A Death in the Family

April 2, 2012
Agee's classic novel, posthumously published after his death at the age of 45, is considered one of the great American novels of childhood and domestic life, as well as a marvel of Southern literature. The book chronicles the effect of the un-expected death of Jay Folletâwho is killed in a car accident after visiting his fatherâon his wife, son, and brother. Lloyd James narrates gently, kindly, as if wanting to not disturb the mourners in their grief. He tiptoes through the book, confident that his polite, soft reading best suits Agee's bittersweet story. James's words echo across the gaps between sentences and paragraph, and he uses pauses wisely, knowing that Agee's prose resonates in the steadily accumulating drizzle of emotion. There is no need to oversell; the book's rhythms dictate the tone of its narration. A Penguin Classics paperback.

It's a pleasure to have James Agee's memorable 1957 novel available again, and in a fine audio edition. A Death in the Family won a Pulitzer Prize when it first appeared, but in recent decades it has been perhaps more honored than read. Mark Hammer's intelligent, evocative performance should change that. He paints Agee's pictures of lost small-town America but never gets in the way of the story, quietly giving heft and voice to these characters from our not-so-distant past. He even gives us the throaty coughing of Jay Follet's car when Jay cranks it to life on the summer night in 1915, leaving his wife and sleeping children on his way to the event that gives rise to the title. Close to perfect. B.G. Winner of AudioFile Earphones Award. (c) AudioFile 2001, Portland, Maine