Our June classics book! Discussion on the blog Friday 6/26, in preparation for the sequel releasing in July.

My re-read is on audio, with Sissy Spacek as narrator.

Well, how many are the readers who just felt like abandoning the ship as soon as it started sailing? I tried reading it so many times but could not move ahead on many occasions but I had to read it - why? A classic; an award-winner; a legend; a record breaker; this, that, then, now, when, what...

Well, not everything deemed as a classic will fit your idea of a classic. John Donne was ignored for centuries; there are also pieces of literature hyped beyond imagination! A classic paradox!

Honestly, to me, the novel as well as the movie, both were extremely boring. If you like reading things that move actually, think of getting a different title.

آیا می‌خواید کتابی رو بخونید که بدون اینکه خودتون متوجه بشید داره چی کار می‌کنه، شما رو تبدیل به آدم بهتری کنه؟ خب! در این صورت کتاب کشتن مرغ مینا انتخاب مناسبیه...
کشتن مرغ مینا از زبان کودکی به اسم اسکاته ولی آیا متن کتاب کودکانه‌ست؟ اصلا!
محتوای داستان به ظاهر در مورد زندگی روزمره‌ی اسکات، جیم و آتیکوسه و شخصیت‌های دیگه‌ای که در عین حال که حضورشون ممکنه توی داستان فرعی باشه ولی به خوبی بهشون پرداخته شده و قابل تجسم‌اند. روایت موضوعات به ظاهر روزمره ولی در واقع پرداختن به مفاهیمی عمیق و بنیادی (نیکی و بدی، تبعیض نژادی، تربیت فرزند و ...) باعث شده جوری این‌ها در ذهن ته‌نشین بشن که گاهی در نوع خودش تکون‌دهنده و منقلب‌کننده ست.
فکر می‌کنم این کتاب رو هر کس تو زندگیش باید حتما یک بار بخونه. شخصیت آتیکوس جزء شخصیت‌های تاثیرگذار زندگیم خواهد موند...
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یادگاری از کتاب:
- ... اگر بخوای با کسی تفاهم داشته باشی باید یاد بگیری به همه چیز از نقطه نظر او نگاه کنی...
- معذرت می‌خوام، نفهمیدم.
- منظورم اینه که باید تو جلد مردم رفت و وضع را همون‌طور که اون‌ها حس می‌کنن حس کرد.
...
آدم‌هایی پیدا می‌شند که... که اون‌قدر غصه‌ی اون دنیا رو دارند که هیچ‌وقت یاد نمی‌گیرند تو این دنیا چه‌جوری باید زندگی کرد.
...
اینکه صد سال شکست خورده‌ایم، دلیل این نیست که باز تقلا نکنیم.
...
من قبل از اینکه با دیگران زندگی کنم، باید بتونم با خودم زندگی کنم.
...
اگه کسی به تو لقبی داد، لازم نیست بهت بربخوره. این لقب به تو صدمه نمی‌زنه، برعکس نشون می‌ده که خود گوینده از لحاظ اخلاقی چه‌قدر فقیره.
...
مردم خوب آن‌هایی هستند که به تناسب درکشان، بهترین کاری که از دستشان ساخته است انجام می‌دهند.

What begins as, apparently, just an affectionate and humorous episodic tale of life in an Alabama town in the 1930s, and the personalities and quirks of the people who live there, gradually evolves into an amazing and powerful read, as a young girl called Scout becomes aware of her lawyer father's representation of Tom Robinson, a black man accused of raping a white woman, and the town's general attitude about that, which spills over into their treatment of Scout and her brother.



From an attorney's point of view, the trial of Tom was fascinating: the differences in how courts handled trials in a small town 80 years ago, the speed and informality of the trial, the African American people relegated to the balconies. I have no idea how accurate Harper Lee's description of the trial actually was to real life, but it seems extremely plausible to me. Mayella Ewell and her father were so appallingly real to me. I loved old Judge Taylor, and Atticus is a hero. Boo Radley flits like a ghost throughout the book, a vivid symbol of vulnerable innocence that's echoed in Tom's trial.

I've read a lot of reviews of Go Set a Watchman, discussing the differences in Atticus' views on race and his personal prejudices between that book and this one, so I was keeping a particular eye out for anything in Mockingbird that would indicate he's prejudiced but nevertheless committed to doing his job. It's just not there, and frankly I'm glad about that. There's enough prejudice in that town that I didn't feel like I needed to see need Atticus struggling with that issue on a personal level.

Harper Lee explores our values and prejudices that we sometimes don't examine closely enough in ourselves, and the vital importance of courage and integrity. This book is a truly timeless classic. It made me smile but broke my heart a little bit at the same time - like many of the best books do.

Bonus material: In the comments thread below we got into a discussion about Harper Lee using the real-life Scottsboro Boys trial(s) in the early 1930's as inspiration for Tom Robinson's trial. It's a somewhat loose connection; there are some substantial differences between the facts of the cases, but some definite similarities as well. In both trials, innocent black men were accused of rape based solely on the unsubstantiated word of a white woman. In the Scottsboro trials, there were nine African-American men accused of rape while riding the rails in the company of two white woman, apparently in the prostitution business, who were trying to avoid prosecution themselves. The evidence did not support the women's claims, but juries convicted the defendants anyway. A Judge Horton tried to enforce a fair trial, but was replaced on retrial. One of the inmates later tried to escape prison and was shot by a guard, though he was not killed. All in all, the Scottboro events are vivid, awful proof that Tom Robinson's trial was realistic.

See http://www.enotes.com/homework-help/w... and http://civilrightstokillamockingbird....

I knew this book first from the spectacular film from the 60s, but read the book several times and found it incredibly moving. Harper Lee, who assisted her friend Truman Capote with his epic IIn Cold Blood, was from the south and found a way to contribute to the rising cause of Civil Rights by exposing the moral bankruptcy of racism through the eyes of her young protagonist Scout. besides the difficulties for being a woman writer at this time, she also managed to write this short masterpiece which is in parts utterly terrifying and totally endearing and absolutely unforgettable. One of my favorite characters was, of course, Boo Radley, for whom it was Robert Duvall's first on-screen performance (the same actor from the epic helicopter scene with Wagner blaring from the helicopters over the jungle in 'Nam.)

It has lost neither its power nor its relevance even over 60 years after it was first published. However, be warned, Go Set a Watchman does not light a candle next to its predecessor.

One of the greatest works exposing the horrors of racism in the south, To Kill A Mockingbird was recently banned in a US state because it was deemed “too controversial (https://www.washingtonpost.com/gdpr-c...). It is an epic novel by Harper Lee who was a close friend of Truman Capote and helped him during his work on In Cold Blood. There are truly few books that pack such a lucid and powerful punch as Mockingbird. Rather than being banned, it should, as it was in my high school in the 80s, be required reading along with the film. Little can better prepare teens for the harsh realities of racism and close-mindedness than Lee’s masterpiece. A critical and important classic.

‘You never really understand a person until you consider things from his point of view... Until you climb inside of his skin and walk around in it.’

Harper Lee’s To Kill A Mockingbird is an undisputed classic that few will avoid having read in their lifetime, and those few are to be pitied. As I habe presentation of the novel coming up this weekend, a discussion group that I am lucky enough to be allowed to lead as part of the The Big Read here in Holland, Michigan, I felt it necessary to revisit this timeless classic (and I figured I’d review it to help collect my thoughts on the subject). The experience was like returning to a childhood home and finding it warm and welcoming and undisturbed from the passage of time, like walking the streets of my old neighborhood and hearing the calls of friends as they rode out with their bikes to greet me, of knowing the mailman by name and knowing where all the best places for hide-and-seek were, the best trees to climb, and feeling safe and secure in a place that is forever a part of yourself. Though some of the mechanics of the novel seemed less astonishing than my first visit more than a decade ago, the power and glory was still there, and I found a renewed love and respect for characters like Atticus, whom I’ve always kept close to heart when wrestling with my own position as a father. Harper Lee created a wonderful work that incorporated a wide range of potent themes, wrapping class systems, gender roles, Southern manners and taboos, and an important moral message of kindness, love and conviction all within a whimsical bildungsroman that no reader who has been graced by its pages will ever forget.

‘The one thing that doesn't abide by majority rule is a person's conscience.’

In High School, Atticus was a favorite literary character and I wrote a big long essay for a class about Atticus as a pillar of morality, a man of honor, integrity, and most importantly, conviction. He is humble and honest, even admitting to his children that yes, indeed they are poor. In a novel about society, with its tumultuous mess of morals and class, Atticus is like an authorial deus ex machina, being Lee’s method of inserting moralizing and an example of what constitutes a ‘good man’ into the book through character and not authorial asides. I’ve always enjoyed Atticus and even named my second cat Catticus Finch. Atticus takes the unpopular position of defending a black man in a rape case when assigned to him despite the town nearly ostracizing him. Atticus does his duty, and does it well, as a man of conviction that believes in doing what is right and honorable regardless of the consequences, living up to his statement that ‘Real courage is when you know you're licked before you begin, but you begin anyway and see it through no matter what’. In fact, Lee originally intended to name the novel Atticus before deciding it would stifle the broad perspective of Macomb by drawing too much attention to one character. Atticus remains steadfast throughout the novel, sure of himself and fully developed, whereas those around him undergo more a sense of change and development. This is a novel about personal growth and a broader understanding of those around you, and Atticus is the anchor to integrity and morality keeping his children centered in the violent storm of emotions and violence that befalls Macomb. This is all a bit overturned in the draft version that preceded writing Mockingbird which was later published as Go Set a Watchman and we see Atticus expressing some rather racist opinions on school integration and such, and the literary world has also had conversations on Atticus as a white savior character, so all that is worth keeping in mind as well.

‘When a child asks you something, answer him, for goodness sake. But don't make a production of it. Children are children, but they can spot an evasion faster than adults, and evasion simply muddles 'em.’

There is a childlike innocence spun through a novel of such weight and seriousness, executed brilliantly by Lee’s choice of Scout as the narrator. We are forever seeing a larger world through the eyes of a young girl still trying to find her place in it while making sense of all the hustle and bustle around her, and this creates an incredible ironic effect where there are large events going on that the reader understands but are delivered nearly through defamiliarization because the narrator cannot fully grasp them¹. The narration allows Lee to balance the coming-of-age hallmarks with the weightier themes, allowing the reader to maintain an innocence from the rape and racism while still able to make sense of the society functioning at large, and retreating from the darker themes into the fun of the children’s comings and goings. What is most impressive is how everything blends together, and the lessons learned in each aspect of their life are applied to all the other elements they come in contact with. The fates of Tom and Boo Radley are emotionally and morally linked in the readers mind, heart and soul.

All the standard bildungsroman motifs that make people love the genre are present in To Kill a Mockingbird, from schoolyard quarrels, to learning your place in society. We see Scout, Jem, and even Dill, gain a greater understanding of the world and their place in it, watch the children come to respect their father for more than just being a good father, see them make dares, terrorize the neighbors in good fun, and even stop a mob before it turns violent. With Scout, particularly, there is an element of gender identity at play that leads into a larger discussion about class and society. Children learn from those around them, and Scout spends much of the novel assessing those around her, perhaps subconsciously looking for a role model for herself. The ideas of what a good southern woman is and should be are imposed upon her throughout the town, such as Ms Dubose who criticizes her manner of dress, or Aunt Alexandra and her attempts to eradicate Scout’s tomboyish behavior, and she learns to dislike Miss Stephanie and her gossipy behavior. Miss Maudie, however, curbs gossip and insults, and puts on the face of a southern lady, but still gets down into the dirt in the garden and behaves in other, more boyish, ways that Scout identifies with. The gender identification becomes a cog in the gear of Southern tradition in manners and class. While the court case is unquestionably controversial due to the racial implications, it is also because it forces people to discuss rape and involves questioning the Word of a woman. It forces up a lot of taboo that the community is uncomfortable in being forced to deal with it, and many inevitably turn a squeamish blind eye when forced to confront the ugly truths at hand. Macomb is a society where everything and everyone has their place, a set identification, and they do not like it being disturbed. Most important to note is the correlation that the characters who are most inclined to uphold societal traditions through self-righteous brow-beatings often exhibit the most rampant racism throughout the novel.

‘Mockingbirds don’t do one thing except make music for us to enjoy. They don’t eat up people’s gardens, don’t nest in corn cribs, they don’t do one thing but sing their hearts out for us. That’s why it’s a sin to kill a mockingbird.’

There are many ‘mockingbird’ characters in this novel, such as Tom and Boo, but the real mockingbird is, to me at least, the innocence that is lost. The town is forced to see each other for who they really are, to question their beliefs, to grow up with all the racism and bigotry going on around them. Atticus teaches Scout that we cannot know someone until ‘you consider things from his point of view’, and through the novel we see many misjudgements of character based on misunderstanding or characters refusing to see beyond their closed opinions, or even something as simple as Scout and Jem believing the rumors of Boo Radley as a bloodthirsty maniac. ‘People generally see what they look for, and hear what they listen for.’ This applies to many obdurate aspects of society, such as Miss Maudie stating ‘sometimes the Bible in hand of one man is worse than a whiskey bottle in the hand of-oh, your father,’ emphasizing the ways that a closed mind is just as dangerous as a violent hand and that even religion can be misused. There is a message of love, of looking into the hearts of others and not just judging them, a message of compassion and open-mindedness working through To Kill a Mockingbird, and it is a message that we all must be reminded of from time to time.

There are a few issues that arose on a re-reading of the novel, having grown myself as a reader since I first encountered this lovely book. While the moral lessons are important and timeless, there is a sense of heavy-handedness to their delivery. Particularly at the end when Sheriff Tate points out the dangers of making a hero of Boo Radley.

n  taking the one man who’s done you and this town a great service an’ draggin’ him with his shy ways into the limelight—to me, that’s a sin. It’s a sin and I’m not about to have it on my head.n

This statement is quickly followed by Scout mentioning to Atticus that ‘Well, it’d be sort of like shootin’ a mockingbird, wouldn’t it?’. It seems a bit unnecessary to reiterate the point, especially when Tate’s double use of sin was enough to draw a parallel to the message earlier in the novel that it is a sin to kill a mockingbird. This, I admit, is overly nitpicky but brings up a conversation about teaching this novel in schools. This book is, ideally, read at a time of the readers own coming-of-age and the connections they are sure to draw with the characters reinforce the love for the novel. It is also a time in life when you are just beginning to understand the greater worlds of literature, and overtly pointing out themes is more necessary for readers when they haven’t yet learned how to look for them properly. It is books such as this that teach us about books, and usher us into a world of reading between the lines that we hadn’t known was there before. Another quiet complaint I have with the novel that, despite the themes of racism, Calpurnia seems to be a bit of an Uncle Tom character. It is an imperfect novel that was progressive at its time but not so much in modern times, which is itself a great conversation that can be had inside the classroom and outside amongst readers.

To Kill a Mockingbird is a novel surely deserving of it’s classic status. Though it is not without its flaws, there is a timeless message of love that permeates through the novel. It is also of great importance as a book that young readers can use as a ladder towards higher literature than they had been previously exposed to. Lee has such a fluid prose that makes for excellent storytelling, especially through the coming-of-age narrative of Scout, and has a knack for creating exquisite characters that have left their immortal mark in the halls of Literature as well as the hearts of her readers.
4.5/5

‘...when they finally saw him, why he hadn’t done any of those things...Atticus, he was real nice.

Most people are, Scout, when you finally see them.’

¹This style is reminiscent of William Faulkner, such as the court scene in Barn Burning from the detached perspective of a child. In fact, much of this novel feels indebted to Faulkner and the works of Southern Gothic authors before her, and the Tom incident and case feels familiar to those familiar with Faulkner’s Dry September or Intruder in the Dust. The way the most self-righteous and self-professed 'holy' also tend to be the basest of character morals is reminiscent of Flannery O'Connor as well. Lee’s story is fully her own, but it is always interesting to see the travels and growth of literary tradition.

UPDATE:
Left my copy at the airport for someone else to enjoy.
Stumbled upon the Gregory Peck movie amongst all the inflight options.
All the stars aligned to read the novel and watch the movie within days.
I'm happy.

..........

A good travelling companion. Started it in the Southern Hemisphere and finished it in the Northern Hemisphere, waiting for the flight home.
It didn’t seem to matter that there were pauses. I picked it up when I could and the story still flowed.
It’s a classic, for sure. It’s loved by many. A story told from the eyes and mind of a child and I’m glad I finally got to read it.
4.5 shifted up to 5 stars.

First of all, let's forget it's a 'classic' that we all 'must' read for the sake of reading a classic.

Second of all, let's have no inhuman high expectations from this book.

Third of all, it's enough to know that this has been written from the perspective of a six year old girl.

And that's how we should pick up this one and go for it like we are picking up a newly released book and seriously that's the way it should be for everyone I would like to say...like again!

I won't go into details regarding what the book is about.

*Why the 5

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Looking for a new book but don't want to commit? Check out my latest n  n    BooktTube Video: One & Done n  n - all about fabulous standalones!

Now that you know this one made the list - check out the video to see the rest!

n  The Written Reviewn:

If you haven't read this as an adult - pick it up today

n  I think there's just one kind of folks. Folks.n

I (along with millions of other kids) first read this in grade-school. And I (along with those millions) didn't really get the point.

I remember thinking, Well... I already know discrimination is wrong. I don't get why I have to read a book about it...

Oh Lordy, if I could go back in time...

Rereading led to a (unsurprisingly) wholly different interpretation of this novel. I am in awe of Harper Lee and what she's written.

How could I have so completely missed the point back in fifth grade?

n  People generally see what they look for, and hear what they listen for.n

We follow Jean Louise "Scout" Finch, the daughter of Atticus Finch - a prominent lawyer. Scout narrates the great and terrible tragedies of her life - namely the trial of Tom - an upstanding "colored" man accused of raping a white woman.

Atticus is appointed to defend Tom and soon, nearly the whole town turns against the Finch Family.

n  I wanted you to see what real courage is, instead of getting the idea that courage is a man with a gun in his hand. It's when you know you're licked before you begin, but you begin anyway and see it through no matter what.n

Much like Scout, I was simply too young to understand much of what was going on the first time through.

I tell you, there were so, so many moments this time through where the light bulb turned on and everything just clicked.

n  As you grow older, you’ll see white men cheat black men every day of your life, but let me tell you something and don’t you forget it—whenever a white man does that to a black man, no matter who he is, how rich he is, or how fine a family he comes from, that white man is trashn

My entire life, I never truly understood why this was such a classic, why people read it over and over, and why this (of all books) is forced upon kids year after year. I get it now. And I'm disappointed that I hadn't reread it sooner.

P.s. Sorry to my teachers for being such a sulky kid - they sure picked a great one. I was just so enthralled with reading other things that I didn't read this one as well as I should've.

n  Until I feared I would lose it, I never loved to read. One does not love breathing.n

Audiobook Comments
Exceptionally well-read by Sissy Spacek. I felt like I was in the story. If you are itching for a reread - pick up the audio!

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I loved the movie and of course the book as well. My favorite is Scout, she is just one cool little kid. Scout and Jem's friend Dill is a hoot!

I really hated what happened to Tom in this book, but that is the way of nasty men and people in this world. I'm glad Mr. Ewell got what was coming to him.





I love Calpurnia and all of the ladies on the street. The stories of the kids and Boo Radley was great, but I liked in the movie better when they finally got to meet him. It seems like there was more to it in the movie, but maybe that is just me. I do wish they would have maybe did a short chapter on how they became friends and visited with one another after the night in the woods. I also wish Scout could have visited Calpurnia's home.

But overall I liked it a lot!

Happy Reading!

Mel

/// gentle reminder that this is not the time to read this book ///

This is my first re-read of 2017, and I don't regret it one bit. When I first read this book three years ago, I really liked it. Sadly, I didn't write my thoughts down in an elaborate way back in the day, but I know for sure, that I didn't read critically then. Upon my re-read of this book, I honestly don't have good things to say. I am aware that some of my criticism is not a critique of the book itself, but about its perception, and how it is, up to this day, held up as the one true book about race relations in the United States of America.

And that really infiruates me. This book was written by a white woman, from a white perspective, about white characters, for a white audience. This book is a pat on the back for the white middle class. This book gives comfort to the white middle class. Comfort that they, especially back in the 1960s, didn't need, and allow me to be so bold, didn't deserve.

Harper Lee's focus is purely white. While the white characters in this book are the subjects, who take action into their own hands, who suffer and make sacrifices, the Black characters in this book are objects. They have little to no agency. Things happen to them. They are harmless, defenseless, and just there – waiting for the white knight hero, Atticus Finch, to save them. This book is a disgrace in the face of the Black liberation movements that existed back in the day, and the solidarity within Black communities. Black people stood up for themselves and fought for their rights, and only due to their voices, their protests, their sit-ins, their marches, their demonstrations, their conferences, was racial segregation made unconstitutional in the United States.

Black people, back then and now, know that Atticus Finch doesn't exist. And because no one put in better words than the one and only James Baldwin, I will quote a passage from one of his amazing interviews on the Dick Cavett Show in 1968. One could say that this is Baldwin's response to the cry of "not all white people":

James Baldwin: I don't know what most white people in this country feel. But I can only conclude what they feel from the state of their institutions. I don't know if white Christians hate Negroes or not, but I know we have a Christian church which is white and a Christian church which is black. That says a great deal for me about a Christian nation. [...] I don't know whether the labor unions and their bosses really hate me - that doesn't matter - but I know I'm not [allowed] in their union. I don't know whether the real estate lobby has anything against black people, but I know the real estate lobby is keeping me in the ghetto. I don't know if the board of education hates black people, but I know the textbooks they give my children to read and the schools we have to go to. Now, this is the evidence. You want me to make an act of faith, risking myself, my wife, my woman, my sister, my children on some idealism which you assure me exists in America, which I have never seen.

This right here is what I'm talking about. To Kill A Mockingbird plays into this idealism. Although the book touches on the horrors of racism in the Deep South, it’s a strangely comforting read. A terrible injustice is done, but at the end the status quo is reassuringly restored. The final message is that most (white) people are nice when you get to know them.

As a reader you are never allowed to feel with Tom Robinson, the Black man who is innocently convicted for raping a white woman, because all the Black characters in this tale are sidelined. This story should be about them, because how else would you be able to convince the white moderate (in the 1960s) that Black people are actually people. The closest insight we get to a Black character is the family's cook Calpurnia. Calpurnia is in the fictional tradition of the "happy black", the contented slave – the descendent of the ever-loyal Mammy in Gone With the Wind. And the rest of the Black community is depicted as a group of simple, respectful folk – passive and helpless and all touchingly grateful to Atticus Finch – the white saviour. We never see any of them angry or upset. We never see the effect of Tom Robinson’s death on his family up close – we don't witness Helen, Tom's wife, grieving and Scout never wonders about his children. Their distress is kept at safe distance from the reader.

I was very angry after finishing this book, and I'm still angry up to this day. Not necessarily at Harper Lee, but at our society as a whole, and at our educational system. Why do we constantly uplift white narratives, whilst brushing over marginalized ones? Why aren't our kids reading If Beale Street Could Talk by James Baldwin – a book dealing with the exact same topic (a Black man getting falsely accused of raping a woman)? Why isn't Lorraine Hansberry required reading? Why are we still relying on white narratives, when talking about Black people and their struggles?

Since finishing this book, I started reading The History of Legal Education in the United States and I wanted to share some interesting facts, because I couldn't believe how absurd To Kill A Mockingbird was. This story is, supposedly, set in the Deep South in the 1930s, where Atticus Finch, our white saviour, takes it upon himself to defend a Black man at court. By the end of Lee's novel we are led to believe that Atticus had a great chance of actually getting Tom Robinson acquitted, if the latter had just been a "good n*gger" and didn't try to escape on his own. (Yes, I'm a little petty. I swear, I'm not turning bitter over this.) So, I just wanted to know how realistic that scenario is. All of the information is related to the 1930s Southern setting. Here's what I've learned:

Most Southern lawyers readily accepted Black clients for routine economic cases – property, tort, contract, dept, insurance – and minor criminal cases that did not threaten the South's system of racial hierarchy. It was virtually impossible, however, to find a Southern white lawyer who would accept a major criminal case involving a white victim or a politically charged case that in any way challenged segregation.

Only the combination of direct action, community organizing and legal strategy with the help of Black lawyers, made the defense of Black men and women at court possible. In the Lockett-case, the Black community in Tulsa survived largely because Black lawyers were able to defend the community's interests. In 1934, Black lawyers represented George Crawford, a Black man accused of brutally murdering a wealthy white woman – no white lawyer would take Crawford's case. In the end, Crawford got a sentence of life imprisonment instead of a death sentence. And this verdict had to be seen as an accomplishment by the Black lawyers and the Black community as a whole, because life imprisonment was as good as it was going to get.

Oftentimes, Black lawyers took serious criminal cases without a fee or at a very reduced rate. This was well appreciated by their communities, but also a given. It is admirable how well Black communities were organized. None of that got translated on the pages of Lee's novel. The Black characters do absolutely nothing, except sending Atticus food, because they're so grateful. [*insert snort here*]

This book appears to uphold the standard of racial equality; de facto it is about the white middle class patting themselves on the back for not thinking racist thoughts. I'm sorry to break it to you, Miss Maudie, but you won't get a sugar cookie for that. I am not saying that this is not a realistic portrayal of the white middle class, it is, it totally is. If you do just a little research on the Civil Rights movement, the moral apathy of the white middle class becomes crystal clear. However, we shouldn't portray these characters in a positive light, there is nothing admirable about them. After all...

He who passively accepts evil is as much involved in it as he who helps to perpetrate it. He who accepts evil without protesting against is really cooperating with it.

- Martin Luther King, Jr.

To Kill a Mockingbird: Harper Lee's Novel of Integrity and Duty in the Face of Intolerance and Injustice

“I wanted you to see what real courage is, instead of getting the idea that courage is a man with a gun in his hand. It's when you know you're licked before you begin, but you begin anyway and see it through no matter what.-- Atticus Finch”

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Harper Lee, born 1926, 86

When Harper Lee published To Kill a Mockingbird in 1960 a few well known Southern authors had a few tart things to say about it. Carson McCullers, whose Franky was compared to Scout said Harper Lee had been "poaching on her literary preserves." Flannery O'Connor said the novel was fine, as far as it went if people realized they were reading a book for children.

But Harper Lee's only known novel was an immediate phenomenon. Today it is read by more people around the world than the Bible. That's saying something.

I am hesitant to attempt a review of this book. How much more can be said of it than has already been said. In all humility I can only say that I have loved this book for years. A goodreads friend asked me how many times I had read it. I replied in my Grandmother's words, "Eleventy-Seven." Loosely translated that means a lot--even more than a month of Sunday's.

I will not attempt to present a plot summary. There are few who don't know the story. It's only necessary to remind each other that it still remains a sin to kill a mockingbird. Atticus said so. And Miss Maudie reminds us that all mockingbirds do is sing their hearts out for us all the day long. They do us no harm. They are the innocents among us. They are due to be protected. As long as Tom Robinsons and Boo Radleys exist in this world there will always be a niche necessarily filled by To Kill a Mockingbird.

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"Shoot all the blue jays you want, if you can hit 'em. But remember, it's a sin to kill a mockingbird.

To Kill a Mockingbird is especially dear to lawyers. Atticus Finch is the epitome of integrity in a profession often maligned by the public, sometimes rightly so on the basis of notorious incidents of failure to follow the rules of professional conduct. Over the years I was actively engaged in the practice of law, I returned time after time to this perfect novel as a reminder that it was my job to do the right thing and not just go for the win. It has seen me through difficult cases more than once.

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Atticus defends Tom Robinson

Truthfully, I do not know the exact number of times I have read this perfect book. I know I have now passed a dozen times. Doubtless, in the years I have remaining, I will return to it again.

Why does To Kill a Mockingbird continue to sell so well? Why has it never been out of print? I can only hope that there are far more Jems and Scouts aspiring to become Atticus Finch. And we will always have a need for him and those who strive to follow his philosophy. It is not easy following in the footsteps of such a man. It takes a sense of duty, sacrifice, and responsibility for the innocents of this world. It takes courage. None of those characteristics ever go out of style.

“They're certainly entitled to think that, and they're entitled to full respect for their opinions... but before I can live with other folks I've got to live with myself. The one thing that doesn't abide by majority rule is a person's conscience.” --Atticus Finch

*Note--no copyright infringement is intended as this photograph is used for educational purposes only.

November 30, 2014

Tonight finds us in Augusta, Georgia, breaking our trip home to Tuscaloosa, Alabama, from our Thanksgiving holiday with my wife's family. Neither of us regularly listen to audio books. However, we both enjoy them when traveling. The latest edition of To Kill a Mockingbird, released in August of this year is an exceptional treat. Sissy Spacek is the perfect Scout, capturing every phrase with perfect timing, accent, and nuance. We highly recommend you give this a listen.