To Kill A Mockingbird

To Kill A Mockingbird

by Harper Lee

First published in Great Britain in 1960

To Kill A Mockingbird has been on my ‘to-read’ list for a very long time, but just never quite made it to the forefront of my mind when I’m stood in a bookshop.  I finally remembered to buy it and read it pretty quickly.  It’s not a long book anyway but it’s also pretty easy to read.  On the back cover of my copy is a quote from The Independent: ‘No one ever forgets this book’.  With this in mind I feel like I put quite a lot of pressure on it.  It’s definitely one of those classics that everyone is supposed to not only have read but also felt a deep connection to.

In the Deep South in the 1930s a black man is accused of attacking a white girl.  Atticus Finch is the lawyer defending Tom Robinson and Jem and Scout are his children.  Written from Scout’s point of view, To Kill A Mockingbird confronts the issues of race and injustice with smatterings of childhood innocence.

Scout is a young girl with a keen interest in the goings on of her town.  She is inquisitive and has an innocence that cuts through the harsh realities of the trial.  Jem is her older brother and I really liked him.  He and Scout are close friends who are inseparable as they have brilliant summers together with their friend Dill.  As they grow up he tries to explain things to Scout and always looks out for her.  I think a lot of present-day teenage boys could relate to Jem, which shows me how good a writer Lee is.

Atticus Finch is the hero of the story.  He tries to bring up his children with strong morals and I loved how he talked to them and took their worries seriously.  Atticus is well respected in his town, and the fact that he goes against the majority of people’s opinions about Tom Robinson brings him a lot of trouble.  To me, the way he continues to be a friendly person, even to people who are openly against him, says a lot about his character.  I haven’t yet read Go Set A Watchman and I have heard various things about Atticus’ character in in, but just from To Kill A Mockingbird I really liked him.

The townspeople are a strong mix of 1930s attitudes.  From the Finch’s closest neighbours to the black community everyone has an opinion on what is happening and each person is portrayed well enough that I could remember who was who (always important to me!)

The book starts when Scout is almost six and finishes when she is nine.  Jem is four years older, which allows him to sound believable when he advises his younger sister whilst still playing games with her.  Lee wrote the book from Scout’s adult perspective of her childhood experience, which makes her thoughts more organised than if her six year old self had ‘written’ it.  That being said, Scout was clearly a very observant child.  I liked the writing style as it was childlike in it’s innocence but not overly simplified.  It made a rather heavy subject readable, and the characters more relatable

The conversations are written as they were spoken, with slang and colloquialisms.  This takes a bit of getting used to but the voices were soon set in my mind and it helped to bring the characters’ strong personalities to life.

I enjoyed this book.  I always think it’s difficult to read or watch something which has a lot of hype about it, and for this reason I usually wait until it has died down a bit.  The hype was up again around To Kill A Mockingbird, probably because of the sequel being released, and so I was asked what I thought a lot as I read it.

The characters were very relatable and the story was really interesting.  As I’ve said, I read the book quickly and this is down to the writing grabbing, and holding, my attention.  I think Go Set A Watchman will definitely be on next year’s reading list (or maybe I’ll sneak it into this years) and I look forward to seeing if it changes my opinion.  I’m not sure if I’d say I’ll never forget this book, but it was definitely one I’ve talked about with people a lot.