James Agee only wrote five books. A Death In The Family (#30), even though it was not quite complete at the time of his death, won the Pulitzer Prize. Read it and you'll know why. This was my Literary Circle's selection for this month. Several of us who had never read it before were really glad this book was chosen, and right away decided that we would need to devote at least two meetings to discussing it. It is that rich.
A Death In The Family is literally about a death in the family and how the different members of the family are affected in the hours immediately surrounding that death. The language conveys a sense of the time, the place and the multiple levels of emotion in prose poetry that is so vivid that you can taste the water from the hoses, hear the crickets and smell the spring and summer night air. Samuel Barber was commissioned to compose Knoxville: Summer, 1915 from the words of the prologue included in this book.
If you're like me and have never read this book, prepare to be blown away.
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