A Death in the Family opens with a poetic meditation that introduces the perspective of Rufus, who is at once both boy and man and is looking back on his childhood in Knoxville, Tennessee, in 1915, as a time of both innocence and mystery. The actual narrative, however, begins as he and his father, Jay, enjoy a companionable evening together at a Charlie Chaplin movie; this and Jay’s stop at a local saloon after the movie are both activities of which Jay’s wife, Mary, does not approve. Other differences between mother and father also surface; Jay is from a poor country family, while Mary is from a middle-class city family. An even greater conflict concerns religious differences that the narrative will develop in the wake of the sudden death of Jay in an automobile accident.

After Jay has rushed out to the family farm in the mistaken belief that his father has died, Mary receives a phone call telling her that her husband has been involved in a serious automobile accident. This news ushers in a central section in the novel, in which Mary and her family gather to await further news. Each member of the family reacts differently to the crisis, but the narrative concentrates in particular on Mary’s reaction. A pious Anglo-Catholic, Mary’s response to the distinct possibility that her husband has died is made problematic by an evasive religiosity. Although Mary’s aunt Hannah is also a deeply religious woman, we see that Hannah finds Mary’s histrionic religious rhetoric disturbing and even malign. When Mary persuades Hannah to kneel and pray with her, what Hannah begins to perceive in Mary is not devout belief but spiritual pride and pretension that, ironically, appears to prevent the development of any true religious feeling. Hannah, however, understands how deeply vulnerable Mary is and how devastating the loss of her husband is to her, and she wisely allows Mary to take her own time in accepting the fact of Jay’s death, a course of action that recalls an earlier time in which she presided over Rufus’s purchase of a cap. The gaudy cap Rufus chose expressed his desire to abandon the babyish identity encouraged by his mother in favor of a more mature identity like that of his free-spirited father. Although the cap was not one to his great-aunt Hannah’s taste, she wisely allowed him to make up his own mind. Similarly, Hannah does not impose her ideas on Mary, realizing that she will come to accept Jay’s death in her own time and in her own way.

Mary’s brother Andrew eventually confirms that Jay has died. The family draws together, but each family member reacts to the death and to the meaning of death itself in his or her own way. Mary at first interprets the accident as a punishment from God and then flees into affirmations of determined religious faith, which, ironically, make her appear increasingly heartless. Mary’s brother Andrew disdains organized religion; their father, Joel, goes further by expressing doubts about the nature or existence of God. The division between Mary and Hannah on one side and Joel and Andrew on the other is also suggested by an enigmatic episode in which only Mary and Hannah appear to feel the spirit of Jay returning home to say a last good-bye. In addition to these differing spiritual perspectives, Jay’s sullen brother Ralph is haunted by the guilty feeling that his drunken telephone call to his brother began the chain of events that led to his death. Finally, among this confusion of voices are those of neighboring boys, who taunt Rufus...