A Death in the Family: James Agee

I listened to this book on audiobook and had trouble keeping the story in a linear order. At times there were sections that took me a while to recognize as flashbacks. They seemed added as an afterthought in order to establish the prejudice of society, though I didn't understand how it aided in the story. The novel is about a family being awoken in the middle of the night because the father's dad was supposedly on his death bed. We later learn the brother that called was drunk and the father's situation was not as serious as the brother- Ralph- made it out to be. The man- Jay- leaves to be by his father's side, but is then in a car crash and instantly killed on the way back home. There was a lot of emphasis on the fact that Jay died instantly and couldn't have felt any pain. The story moves forward by the different character's thoughts and constantly switches narrators. The story was told almost entirely in the wife's family's voice. The entire book takes place in under a week. It is interesting that the characters of Rufus (Jay's son) and Ralph (Jay's brother) are sort of clumped together as the same sort of people. They are insecure and crave attention. Jay seems disappointed in his brother and one wonders what he would have made of his son had he lived to see him grow up. The majority of the book compares the way people deal with the death of a loved one. Some turn to religion, some rely on facts, and the children can't comprehend the idea of death. I am not sure what the author's message about religion actually is. It seems to be poked fun at a few times and the "Father" is characterized as an insensitive righteous brute who doesn't understand children. He is compared with a family friend who laughs when Rufus hears "grandma phone" instead of "gramophone" and takes the time to explain to the children. The children seem to understand the only thing that makes the priest respected is because of his preaching- people fear God's wrath, and since he is godly, fear him. The children's thoughts are that the priest is deceiving their mother. They are upset that the priest thinks he can sit in their father's chair like he is an equal, even the family friend made sure he doesn't sit in the chair. The ending of the story seemed spiritual, but not religious. Rufus's uncle Andrew told him what happened at the cemetery after the children left. A butterfly landed on the casket and was godlier than the priest who refused to do the entire service because Jay wasn't baptized. This was one of those stories that would be fun to analyze.