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To Kill a Mockingbird

By Harper

(799)

| Paperback | 9780060935467

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Book Description

The conscience of a town steeped in prejudice, violence, and hypocrisy is pricked by the stamina and quiet heroism of one man's struggle for justice, in this Pulitzer Prize-winning classic that has been translated into more than 40 languages. Available for the first time in a trade paperback editionContinue

Critics

Book Review: To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee Share

It seems funny to me that I’m writing a review of To Kill a Mockingbird. This is a Pulitzer Prize-winning novel that has sold 30 million copies worldwide and is never out of print. This is a novel consistently read by high school students across the ... (read full critics)

blogcritics published on Fri, 22 Oct 2010

To Kill A Mockingbird by Harper Lee

Fifty years after its first release, readers are once again getting the chance to acquaint themselves with Harper Lee's classic tale of growing up in the Deep South during the depression. After five decades, To Kill a Mockingbird still hasn't lost it ... (read full critics)

thebookbag published on Tue, 28 Sep 2010

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41 Reviews

6 people find this helpful

I won't comment on the book's message, except to say that people worldwide today can still use a lesson or two on accepting other people who are different from themselves.
Read the book, not for your school reading assignment but for the sake of reading, and you will understand what Harper Lee ... (continue)

I won't comment on the book's message, except to say that people worldwide today can still use a lesson or two on accepting other people who are different from themselves.
Read the book, not for your school reading assignment but for the sake of reading, and you will understand what Harper Lee had to say.
Equally brilliant but easily overlooked when reviewing this book is the writing, the language if you will, Harper Lee employed to construct the world of Scout.
Yes, she constructed not only a story, not only a series of events, but an entire world as seen by a child growing up in Maycomb during the 30's.
Not much of a writer myself, but I write novels on and off. And I believe in a minimalistic approach: the less you say that's unrelated to your main story line, the better. Don't waste two chapters on developments that can be summed up in two paragraphs.
And we see a fine counterexample in "Mockingbrid".
Reading the opening pages, you will find no trace of the theme advertised on the back cover: "a lawyer in the deep south defending a black man charged with the rape of a white girl." Instead, it is as if you can breath the hot summer's air, while running around in the yard as a seven-year-old.
Those big houses, you have in fact never set foot in one, and have only seen them on American TV shows such as Knight Rider. And back then you were in the living room of some apartment building in some Asian city. But the fact doesn't stop you from feeling that world of Scout.
And that's what drew me into the book. Not the message of acceptance and equality; not the social or historical value of the book. It's because I can feel so vividly another time, another age, another world all together. I can almost touch it if I just reach out, or it seems.
Harper Lee maintained the same touch throughout the book. This is not a story about the trial and the aftermath, but an account of Scout's childhood through her own eyes, with the trial standing out as one big event.
I don't think I can spell out my thought very clearly. What I mean to say is, it is so near-impossible to keep your focus while detailing on everything big and small. I certainly can't, and many published writers failed at one point or another at achieving the right balance.
Yet Harper Lee did it-- not a "balance" between the two, which implies some sort of deliberate exclusion. She maxed out both sides.
Pure genius. Something we can only admire and not copy. We are really not created equal in this case, and what can I say?

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pthow said on Jul 20, 2007 | Add your feedback

2 people find this helpful

Amore. Tanto, tanto amore.
Until I feared I would lose it, I never loved to read. One does not love breathing.
"You aren't really a nigger-love, then, are you?"
"I certainly am. I do my best to love everybody".
"And for godness' sake put some of the county back where it belongs, the soil erosi ... (continue)

Amore. Tanto, tanto amore.
Until I feared I would lose it, I never loved to read. One does not love breathing.
"You aren't really a nigger-love, then, are you?"
"I certainly am. I do my best to love everybody".
"And for godness' sake put some of the county back where it belongs, the soil erosion's bad enough as it is."
Dill stared at my father's retreating figure.
"He's tryin' to be funny," I said. "He means take a bath."
"How can you hate Hitler so bad an' then turn around and be ugly about folks right at home.."
"Will you take me home?" [Boo] almost whispered it, in the voice of a child afraid of the dark.

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Serena! -A Mordor il male non dorme mai. said on Jan 25, 2012 about the Mass Market Paperback edition | 4 feedbacks

2 people find this helpful

Eminently readable.

The book is narrated through Scout, a 6 year old girl. It is set in the 1930s in Maycomb, a sleepy Southern US county. The novel is a Bildungsroman, as we follow the adventures of Scout, her elder brother Jem and their summer vacation friend Dill through their years, we also see significant events h ... (continue)

The book is narrated through Scout, a 6 year old girl. It is set in the 1930s in Maycomb, a sleepy Southern US county. The novel is a Bildungsroman, as we follow the adventures of Scout, her elder brother Jem and their summer vacation friend Dill through their years, we also see significant events happening in the county and how these events shape their thinking. Scout's dad is Atticus, a honest free thinking lawyer. About half of the book sets the stage by introducing the county, the neighbours of Scout, her adventures in school and most importantly the society of the America of those years. The real deal is when Atticus has to defend a black named Tom who has been charged of raping a white girl. As Scout and Jem follow their dad's court ordeal, they also perceive the change in the county towards them (this is Southern USA remember?). It changes their thinking about people and society and starts moulding them into maturity.
The book won a Pulitzer Prize. It was also made into a highly acclaimed movie which I'm now eager to see. I loved the book, couldn't keep it down once I started on it. There are several aspects in the book which endeared it to me — of lost innocence, of racism in the USA, of small town America, of the 2-tone view of a child's world and of how the world is a total complicated mess. Through all the hell around him, Atticus stands as steady as a rock for his children, always making them think about the answers to their queries of the world around them. Lee was apparently inspired by the Scottsboro Boys trial for this book. From what I know, under its shiny veneer racism still lurks in the richest nation of the world. This book is just as relevant today as it was in 1960. Eminently readable.

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Ashwin Nanjappa said on Jun 25, 2007 | Add your feedback

1 person find this helpful

How many roads must a man walk down / Before you call him a man?

«‘Scout,’ said Atticus, ‘nigger-lover is just one of those terms that don’t mean anything – like snot-nose. It’s hard to explain – ignorant, trashy people use it when they think somebody’s favouring Negroes over and above themselves. It’s slipped into usage with some people like ourselves, when the ... (continue)

«‘Scout,’ said Atticus, ‘nigger-lover is just one of those terms that don’t mean anything – like snot-nose. It’s hard to explain – ignorant, trashy people use it when they think somebody’s favouring Negroes over and above themselves. It’s slipped into usage with some people like ourselves, when they want a common, ugly term to label somebody.’
‘You aren’t really a nigger-lover, then, are you?’
‘I certainly am. I do my best to love everybody… I’m hard put, sometimes – baby, it’s never an insult to be called what somebody thinks it’s a bad name. It just shows you how poor that person is, it doesn’t hurt you. […]’»
«‘[…] The older you grow the more of it you’ll see. The one place where a man ought to get a square deal is in a court-room, be he any colour of the rainbow, but people have a way of carrying their resentments right into a jury box. As you grow older, you’ll see white men cheat black men every day of your life, but let me tell you something and don’t you forget it – whenever a white man does that to a black man, no matter who he is, how rich he is, or how fine a family he comes from, that white man is trash.’»

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Floating Cloud said on Apr 24, 2012 about the Hardcover edition | 1 feedback

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Grassmud Horse said on Apr 19, 2012 | Add your feedback

If it were not "The Help", I would not be interested in this book.
I used to be confused by the title "To Kill the Mockingbird". But when I finished reading it, I think this is a beautiful one.
No one will not like Boo Radley, who is so fragile and soft-minded, and early-matured Scout and brave Jem. ... (continue)

If it were not "The Help", I would not be interested in this book.
I used to be confused by the title "To Kill the Mockingbird". But when I finished reading it, I think this is a beautiful one.
No one will not like Boo Radley, who is so fragile and soft-minded, and early-matured Scout and brave Jem.
Oh, Atticus, I think he is the kind of father whom every kid will appreciate in the adulthood stage.
Yes, the main theme of this book is about racial discrimination, and likely, gender inequality. But I think the author tend to point out the bright side of these issues. That is, even though prejudice is imposed, most people can still sense that something is not right. They expect a courageous one to stand up and correct the bias. This is the reason why we don't spend centuries to create this relatively fair world.

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Alveole Wu said on Mar 22, 2012 about the Others edition | Add your feedback