To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee
Review by Gerti
I recently told a Hobart librarian that I didn't like this book, but the truth was that I hadn't read it since I was in high school. So to be fair, and to get a feel for the characters again before reading "Go Set a Watchman"' I picked up the kid's paperback. I had forgotten what a rich experience this classic book is, and I think it is a better read now than 30 years ago for me, since I now know so much more about the author and the other characters, as well as about life!
Who doesn't love the main characters of Scout, Jem, Atticus and Boo Radley? Having done some reading about Truman Capote, I found out that the character of Dill was about him, since he and Harper Lee grew up as neighbors. This means that if we assume Scout is Harper herself, than what she says about Dill gives me an insight into the boy Capote was before he became a famous writer, and that to me is fascinating. You see through her text how the dysfunction and disorder in his family life made him a broken toy, and a brilliant author.
I also looked beyond the traditionally taught message of how poorly black people were treated in 1930's Alabama, to see how women were treated at the time, and was amazed to find the huge number of references Lee makes to what a Southern woman is and should not be, and what constitutes lady-like behavior to the older generation of women in her town. Lee's book was modern not only by showing how unfairly black people were treated by the population at large and by the justice system in particular, but also showed how sexual stereotypes hurt Scout and Dill as they grew up unable to conform to the social standards of the past.
The plot is pretty well known: the children of a widowed Southern lawyer suffer hostility from local children and adults while their father defends a black man wrongly accused of raping a white woman. While Atticus Finch proves beyond a doubt that Tom Robinson never committed the crime, the jury still convicts him, and he dies trying to escape. But during the trial, Atticus shows that Bob Ewell, the father of the accuser, is a liar, an drunkard and a child abuser, and that rankles the man so much that he tries to hurt the Fnch kids while they are coming home from a school play one dark evening. Only the intervention of a local recluse, Arthur "Boo" Radley, prevents the children's injuries from being worse.
So yes, Mr. Librarian, I have now re-read the book and find that I love it. I can't wait to read Lee's sequel, despite all the negative press it has gotten. her writing here is lovely, as she uses Scout's childish, southern-accented voice to tell her larger tale of a certain time period in American history. But that doesn't prevent the other characters in the book from coming to life, as they do. This book makes me sad that Lee didn't publish more novels, but I'm hoping we'll find more manuscripts of hers eventually. TKAM is a classic novel that everyone should read once (or maybe twice!) in their lives.
