The morning watch
By: by James Agee.
Publisher: Houghton Mifflin; The Riverside Press
Published: 1951
Place of publication: Boston; Cambridge
Language: eng
Number of pages: 120
Description: This novel shows Agee writing at the height of his powers and treating a story, set during Holy Week in an Episcopalian boarding school closely modeled on Agee's own St. Andrew's, that resonates with deep religious feeling and sharply observed memories. The first two sections of "The Morning Watch" show the strong influence on Agee of James Joyce's "Portrait of the Artist," but, if anything, Agee's depiction of a young boy's undergoing spiritual torment is more believable and more sharply written than Joyce's account. The third and final part of "The Morning Watch," set in the early morning hours of Good Friday, is a beautifully-conceived reworking of Christ's passion as experienced by three young boys who have played hooky from school and who learn their own capacity for blood lust and tolerance for violence. Agee's fondness for children and animals and his deep love of Scripture are vividly evoked in this last section. --John H. Flannigan at Amazon.com.
Notes: "This story first appeared in Botteghe oscure, Rome."--verso t.p.