The snowy weather has given me the opportunity to make good progress with our February read, but I am afraid I have not completed Let Us Now Praise Famous Men by its due date. (I may, in fact, owe our library ten cents for my oversight. Apologies if you are waiting for this title on hold; it should be returned today.) The language is descriptive and most times, the reader can feel emotion behind the words. Agee is passionate about his subject relating the smallest of details in order for the reader to truly understand the settings surrounding his families.
This style does make for a more challenging read, and I have not yet been able to sit for hours with book in hand. I have needed breaks for pause and perhaps just time to remember. I grew up knowing those who did not own the land on which they farmed. They were given a place to sleep in exchange for work in fields of corn and tobacco (rather than cotton). The seasons which gave you the most in return were also the ones which demanded the most of you as a worker giving a bitter balance to the psychology of survival. Like the families in the book, selling firewood was an important supplement to income.
These similarities make the book very familiar. My goal is still yet to finish the read and revisit Agee's porch again before our meeting.
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