To Kill a Mockingbird, by Harper Lee, is by no means a science fiction novel, or fantasy for that matter, and can not be regarded as “geek-related” by any means I can devise via this blog post. To Kill a Mockingbird needs not another review, another plot summary, or another praiser. In my opinion, To Kill a Mockingbird just IS. It is the embodiment of history, power, movement, and feeling like no other work of fiction I’ve ever come across can be. It is the Great American Novel that so many others try to be – and that’s not to say that other books fail in that respect, but none quite move me like this one does.
No, this isn’t the first time I’ve gone through To Kill a Mockingbird, and I doubt it’ll be my last. If you can find me an American-born child who hasn’t read the book in school, I’d be impressed. Unfortunately as kid, when you’re told to read something, required to even, you tend to do it begrudgingly, halfheartedly – and I’m afraid most of my peers never gave it the chance… no. The respect it deserves. To Kill a Mockingbird is as much a masterpiece as Atticus Finch was a great man and an even better father.
The line that always gets me; watching the movie, reading the book, or (as this is the first time the book has become available on audiobook in 50 years) listened to it, is this: “Miss Jean Louise, stand up. Your father’s passin’.” It is perhaps the single greatest line in American Literature. The reverence shown to Atticus by the colored folk in this scene breaks my heart every single time. And similarly, I feel the entirety of the novel deserves that same level of respect. I have nothing critical to say about the book, nor would I deem myself worthy as a blogger to have the right to. So I’ll keep this brief, as I doubt I even have the words in me to give this a proper review. I love this book. Truly, I love this book.
Grab To Kill a Mockingbird on audiobook.
Grab To Kill a Mockingbird in paperback.
Geekritique
I love your passion. I’m American, 30+, but I was never assigned the novel in school. I read it on my own earlier this year. Yes, this is the great American novel. 🙂
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Thanks! It’s just too good.
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Thanks for visiting my blog. I’ve just read your review on one of my favourite books of all time. Here in Ireland it has been on the school curriculum for at least forty years. I loved it first time round and I recently read it for the third time. Hard to believe Harper Lee only ever wrote that one book.
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Huh, that’s very interesting. Just goes to show how far reaching her singular work was.
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I love this book with my entire heart. It (and the movie) can make me cry, year after year. I’ve taught it for fifteen years, and it breaks my heart to think that a lot of my students don’t appreciate it fully. They can see how much I love it, they are amused by Jem and Scout, and horrified by the treatment of Tom Robinson. But they don’t really fall in love with Atticus the way I would did the first time I read it. However, whenever I get that rare student who sees him as an extraordinary man and father, it makes my heart sing.
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That’s a great comment. Thank you.
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Lit geeks count as geeks too. 🙂
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Totally didn’t think about it that way…
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Haven’t read that in eons. I might appreciate it more now than I did then.
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Truly, a brilliant & moving book. I cannot remember whether I was “made” to read it at school or not, or whether I came across it myself. What’s even more amazing is that the film actually did, and does, it the justice it deserves.
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Agreed. That court scene in the movie was so well done.
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