Title: To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee
Details: Copyright 1960, Warner Books
Synopsis (By Way of Back Cover): "The unforgettable novel of a childhood in a sleepy southern town and the crisis of conscience that rocked it, To Kill a Mockingbird became both an instant bestseller and a critical success when it was first published in 1960. It went on to win the Pulitzer prize in 1961 and was later made into an Academy Award winning film, also a classic.
Compassionate, dramatic, and deeply moving, To Kill a Mockingbird takes readers to the roots of human behavior- to innocence and experience, kindness and cruelty, love and hatred, humor and pathos. Now with over 15 million copies in print and translated into ten languages, this regional story by a young Alabama woman claims universal appeal. Harper Lee always considered her book to be a simple love story. Today it is regarded as a masterpiece of American literature."
Why I Wanted to Read It: I'm familiar with the story, saw the movie years ago, but somehow have never actually read the book. This seemed like a great time to fix that.
I should note that I finished this book back in March (you didn't think just because I wasn't writing these I wasn't reading them, did you?), but unfortunately at the time I'm writing this review, the book's themes (a Black man suspected on nothing other than white suspicion, the murder of an unarmed Black man at the hands of law enforcement) is as timely as ever.
How I Liked It: I've been reluctant to review classics and beloved books. Number one because I fear I'm going to do a disservice to someone's (or a lot of someones') favorite, but also because the older the publication (as classics tend to be), the more one has to adjust certain attitudes and expectations, in a way.
I've also spoken recently in my review of The Yellow Wallpaper about knowing when a book has had generations of lesser English teachers have a hold of it, and while I was never assigned this book myself, I know someone personally that had a teacher butcher it. Like I said in my review, it's hard to read a book when you're imagining what asinine and seemingly arbitrary themes the school board has decided that year you should derive from it.
But fortunately, To Kill a Mockingbird is an engaging, lively, vivid novel whose protagonist Scout still (mostly) reads as likable and relatable. Foods, language, and even most side-characters are filled out and add to the immersive feel of the novel.
Something that needs to be addressed and that if this book is challenged frequently (it is) should be the discussion (but isn't): this book was written over a half century ago by a white Southerner remembering her childhood in the Depression. While the book has (purportedly) its roots in the Civil Rights Movement of the mid-Twentieth century (Lee was supposedly inspired by the torture and murder of Emmett Till, barely fourteen when he became a national conversation in 1955), it's at best the product of its environment.
It's the embodiment of the white savior trope, and as that trope goes, it's at the expense of the Black characters, who while still compelling, have the spotlight taken from them to provide insight to the Nice White People. Atticus Finch, the single father of the main character and her brother who easily eclipses them both, when asked by his daughter after being bullied at school if her father is an n---- lover (side note: nothing will jar you out of an idyllic rural childhood scene like children characters hurling slurs, although accurate for the setting), he actually responds with
"Of course! I love everybody!"
Miss Maudie, a neighbor who is otherwise a delightful and welcome character in every way, is possibly the biggest proponent in the author's Nice White People campaign. It's she who reminds Scout that the white judge assigned the Black defendant to Atticus, since he knew he was the best defense lawyer. Her comments about the white folks that are also plenty mad about how the wrongly accused is being treated you find today in any comment section about racism, people too eager to assure #notallwhitepeople.
In a way that I wasn't willing or able to do for a book like The Help written in 2009, though, while the author's white savior trope is still harmful and toxic, the very idea in 1960 of pointing out racism was wrong and Black people are frequently treated hideously wrongly due to systemic racism led to it being controversial and, horrifyingly, why it's still challenged as required reading in schools today.
The book is a piece of history, both good and bad. But to me what shines most is the childhood seen by the lens of the main character. Children playing is hard to get right; play is children's work and how do you explain that as an adult? But the author comes close and the result is enchanting.
I'm still a bit undecided on the ending. Is it a bit ham-fisted because the symbolism is a bit heavy-handed or am I projecting how generations of aforementioned bored English teachers reimagined it? Ultimately I think it achieves what the author wanted it to achieve, or at least gets close enough.
This is a flawed but still fascinating piece of history.
Final Grade: I debated whether or not to do a grade for this, but ultimately decided these are my reviews. As with any of my grades, please bear it in mind with the entire review.
A-
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