Tag Archives: A Death in The Family

Thought I was going to have to make finishing this novel one of my New Year’s Resolutions. I did enjoy the book, even at my slow-paced reading of it.  This does not reflect on the book, btw, but rather on … Continue reading → Continue reading →

Either there’s not a lot of metaphor in this plain-talking novel or I’m missing it, but Agee does have some wonderful subtleties in here that I’m connecting as I am close to finishing this story. As Mary sits with family … Continue reading → Continue reading →

One of the most amazing things about Agee’s writing is the detailed simplicity with which he reveals the workings of his characters’ minds.  Here, Rufus has just been told of his father’s death and while his mother and his great … Continue reading → Continue reading →

It was mentioned as a Note in the beginning of this book that James Agee died suddenly prior to the final draft of this novel.  Some pages that are in the pov of Rufus, the son of Jay and Mary, … Continue reading → Continue reading →

Agee has done wonderfully well at setting the mood and tone of these hours spent with Mary and her family after the death of her husband.  It is still predawn, heading towards early morning, and it’s been a very, very … Continue reading → Continue reading →

Agee, in his tremendous adherence to realism, knows enough to throw in an offset to the dramatic tension in the scene.  In this case, it is Mary’s mother, Catherine, who is hard of hearing and uses an ear ‘trumpet’ to … Continue reading → Continue reading →

I seem to be reading this part of the story in careful, hushed tones.  Has the author, James Agee, brought this about?  Does the reader become funereal with the waiting for confirmation of death?  In preparation for the ceremonies that … Continue reading → Continue reading →

So it ended up taking about twenty-three pages to find out that Jay is dead, but there is a building up of emotion–if not tension–Agee does well.  It still seems to be slow, but then again, that may just be … Continue reading → Continue reading →

While it looked like i hadn’t been reading at all, I did manage a page or two at a time on this and the fact that I’ve been taken with a hypertext project I’m working on is not totally to … Continue reading → Continue reading →

At the end of what evidently appears to be Part 1, we have a chapter again from third person pov, focusing on the child, Rufus.  The scenario is when his mother is pregnant with his brother and we see through … Continue reading → Continue reading →

There is a section of the novel that goes back into an early time in Rufus’ childhood that Agee has incorporated into the story at a point where we are wondering what Jay has walked into at his own father’s … Continue reading → Continue reading →

While the story is a very close look at a family, Agee uses the omniscient third person to separate the characters and reveal their inner conflicts as well as their own viewpoints of their interactions. As  mentioned, I suspected some … Continue reading → Continue reading →

Even while the relationship of Jay and Mary is presented as a loving and happy marriage, there is subtlety in their dialogue before Jay leaves to see his sick father, and prior to that, in the easy relationship between father … Continue reading → Continue reading →

Talk about your similes and imagery: (…) and along both banks the trees which crowded the water like drinking cattle began to take on distinctness one from another. (p. 41) Continue reading →

Agee appears to reveal his story slowly, lovingly using each word to fit within and enhance his characters and their relationship to each other. There’s a whole chapter that covers an evening that has six year-old Rufus going to see … Continue reading → Continue reading →