Details Books In Pursuance Of Let Us Now Praise Famous Men
| Original Title: | Let Us Now Praise Famous Men |
| ISBN: | 0141188499 (ISBN13: 9780141188492) |
| Edition Language: | English |
James Agee
Paperback | Pages: 512 pages Rating: 4.05 | 3260 Users | 352 Reviews
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In the summer of 1936, Agee and Evans set out on assignment for "Fortune" magazine to explore the daily lives of sharecroppers in the South. Their journey would prove an extraordinary collaboration and a watershed literary event when in 1941 "Let Us Now Praise Famous Men" was first published to enormous critical acclaim.This unsparing record of place, of the people who shaped the land, and of the rhythm of their lives today stands as one of the most influential books of the twentieth century.
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| Title | : | Let Us Now Praise Famous Men |
| Author | : | James Agee |
| Book Format | : | Paperback |
| Book Edition | : | Deluxe Edition |
| Pages | : | Pages: 512 pages |
| Published | : | April 6th 2006 by Penguin Classics (first published August 1941) |
| Categories | : | Nonfiction. History. Art. Photography. Classics. Sociology |
Rating Based On Books Let Us Now Praise Famous Men
Ratings: 4.05 From 3260 Users | 352 ReviewsCriticism Based On Books Let Us Now Praise Famous Men
When I was a college freshman in 1974 my creative writing teacher highly recommended this book as the best literary work she'd ever read. I bought the book and it sat on my shelf for years. At some point I told my sister I wanted to read the book and somehow my copy had ended up with her. I was very disappointed in the book. The book was way to descriptive to the point where I got lost in what was being described. Oh wellI'm so conflicted about this book... on the one hand, I am here for a very post-modern take on a journalistic story. The writing style is poetic, to be sure, and I can see why people love this book. That being said, I just have misgivings over the author making this so much about him. I get that it's the project... but I'm just not that into that project. I also found the style to be somewhat alienating for non-fiction. Yeah, just mixed feelings all around and so I'll split the difference and
This is the third time that I've attempted this book and I do not lay books down easily. The best way I can describe it is to say that it is like reading the teenage poetry of William Faulkner. There is much about this book that borders on genius, but far more that obscures. Agee tries so hard to get to The Truth that he ends up with a lot of contextual melodrama. As a result, the book is not so much the story of three tenant farming families so much as it is Agee's opinion of how the families
Very few books can knock me like Let Us Now Praise Famous Men. Originally commissioned as a report back to the Northern seaboards intellectua-lites on the state of Southern affairs, reporter Agee did something no one saw coming (including himself): he fell in love. In love with the people he lived with and among, the land, the architecture, crops, roads, bedbugs, clothes, patois, sky; the whole cosmic smear of life lived by fundamentally good people at its absolute barest and most brutal.
There is no part of this book that deserves 4-stars. It's all fives or threes, the occasional two. 4-stars is a reduction, an average. Agee is either describing the world and its people with the poetic exactitude and finesse of Whitman, or he is pontificating in philosophical digressions that feel both dated and overwrought. In light of how much I detest the later, the 4-star rating is a testament to the former. In short, it's worth it (maybe just use this as as rule: if you are getting bored,
"James Agee makes Faulkner look clear and concise.... He also shares every single thought to cross his mind, whether they have anything to do with the topic at hand or not... For some, this experience - and it is truly an experience - is enlightening, thought provoking, mind blowing. For others it is mind numbing, eye glazing and a total bore. For me, it was all of the above.... You leave feeling thankful for the moments he shared. And annoyed for all the babble it took to get there." -- MollyI
Well I managed to finish this just to say I'd read this so called classic,but the whole thing just annoyed the hell out of me. Talk about obscure writing, this guy was taking the mickey out of his readers.And that's annoying. Very.This from page 226 of the version that I read:-"No doubt we overvalue the difference between life and lifelessness, but there is a certain difference, just as, in the situation we are speaking of, a difference is remarkable: the difference between a conjunction of
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