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What I've been reading, what I'm reading
Jul. 2nd, 2013 03:48 pmI just finished A Death in the Family by James Agee. I had read a chapter of it years ago in an anthology of stories for young adults (which I'd love to find again - the title was something like The Further Shore or The Distant Shore.)
I want to grab everybody I know by the shoulders and shake them while yelling "You gotta read this book!" but since I can't do that I'll write a review.
It's the story of a few days in the life of a family, surrounding the death of the father. You know this going in, that's not a spoiler. Things are described in small moments of life, conversation, trains of thought. His wife and her aunt sit in the kitchen, waiting for word, telling each other that things are probably just fine, he's just injured and will be brought back soon to convalesce in the guest room - the wife has gotten it all ready for him - but hm, just in case the worst has happened, well no need to talk about that yet, but if it has... and you see the wife move from denial to acceptance, slowly, slowly. Later her brother has to tell her, the aunt, and his parents what happened, and his mother is very deaf so that words that he would want to softly say to them have to be shouted into her ear horn, and she still can't quite get it, and knows it, and knows everybody is resenting her. There's a fantastic moment when something strikes all of them as absurd, and they start laughing in that hysterical way that can happen when emotions are running high, and the mother doesn't understand what they're laughing at and suspects they're laughing at her, and is offended but doesn't want them to know how she feels, and they're all ashamed at how they're laughing but can't stop. He gets the awkwardness just right.
In between the account of the death and everything surrounding it are timeless accounts of the neighborhood - there's a fantastic description of evening when the women are cleaning up in the kitchen and the men all come out and water their lawns - and of Rufus, the dead man's young son being sung to sleep by his father, trying to make friends with older boys in the neighborhood, listening to his uncle talk about faith and realizing some things about people. It's just wonderful.
I just started Whipping Girl: A Transsexual Woman on Sexism and the Scapegoating of Femininity, Julia Serano.
I want to grab everybody I know by the shoulders and shake them while yelling "You gotta read this book!" but since I can't do that I'll write a review.
It's the story of a few days in the life of a family, surrounding the death of the father. You know this going in, that's not a spoiler. Things are described in small moments of life, conversation, trains of thought. His wife and her aunt sit in the kitchen, waiting for word, telling each other that things are probably just fine, he's just injured and will be brought back soon to convalesce in the guest room - the wife has gotten it all ready for him - but hm, just in case the worst has happened, well no need to talk about that yet, but if it has... and you see the wife move from denial to acceptance, slowly, slowly. Later her brother has to tell her, the aunt, and his parents what happened, and his mother is very deaf so that words that he would want to softly say to them have to be shouted into her ear horn, and she still can't quite get it, and knows it, and knows everybody is resenting her. There's a fantastic moment when something strikes all of them as absurd, and they start laughing in that hysterical way that can happen when emotions are running high, and the mother doesn't understand what they're laughing at and suspects they're laughing at her, and is offended but doesn't want them to know how she feels, and they're all ashamed at how they're laughing but can't stop. He gets the awkwardness just right.
In between the account of the death and everything surrounding it are timeless accounts of the neighborhood - there's a fantastic description of evening when the women are cleaning up in the kitchen and the men all come out and water their lawns - and of Rufus, the dead man's young son being sung to sleep by his father, trying to make friends with older boys in the neighborhood, listening to his uncle talk about faith and realizing some things about people. It's just wonderful.
I just started Whipping Girl: A Transsexual Woman on Sexism and the Scapegoating of Femininity, Julia Serano.
