To Kill a Mockingbird Mass Market Paperback – 11 Oct. 1988

"To Kill A Mockingbird" is a literary classic that has stood the test of time, and the 60th Anniversary Edition beautifully commemorates its enduring legacy. Harper Lee's narrative, set in the racially charged backdrop of 1930s Alabama, unfolds through the eyes of Scout Finch, a young girl navigating the complexities of prejudice and justice.Personally, reading this edition brought back memories of encountering the story for the first time. The prose remains as impactful as ever, delving into profound themes of morality and empathy. Lee's depiction of Atticus Finch, Scout's father and a principled lawyer defending an innocent Black man accused of rape, remains a powerful symbol of integrity and courage.From an unbiased perspective, the Anniversary Edition is a testament to the novel's lasting significance. It includes additional features that enhance the reading experience, such as introductions and insights into the author's background, making it a valuable addition to any reader's collection.Overall, "To Kill A Mockingbird" continues to resonate with readers, reminding us of the importance of compassion and understanding in the face of prejudice. Its exploration of societal issues remains relevant today, making this edition a worthy tribute to a literary masterpiece.

Harper Lee's Pulitzer Prize-Winning 'To Kill a Mockingbird' is a book that hardly needs an introduction, but for the very few who may need one, a brief outline follows. Set in Maycomb, a sleepy, close-knit town in Alabama, during the Great Depression in the 1930s, this novel is told from the perspective of 'Scout' Finch, who lives with her brother, Jem, and their widower father, Atticus, a lawyer. When Dill Harris, a young boy, comes to stay with their next-door neighbour for the school summer holidays, the three children develop a deep fascination with Boo Radley, a recluse who lives in a creepy old house on their street, who has not set foot outside of the family home for decades, and who Jem and Dill plan to coax out into the open. Their plans do not immediately come to fruition, but later the Finch children have other things to focus on when Atticus agrees to defend a young black man, Tom Robinson, who is accused of raping a white woman. Atticus, aware of the hostility his decision has generated within the community, feels he would not be able to look his children in the eye if he did not stand up for his principles; he tells his daughter: "Tom Robinson's case is something that goes to the essence of a man's conscience - Scout, I couldn't go to church and worship God if I didn't try to help that man." But Atticus's noble act sets in motion a chain of events which has lasting consequences for all involved.I first read 'To Kill a Mockingbird' (from choice) when I was in junior school, when the symbolic meaning of this relevant, powerful and moving story most probably went over my head, but I also re-read it more than once during my teenage years where the themes of prejudice, inequality, morality, the examination of different kinds of bravery and the loss of childhood innocence, revealed themselves in more depth with each reading, and where unforgettable lines such as: "...shoot all the blue jays you want, if you can hit 'em, but remember it's a sin to kill a mockingbird" lodge themselves in the memory so that they are quotable almost without reference to the book - however, I must confess that before this most recent re-reading, I hadn't picked this book up for many years. So what made me choose to re-read this now? Well, I'll admit that the imminent and very eagerly anticipated arrival of Harper Lee's second novel: Go Set a Watchman (which focuses on Scout's life some twenty years after the events in 'To Kill a Mockingbird') made me keen to refresh my memory of the original before I started the sequel, and I must say that I enjoyed every minute of it.5 Stars.

This may seem a strange book to choose to review, after all it was published in 1960, but with the recent passing of the author, Harper Lee, I thought it might be time to take a look at To Kill A Mockingbird.Firstly, even though I was always an avid reader, when To Kill A Mockingbird was published it managed to pass me by. It wasn’t being read by my peers and any stir that the film had created was already dwindling by the time I reached the age group to which the book seemed to be appealing. Secondly, it is a book that seems to be better known these days for the film version than for its own merit, which is a shame. The 1962 film depiction, while creditable, is very narrow in its take on the story, focusing on the trial of Tom Robinson, a black man accused of raping a white woman. I’ll return to that later. Finally, of course, there are whole generations of people who will not have read the book (or seen the film) as it tends to be contemporary books that are read, while older works are mainly gathering dust on library shelves.The plot covers many aspects of life in Alabama in the mid 1930s, as seen through the eyes of the protagonist Scout, or Jean Louise Finch to call her by her real name. The nickname is never explained. At the start of the story Scout is 6 years old, two years younger than Harper Lee would have been at this time. She is joined in her adventures by her older brother Jem (Jeremy) and a neighbour’s visiting nephew Dill (Charles Baker Harris). The book is not only a depiction of who two races see each other, it is also how different groups within the white race view each other and an early issue raised is about white poverty during the Depression.It later emerged that Dill was loosely based on Harper Lee’s real life neighbour Truman Capote, another novelist also recently deceased.Scout’s father is lawyer Atticus Finch who is also a member of the State Legislature and a much respected member of the community – at least at the start of the book. In real life Harper Lee grew up in Alabama and her father was a lawyer who became caught up in a rape case similar to that featured in the book. Harper Lee may also have been influenced by the trials, in Alabama, of the Scottsboro Boys, concerning the rape of two white women by nine black teenagers. The trials took place in 1931 the original trials are now generally regarded as significant miscarriages of justice.We join Scout at the start of her schooling where we discover that she is a precocious child, already able to read and write. Some might describe her as old beyond her years. The story then takes us through three years of her life, including the period of the trial and its aftermath.The use of Scout as the narrator is a very useful tool. As a child she is automatically considered to be naïve, which allows her to ask questions that no adult would think to ask, or maybe dare to ask. This is useful for the reader as the answers usually come from Atticus so we get to know him very well. They are more often avoided if asked of the other adult characters. We can feel Scout’s confusion as she is told by her first grade teacher not to read at home because she’s been taught to read “the wrong way”, which is one of the first narrow minded adult issues she has to deal with.During the first half of the book black people are barely mentioned. Calpurnia, the Finch’s cook/housekeeper, is black but is very much a part of the Finch family, carrying much of the burden of Scout and Jem’s upbringing to that point. Scout’s mother died when she was quite young and was almost unknown to Scout. Apart from that we hear nothing much about the black community of Maycomb County, as though they are invisible. This is entirely intentional, of course. Black people and white people just didn’t mix. Scout lives in a white neighbourhood, so almost the only black people she ever sees are domestic servants such as Calpurnia and those such as Zeebo, the garbage truck driver, who has to come into the area as part of his duties. She never encounters the majority of the black community who work on the land.Most of the first part of the story is about the three children and their adventures which, despite the passage of time, are not really any different from those that I enjoyed as a child and which many children still enjoy. In one sub-plot they are much taken by the mysterious figure of their reclusive neighbour, Boo Radley, and spend much of their time devising ways to tempt him from his house.Later the story turns to the trial of Tom Robinson and we discover some things that the film doesn’t make clear. The first is that Atticus didn’t willingly take on Tom’s defence. He is appointed to it by the County Court judge. The judge’s choice is deliberate of course, he wants Tom to have the best defence possible and Atticus is the man who will deliver that, but we are left with the interesting question: “Would Atticus have taken the case of his own accord?”The reason I ask this is because the film makes Atticus appear very liberal, almost a man of the future. I think the book shows us a different man. He was liberal by the standards of many of his peers, there is no doubt of that but would he, for example, have voted for John F Kennedy or Barak Obama? I’m not convinced. He believed in justice for all and the equality of all men before the law, but that is not the same as being liberal.The film also omits some characters who have a considerable influence on Scout, those of Aunt Alexandra and Miss Dubose, for example. I can see the need for the Director of the film to be selective in what sections of the plot are included and which left out, but those decisions are what makes the book superior to the film. I actually rented the film to watch so that I could make those sorts of comparisons for this review.In the run up to the trial the town is abuzz with gossip and divided in its attitude towards Atticus. Most people recognise that Atticus is just doing his job, but others regard his behaviour as showing favour to black people over white, which was unthinkable. Scout is regularly taunted at school over this matter and is not slow to take up arms in her father’s defence (be prepared for many uses of the “N” word).This is where the story becomes so contentious, because white attitudes towards black people were just starting to be challenged openly in 1960 when the book was published. Rosa Parks took her famous bus ride in Montgomery, Alabama, in 1955 and the book was published only 5 years before the civil rights marches protesting about black people not being allowed to register to vote in Alabama, despite it being their legal right to do so.It is of course impossible for Tom Robinson to get a fair trial from an all-white jury in Alabama in the 1930s, so Tom is duly convicted despite there being more than a little doubt over the evidence presented by the two key prosecution witnesses, Bob Ewell and his daughter Mayella, the supposed victim of the rape. Indeed it is key to later events that the pair are shown up to be liars, but that isn’t enough to sway the jury. Indeed Tom is more than a little lucky not to have been lynched before the matter even got to trial.It could be argued convincingly that it is still hard for a black person to get a fair trial in Alabama, even 80 years after the events depicted in this book, which makes the book as relevant today as it was then.However, the period in which this book is set is crucial to the way it is told. The last surviving Alabama veteran of the Confederate Army still lived in the town. The parents of most of the characters and some of the older characters, such as Miss Dubose, will have grown up in the immediate aftermath of the Civil War, which left two communities struggling to makes sense of what had happened to their way of life. This will have doubtless had a profound effect on the way the white community viewed the black, while the black community discovered that being free was not the same as being equal.So, is this book still relevant in 2016? I would say it is.Why have I only given this book four stars? After all, it was seen as one of the great works of the 20th century. Well, it is somewhat dated. I think that if Harper Lee were writing it today (if she were still alive to do so) she would take a whole new approach to get her message across. It is also a matter of expectations. We shouldn’t try to judge the past on the basis of our values in the present. As Atticus Finch himself says, if we want to know a person we have to put on his shoes and walk around in them for a while. If we wish to judge the present then we have a whole lot of new evidence available on which to base our opinions.Do I recommend the book? Of course I do. My only regret is that I didn’t read it much earlier in my life.