [and woman]." The book requires slow wading and thought, as it is sometimes difficult parse his styles. At times, he seems an objective observer; however, this role is overshadowed by his genuine Christian love and compassion for the poor, who he very much wishes he could help on a more practical level, his despair knowing that he is among them but not of them. He's at his best when he paints portraits of his subjects and describes their lives and surroundings. At his worst, he is highly politically charged and maybe even a bit melodramatic. He definitely throws in an existential punch now and again. The work is definitely a product of its time, in that he was on assignment and unable to follow-up on several other issues that could have been addressed, including the Jim Crow South. However, I believe his work along with the work of contemporaries such as John Steinbeck, Woody Guthrie, Dorothea Lange, William Faulkner, Zora Neale Hurston, to name a few paved the way for the awareness of rural poverty and civil injustice that led to the plays of Tennessee Williams in the 50s, and the protest movement of the 1960s. Those who teach To Kill a Mockingbird (1964), for example, will discover sympathy for the Ewells and Cunninghams. I've seen Walker Evans' photographs from this period licensed for archival work and used as covers for books set in the Depression era (Out of the Dust by Karen Hesse, for example). For this reason, I would study parts of it as a seminal work in several disciplines and courses. I'd have another copy of it on my nightstand for reading and contemplation. This book will leave the same quiet resonance within you as it has in modern American literature, arts and culture.