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Harper Lee – To kill a mockingbird (05-019)
Many readers considered this one of the best books they have ever read. It had been on my bookshelf waiting for a few years, before I finally got around to reading it. Soon I found out that all praise was correct.
It starts of as a simple story about two children growing up in the south of the United States in the thirties. Through the eyes of Jean Louise, we see her life, but also her brother Jem Finch and their friend Dill. The biggest event is Arthur Radley, who they nicknamed Boo Radley, a boy in their street who hasn’t been out of his house for years. They think of ways of getting him out.
This is their main distraction, until their father, an attorney, has to defend a black man accused of rape. The event changes their lives. According to nearly the complete white population, their father is doing something wrong. No trial is necessary: if a white girl says she has been raped by a black man, one can automatically assume he is guilty.
The kids sneak into the court and watch the trial from the stands, without their father noticing it. He is doing a great job. Anyone with a bit of sense knows his client, a young man, helpful, friendly, with a handicap, could not have been guilty of the crime he is accused of. Obviously, this being Alabama, the jury has a guilty verdict.
The book changes gradually yet suddenly, the characters become deeper, as if the book changes from a children’s book to a political manifest. Yet, regardless of all those changes, the book makes you want to read more, makes you eager to find out what happened next, always a good sign in a book.
Harper Lee sure managed to write one of the best books of all time, a classic, not just because people say it is, but also because one can read it again and again, one could easily place the story in a different era, on a different location, yet it would never lose its power. By letting the children tell the story (isn’t the saying: “Children and drunkards always tell the truth”?), it makes the reader think of his/her own opinion in this case. And what would you have done back then? Nobody can ever tell. One can but read.
Number: 05-019
Title: To kill a mockingbird
Author: Harper Lee
Language: English (U.S.A.)
Year: 1960
# Pages: 309 (3440)
Category: Literature
ISBN: 0-09-941978-5
Many readers considered this one of the best books they have ever read. It had been on my bookshelf waiting for a few years, before I finally got around to reading it. Soon I found out that all praise was correct.
It starts of as a simple story about two children growing up in the south of the United States in the thirties. Through the eyes of Jean Louise, we see her life, but also her brother Jem Finch and their friend Dill. The biggest event is Arthur Radley, who they nicknamed Boo Radley, a boy in their street who hasn’t been out of his house for years. They think of ways of getting him out.
This is their main distraction, until their father, an attorney, has to defend a black man accused of rape. The event changes their lives. According to nearly the complete white population, their father is doing something wrong. No trial is necessary: if a white girl says she has been raped by a black man, one can automatically assume he is guilty.
The kids sneak into the court and watch the trial from the stands, without their father noticing it. He is doing a great job. Anyone with a bit of sense knows his client, a young man, helpful, friendly, with a handicap, could not have been guilty of the crime he is accused of. Obviously, this being Alabama, the jury has a guilty verdict.
The book changes gradually yet suddenly, the characters become deeper, as if the book changes from a children’s book to a political manifest. Yet, regardless of all those changes, the book makes you want to read more, makes you eager to find out what happened next, always a good sign in a book.
Harper Lee sure managed to write one of the best books of all time, a classic, not just because people say it is, but also because one can read it again and again, one could easily place the story in a different era, on a different location, yet it would never lose its power. By letting the children tell the story (isn’t the saying: “Children and drunkards always tell the truth”?), it makes the reader think of his/her own opinion in this case. And what would you have done back then? Nobody can ever tell. One can but read.
Number: 05-019
Title: To kill a mockingbird
Author: Harper Lee
Language: English (U.S.A.)
Year: 1960
# Pages: 309 (3440)
Category: Literature
ISBN: 0-09-941978-5
