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I just read Harper Lee's To Kill a Mockingbird for the first time: I happened to see it sitting on a shelf at the library the other day.
The book lives up to its reputation: plot and characterization and prose style are all good. I got annoyed at Scout's older brother using "acting like a girl" as an insult, but it is entirely in character for anywhere in the U.S. in 1935 (and entirely plausible that I should be annoyed by how a random 11-year-old treats his younger sister). It wouldn't be that surprising, alas, even in 2006, though I can hope that in 2006 the sister might not immediately be persuaded not do whatever was labeled "acting like a girl."
I can't say, of course, whether a small Alabama town in 1935 really felt like Maycomb, but Lee's depiction is self-consistent and richly textured. So are Scout and Jem (her brother) and their father Atticus, their friend Dill, Calpurnia, and Boo Radley.
Lee's characters are dealing as best they can with difficult situations, difficult in ways both practical and ethical. I suspect that part of what gets this listed as "Young Adult" (that's the label on my library copy) and put into high school curriculum is largely Atticus talking about bravery and what it does and doesn't mean. (The back cover talks, of course, about "the crisis of conscience that rocked" the town, but part of Lee's point, I think, is how quickly so many people put things in the past.)
It's not going to be my favorite book, but I expect to reread it. (Besides, I like mockingbirds.)
The book lives up to its reputation: plot and characterization and prose style are all good. I got annoyed at Scout's older brother using "acting like a girl" as an insult, but it is entirely in character for anywhere in the U.S. in 1935 (and entirely plausible that I should be annoyed by how a random 11-year-old treats his younger sister). It wouldn't be that surprising, alas, even in 2006, though I can hope that in 2006 the sister might not immediately be persuaded not do whatever was labeled "acting like a girl."
I can't say, of course, whether a small Alabama town in 1935 really felt like Maycomb, but Lee's depiction is self-consistent and richly textured. So are Scout and Jem (her brother) and their father Atticus, their friend Dill, Calpurnia, and Boo Radley.
Lee's characters are dealing as best they can with difficult situations, difficult in ways both practical and ethical. I suspect that part of what gets this listed as "Young Adult" (that's the label on my library copy) and put into high school curriculum is largely Atticus talking about bravery and what it does and doesn't mean. (The back cover talks, of course, about "the crisis of conscience that rocked" the town, but part of Lee's point, I think, is how quickly so many people put things in the past.)
It's not going to be my favorite book, but I expect to reread it. (Besides, I like mockingbirds.)
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