A DEATH IN THE FAMILY

It’s a pleasure to have James Agee’s memorable 1957 novel available again, and in a fine audio edition. A Death in the Family won a Pulitzer Prize when it first appeared, but in recent decades it has been perhaps more honored than read. Mark Hammer’s intelligent, evocative performance should change that. He paints Agee’s pictures of lost small-town America but never gets in the way of the story, quietly giving heft and voice to these characters from our not-so-distant past. He even gives us the throaty coughing of Jay Follet’s car when Jay cranks it to life on the summer night in 1915, leaving his wife and sleeping children on his way to the event that gives rise to the title. Close to perfect. B.G. Winner of AudioFile Earphones Award. © AudioFile 2001, Portland, Maine [Published: AUG/ SEP 01]