To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee

• Release Date: 1960
• Genre: Classics, Essential Reading, Heroines, Mystery/Thriller

Review

A wonderful piece of literature, great characters, plot and prose. There is sadness and happiness, racism and equality, immaturity and maturity, injustice and redemption.
Atticus is a man we could all love and look up to a grounded just and fair man he sees beyond race and finds the goodness in people. His cook Calpurnia Is honest good black lady who you just gotta love in this story, she works for a nice family who are about to go through some obstacles and testing times.
A lot of the story is told through a young girl and is enjoyable to see things from a young perspective for example this excerpt…
“There was a man Dill had heard of who had a boat that he rowed across to a foggy island where all these babies were; you could order one— “That’s a lie. Aunty said God drops ‘em down the chimney. At least that’s what I think she said.” For once, Aunty’s diction had not been too clear.

“You know the truth, and the truth is this: some Negroes lie, some Negroes are immoral, some Negro men are not to be trusted around women—black or white. But this is a truth that applies to the human race and to no particular race of men.”

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

Some trivia about the book and movie…
Finch was writer Harper Lee’s mother’s maiden name.
Despite the novel winning the Pulitzer Prize, the studios were not interested in buying up the film rights as they deemed it lacking in action, there was no love story and the villain doesn’t get a big comeuppance. Producer Alan J. Pakula disagreed however and persuaded director Robert Mulligan that it would make a good film. Together they were able to convince Gregory Peck who readily agreed.

Truman Capote, who grew up with Harper Lee, also knew the inspiration for “Boo” Radley, and had planned to base a character on him in one of his short stories. After seeing how well the character was realized in Lee’s novel, however, he decided against it.

Harper Lee on the right.