The Thumbnail Book Reviews
by John Q McDonald --- 15 November 2011
by Harper Lee
Almost anyone who has had an average education in America has heard of this book. It is much beloved. A group of American librarians declared it the best American novel of the entire 20th century. It, and its author, have won all kinds of awards. An Oscar-winning movie based on it is also beloved. Anyone who sits down and reads it for the first time will have a hard time coming up with anything to say about it that hasn't already been said elsewhere, and better. Still, that doesn't take away from the real enjoyment of this outstanding portrait of an American South in the middle of the 1930s. Our narrator is Scout, the young daughter of small town Alabama lawyer Atticus Finch, younger sister of Jem, and best friend to Dill. We read of the kids' adventures in the landscape of childhood, but the best drama occurs when the lives of the children cross the mysterious lives of the adults. Atticus is a noble man, raising his kids by the truth as he sees it, which makes him something of an iconoclast in this time and place. They refer to him by his first name, and he is as honest as he can be about the difficulties and tragedies of life. They all love each other madly. Atticus has a black housekeeper, Calpurnia, who humanizes a fringe of society for the children. And he has a much more conventional sister, the aunt who arrives to torment Scout by trying to raise her to be a fine southern lady. One day, Atticus finds himself the court appointed legal representation for Tom Robinson, a black man accused of raping a young and poor white woman. There is an air of doom over Tom and over Atticus. There are elements in the town who want a lynching. Others have a quiet relationship to the tragedies of racism. Still others admire Finch's bravery, honesty and courage in defending a man most will have declared guilty by the color of his skin. The kids, meanwhile, witness it all. But there is a grander arc to the story. Down the street, a mysterious recluse, Boo Radley, lives in a shuttered house and the kids want to draw him out. Whenever anything inexplicable happens in town, old Boo Radley is blamed. Ultimately, the stories are deftly woven together, the lives of the children, the mysteries of adulthood, and the questions of mere good and evil in this world. There are notes of pure beauty in this book. There are dark shadows of tragedy as well. As noted above, there is not much that can be said that hasn't been said better elsewhere. The book is brilliant. There are several small surprises. There are autobiographical notes to it as well, as Harper Lee herself was the daughter of a southern lawyer and friend to young Truman Capote, portrayed here as quirky young Dill. The book is absolutely a classic of 20th century American fiction. Many people have read it over and over for its authentic and compassionate voices of young Scout and noble Atticus. Its characters are endearing and its truths about American culture and morality are enduring. Highly recommended.
(For this book, Harper Lee was awarded the 1961 Pulitzer Prize for fiction.)