The strangeness of this book comes from its inclusion of photography into the copy, which gives the book a more journalistic feel. It is journalism after all. The second element of strangeness comes from the reader's knowledge that, not only are these journalists spying on the most cruelly afflicted, invading their privacy as they struggle to survive. The question is, is it indecent to profit off of their suffering? For Agee, the answer to that question seems to be tricky, and he talks about it in the book.
In defense of the reporters, the poverty of Alabama is news-worthy, and perhaps it only got to be so bad because more people didn't know. By spreading awareness, hopefully they bring a little help into the situation, but honestly, they're going to make a lot of money before that ever happens, so the moral dilemma is real.
On the other hand, these are the private lives of human beings who are already being reduced to animal instincts by the true difficulty of their lives. They are often sick, exhausted, gaunt, thin, and sometimes downright disturbing, but not because they are uniquely ugly or something—it's because their bodies are slowly dying as they starve to death, exposed to the brutal sun of the Alabama summer. The story deserves to be told, because it's true human suffering, but there is a question here about exploiting the lower class for profit.
