To Kill a Mockingbird

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.

Not having read this book since high school, I decided to reread it so that I could read the "new" Harper Lee book.

It was definitely better than I remembered. One thing that made it more personal for me, is that my husband is from Alabama. As a Californian, this part of the setting did not stick in my mind when I was in high school, since all southern states were pretty interchangeable in my mind. Now I've been to one of them, and it's that one!

As I read the first few chapters, I was surprised by how well I remembered it. I could tell right away that the writing style was one that I would enjoy.

What I didn't remember well was the very end.

I'm glad that I took the time to read this book again, outside of school. I look forward to reading Go Set a Watchman.