Bare To The Bone

Reading certain books is like reading a 300 page poem.

Let Us Now Praise Famous Men, by James Agee, is one.

This is because the writing is precise, it is descriptive, it is beautiful, it is emotional. It evokes specific images, it stirs the soul. You cannot let your mind wander for 5 seconds when you are reading a book like this. Every word counts.

Reading something like this is a labor of love.

On top of that, I had to read for one full reading session plus a half hour of the next before I even got to the story. There is an introduction by John Hersey which is a mini biography pf James Agee. Many, many pages in length. Then there is a preface of a few pages written by James Agee.

Normally I skip stuff like this. I had to make the time to read this stuff. It gave me a deeper understanding of the book.

Agee was working for Fortune magazine in 1936. The magazine assigned him and Walker Evans (photographer) to live among sharecroppers in Alabama for 8 weeks, and then to write about it.

Evans photographs are wrenching. Find them, they are famous. The book is even credited to James Agee and Walker Evans.

Relationships between two creative people from different disciplines fascinate me. Agee and Walker had enormous respect for each other's talent. Reminds me of Hunter S. Thompson and Ralph Steadman.

Agee did not trust Fortune, he felt they wanted to exploit the sharecroppers lives for fun and profit, that they did not care about these people. He took the assignment because he did care, and felt he could treat the sharecroppers with empathy and respect.

Which he did. His empathy is obvious in his writing. The people he lived with even complimented him on not being condescending, on caring, on really wanting to learn about and write about their lives.

As you might imagine, their lives were horrible. Hopeless, hard, unfair, bare to the bone. Again, I encourage you to find Walker Evans photographs. They are black and white and direct and honest. No artsy manipulation. The looks on many of these peoples' faces will make you cry.

It is a raw book and well worth the effort.