A Death in the Family by James Agee

Ahh, the beauty of words. The way an author can make them weave and commingle and intertwine to form a sentence, a chapter, a story.

If you take nothing more from this novel, just grant yourself the freedom to bask in Agee’s luxurious prose.

A Death in the Family is largely autobiographical, so it’s no small wonder that Agee dazzles us with his wonderful character development. In a novel at once heartbreaking and heartwarming, the reader will explore life, loss, relationships, faith, human frailty and the ways in which we find the strength to cope.

Part of the last passage spoken by Andrew is particularly lovely and unifies the emotional experiences of the central characters. The butterfly is a symbol of hope and an embodiment of the soul.

A few enjoyable phrases:

How far we all come. How far we all come away from ourselves. So far, so much between, you can never go home again.

The less he believed them, the more he was led to believe them, and the easier it was for him to believe them. The more alone he felt, the more he wanted to feel that he was not alone, but one of them.

Without either desiring to see her face, or caring how it looked, she saw that it had changed; through the deep, clear veil her gray eyes watched her gray eyes watch her through the deep, clear veil.

I’ll end up reading this one again some day – I’m sure of that. To date, this is, without a doubt, my favorite novel on the 100 Best list.