James Agee: A Life

Description: A biography of the American journalist, novelist, and screenwriter James Agee. The Good: This book is a solidly written account of James Agee's life from his youngest days to his infamously early death of a heart attack in the 1950s. I've been fanatical about Agee since I read _Let Us Now Praise Famous Men_, and this book is a great read for anyone who's interested in his works but unfamiliar with the life of the man himself. I devoured this biography. The Bad: Two things come to mind. The first and most relevant is that Bergreen draws on Agee's own writing (in _Let Us Now Praise Famous Men_, _A Death in the Family_, and other books) to flesh out his depiction of Agee's life. It's a bit disconcerting to find quotes that supposedly describe Agee's fictional characters applied to the author's life as if taken directly from a non-fiction source. Granted, Agee's novels were little more than dressed-up autobiographies, but it's hard to shake the feeling that Bergreen shouldn't be quoting them directly as if they were unequivocal truth. Secondly, for someone who's come to admire Agee for his extraordinary prose, it can be a bit of a shock to discover that he was just a mere mortal, and a pretty flawed one at that. To focus only on the negatives in the book would give us a portrait of Agee as a self-obsessed alcoholic incapable of restraining his puerile sexual urges, causing untold damages to his relationships with his friends and family. Of course Bergreen is a very fair biographer and we don't only get this impression, but it's still somewhat difficult to imagine the man described acted as the vessel for the literary legacy that outlived him. The Verdict: Agee: A Life is a wonderfully written biography of the flawed genius who was James Agee. The photographs are a great addition, as they allow the reader to look over the friends and the various women who passed through his life. Highly recommended for those who are interested in the inspirations for his work and the conditions under which Agee wrote his articles, novels and scripts.

James Agee was a tremendously talented writer. And apparently a real drunk. This is a very sad and familiar story. Bergreen tells the story well, one of those tales that makes us wonder what in the world is going on inside our heads. On the other hand, one might say Agee simply had a rather commn disease (alcoholism) at a time when effective help was still hard to get. (He was 45 years old when he died of a heart attack in 1955.)I read "Let us Now Praise Famous Men" when I was sixteen years old and it had a tremendous impact on me. It's a book to keep coming back to. Agee seemed so interested in the plight of others. It's a shame he didn't get the help that may have benefitted him. I look forward to reading Erik Wensberg's biography.