To Kill a Mockingbird

Si hay algo que me asombra de Harper Lee, es que tras parir este libro, que desde luego está escrito de una forma tan tradicional que parece transgresora, no publicó ninguno más, hasta recientemente que ha escrito lo que podría ser la segunda parte, que aún no he leído. No es que yo valore los escritores que apenas escriben, sobre los que escriben mucho, pero sin duda, desde que se inventó el reciclaje de papel, me temo que muchos escritores actuales, crean sus nuevas historias sobre las cenizas aún calientes de las antiguas, ya no van con el francotirador sino con la metralleta. Esta historia, leída en este caso, en su idioma original, es todo un festival de acentos, maneras de ser y de hablar que harían feliz a Tom Wolfe. Todo esta narrado bajo el punto de vista de los hijos del Mr Finch, que se nos presenta, visto por sus hijos como un hombre inteligente, valiente y justo, en torno a esta figura, veremos como el jardín salvaje y descuidado de esa américa que parece que vuelve porque nunca se fue lidia con los problemas del racismo y la pobreza. Resulta bastante atractivo que lo que siempre se destaca como tema principal en esta novela, esta siempre relativizado por los ojos de los narradores, por los que aparte del famoso juicio, aparecen otras aventuras y personajes, en una novela que para mí resulta más el relato de una época, que un alegato intencionado y machacón. Sólo me queda darle las gracias a Harper Lee por parir su gran obra de una vez y no distraernos con otras que sin duda serían menores. Recomendadísimo

The book represents a point of view of a child during the 30's written by someone who was a child during the 30's, which brings valuable historical authenticity. It was published in the 60's and due to its immediate success it was a part of a shift in attitudes regarding the civil rights movements of the 70's. Reading the book with this context in mind is an interesting experience because to a contemporary mind, the 60's is in many ways more absurd than was the 30's to the author.

The novel own its own merit is greatly delivered, with enough character building and contextualization that by the time the main plot arrives my metropolitan millennial mind is decently acclimatized to a completely alien society and culture. The naive, progressive-household-raised, clean slate kid point of view gives the narrator plausible bewilderment when facing the pervasive racial injustice and hypocrisy the book aims to criticize.

But this book too is a product of its time and one can immediately recognize the white savior angle. The white gentleman class is displayed one cut above the white trash that are no better than also-poor-but-black folk, and raises itself a toast for being so intellectual. A pat on the back for being kind enough to employ honest colored folk and defending the sanctity of written law. The expectation is overwhelming gratefulness in return, even if the result is still injustice. The portrayal of "the good blacks" is subservient and forgiving, and the weapon of choice to build empathy is pity and the analogy with the sin of killing a creature that is dedicated to servitude and entertainment - the mockingbird.

Five stars as an expertly crafted novel with admirable goals and celebrated impact, one star as modern literature on racial injustice. I don't think the two aspects have equal weight but lacking better utilitarian formulation I'm averaging to 3 stars.

Such a classic, one of America's best-loved novels, and I hadn't read it yet! Off I went, without knowing much about this book beforehand.

I soon found out why many people love it so much: A steadfast and relatable first-person narrator, a young girl, who observes the world around her, especially the racist environment in her Alabama hometown, her wise father, a lawyer too!, and the plethora of neighbors and relatives, some nice, some less so. This book's central themes are clear: Narrow-mindedness and racism, growing up, innocence and threats against it.

I enjoyed reading this book, but less than I had expected. Again I realized I'm not a fan of books narrated by children, even though Scout is quite wonderful. The narration didn't thrill me - one paragraph is about one thing, the next about something different just to jump back to the first topic. Characters that are central in the first half of the novel don't show up at all until 150 pages later. It seemed to me that the actual plot of the novel only started after the 40% mark. All of these aspects lowered my pleasure while reading this book - so I can't give out the five stars that "To Kill a Mockingbird" deserves for its impact on American culture (or at least, education) and its overall positive and impactful message.

I was not too surprised to find some harsh criticism regarding the portrayal of relationship between Black and white characters in this novel - there aren't many fleshed-out Black characters, the most visible one is a household help, and then white people come along to save the day. Reading the novel with a 2022 perspective leaves a stale aftertaste, and the book probably would not be as widely known and successful if it was published today.

If you haven't read "To Kill a Mockingbird", by all means, go ahead and do it! If you do, please read [b:I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings|13214|I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings (Maya Angelou's Autobiography, #1)|Maya Angelou|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1327957927l/13214.SY75.jpg|1413589] right afterwards. Personally, I was more captivated by it and its narrator, young Maya Angelou: Both books share many themes, and the direct comparison is striking.

I wish my daughter will look at me as Jem and Scout look at their father, Atticus Finch. There are a few things I have learned from him.

“Before Jem looks at anyone else he looks at me, and I’ve tried to live so I can look squarely back at him.” Atticus knows his kids are looking at him, observing what he does and learning from him. So he has to keep his head straight, do the right thing, no matter how ugly it is. Only that he can earn their kids’ respects.

You also need to understand the kids, and know how to give them a lesson when they did something wrong. So when Jem cut the tops off every camellia bush Mrs. Dubose owned because she said Atticus is a nigger lover, Atticus said to Jem, “Son, I have no doubt that you’ve been annoyed by your contemporaries about me lawing for niggers, as you say, but to do something like this to a sick old lady is inexcusable. I strongly advise you to go down and have a talk with Mrs. Dubose.” There is no harsh words, only advise. What a father!

And you also need to know when to not overreact to kids behaviors. When uncle Jack was mad at Scout speaking dirty words, Atticus was fine because he knows that “Bad language is a stage all children go through, and it dies with time when they learn they’re not attracting attention with it.”

Oh, you also have to have something which your kids can boast about. Atticus was the deadest shot in the county!

Mrs. Dubose is another figure in the book I found admirable. She was addictive to morphine because her doctor prescribed it as the pain-killer (similar tragedies happen pretty frequently in the U.S. today). When she knew that she only had a few months to live, she decided to break the addiction and die free! The process was unbearable, but she died “as the mountain air,” and was" conscious to the last". We all know that breaking a bad habit is very difficult, not mentioning the morphine addiction. Maybe it’s the time for us to say no to our own addictions, as Mrs. Dubose did, and to be a confident freeman?

The book has been described as a southern gothic novel which gave the book a certain appeal to me and was one of the main reasons I decided to read this book. What I found left me a little disappointed. To begin with, I found the book didn’t start to get interesting till chapter 11. I know the back story was needed, it was a different time, but I didn’t much care for the childhood of Jean Louise, Jem or even Boo. To me it felt like it dragged on and could have used some cutting down, but some people like to hear about life in the 1930’s. When I did eventually get to chapter 11, I did start to enjoy the book a lot more and finally at chapter 17 we started to get into the real story of To Kill A Mockingbird; The Court Case.

Atticus was the only truly enjoyable character for me. He was a wise and fair man, though he never wanted to take Tom Robinson case he did his upmost to make sure he was treated fairly and got the best representation possible. Atticus was the shining light throughout this book; he was a scholar and gentlemen through thick and thin. Once the court case was over and Atticus no longer had to deal with Tim Robinson the book again went back to its original slow pace and eventually fizzled out.

The book wasn’t all bad, it was well written and tackled some important topics, including racial injustice, class and even sexuality. I can see why this is a classic book and I think Harper Lee did a fantastic job at shedding light on some important social issues, the story just felt to slow for my liking, but I can understand why so many people enjoy this book.