- TO KILL A MOCKINGBIRD
- by Harper Lee
- [rated by PBS readers as #1!!]
- 323 pages
2/17/19
35 PAGES IN
Ah, just got it today and I’d already like to bury myself in it to the exclusion of everything else.
Check out this language, describing the summer heat.
“Ladies bathed before noon, after their three-o’ clock naps, and by nightfall were like soft teacakes with frostings of sweat and sweet talcum.”
C’MON! And that’s how it’s done.
3/8/19
Finished it last night.
From the first page, this is one of the best books ever written. There are whole books written on why it is so
good, but the fact that it is that good is almost as indisputable as drinking water and getting some sleep.
I enjoyed it thoroughly. I think it is my fourth or fifth time reading it. And unlike the previous books, I didn’t feel the shadow of the accolade while reading this one, even though it was voted #1. It simply belongs there. But I did read it with an overview of trying to ascertain why I thought it was so special. I mean, after all, anyone can ask an expert! Instead, let’s ask me!
The predominant reason I came up with was the totality of Scout’s central voice. There was a seamless blur between author and protagonist. You simply never doubted that this was an amazing and young voice talking to you.
Not only seamless, it allowed you to feel through Scout as well as looking over her shoulder. Characters came and went in the story the way they would in the mind’s eye of a child. One day, they were important; next day they were not. The most beguiling character is Atticus and here, you see the reverie with which normally level-headed Scout sees her father, as well as allowing his character to come through his actions and dialogue. You get her take and you get your own take. Throughout the book, that continues to feel rare.
As a child, you might not question why, when you wanted to see your dad holding court, you followed a grownup upstairs and displaced the black people in the front row automatically to take their seats. To you, that is how it’s done. But I can’t imagine how a horrendous image like that could be said more powerfully than in the status quo way she sees and says it.
My admiration for the writing here is boundless. Two big aspects of this for me were timing and brevity.
Though Lee can describe details in detailed or stark terms, she never uses a big word when a small one will work just as well. This helps one to stay with the elegant simplicity of Scout’s mind and Atticus’ dedication to doing what is simply right.
The timing comes through a child as well. Sometimes the school year can drag on and so does the narrative. The trial is a page turner, as it would be, both for her and for the town around her. After that, everything slows down again until you are itching for something to happen and yet, when it does, it is truly shocking.
This book is moment to moment truth. She never hijacks the narrative to make a point. When Scout wants to get rid of having her aunt there, she doesn’t get her way. The aunt stays. And why? Because there are truths that Scout can’t see but they are there anyway.
Last thing that moved me more than any other time I read it was the fact that, after we finally meet Boo, he is never seen again. Again, not the way Scout would want it,
but the truth nonetheless. It is the image of Boo back in his house after that breakthrough, after Atticus says to him, simply, “Thank you for my children Arthur,” is the haunting image that will be with me for a long time to come.
I loved coming back to “To Kill A Mockingbird.” And I know I will return to it again and love it. It is a part of our lives and we will always need to be reminded of it.
I urge anyone out there to reread it if, like me, you haven’t for decades. It is true. It will not disappoint.
And now…..
I picked three titles again. But one gave me a little frisson of excitement. It is I, Alex Cross by James Patterson. Named for the entire Alex Cross series, it is the first one. I love mysteries. I’ve never read Patterson. Looking forward to it!