Is To Kill a Mockingbird a must-read?

Houston Chronicle ^ | 4/6/07 | me

[urtax$@work]

If there's one book you should read before you die, it's To Kill a Mockingbird. That's not my opinion. Apparently I was sick back in ninth grade when every other American kid read Harper Lee's novel of racism, moral courage and coming of age in 1930s Alabama. I read it for the first time only this week and have my misgivings.

But according to the Guardian newspaper's Web site, a 2006 poll of librarians — British librarians — put To Kill a Mockingbird atop the list of books every adult should read before they shuffle off. Ahead of the Bible. Ahead of Huckleberry Finn and Pride and Prejudice and even Harry "the Franchise" Potter.

Go to link to see rest of article: http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/life/4691912.html

[Artemis Webb]

or Melville

[Burkean]

If Capote had actually written the book himself (rather than just offer advice and edits) he would have certainly claimed credit after it turned out to be such a huge success.

[ReignOfError]

To Kill a Mockingbird? It’s okay if you like one-dimensional, cookie-cutter characters. And a sitcom ending where everything is wrapped up neat as a pin, “Leave it to Beaver” style.

You didn't read the same book as I did, clearly. And the "sitcom" ending, where an innocent man is lynched, and the redneck who caused it is killed by the town lunatic while attempting to murder two children -- I must have missed that episode of "Leave it to Beaver."

[Jagman]

Bush up those reading skills:

British librarians — put To Kill a Mockingbird atop the list of books every adult should read before they shuffle off.

[ReignOfError]

List is too full of modern lit - how could a group of BRITISH librarians come up with a list that excluded Shakespeare?

Which of Shakespeare's novels would you have put on the list?

[durasell]

...he would have certainly claimed credit after it turned out to be such a huge success.

Probably not. She was probably his oldest friend and closest friend. However, a more interesting question — that isn’t asked much — is: what role did she really play in the writing of In Cold Blood?

[massgopguy]

The Tequila Mockingbird was a Get Smart parody of The Maltese Falcon.

[Antoninus]

We were force-fed To Kill a Mockingbird back in grade-school. I remember nothing about that book, except that all the characters had dumb names. It struck me as trite even then.

This is must reading...

[ReignOfError]

I have loved Mockingbird for more than thirty years. I always wanted Atticus to be my dad! :-D

My dad had an Atticus Finch moment when I was about 12. We had a small vegetable garden in the back yard, about 25 or 30 feet from the house. The kids were running out back to play, when Dad held out his arm and waved us back onto the porch.

He picked up the Daisy BB gun leaning there, pumped it 7 or 8 times, raised it to his shoulder and fired. I didn't see the 4' long copperhead between the corn plants until its skull exploded.

[SoftballMominVA]

It is accepted that Dill represents Capote at that time. As far as Capote writing the book and Harper Lee claiming it, isn't that close to what is supposed to have happened with "In Cold Blood"? If I remember correctly, she had a great deal to do with that book, including writing large parts of it, and all he did was say something like "thanks to HL" in the forward.

It is odd though that Harper Lee never wrote another book - almost as if she had one good story and that was it.

[Antoninus]

List is too full of modern lit - how could a group of BRITISH librarians come up with a list that excluded Shakespeare?

You're right. It's almost as if nothing worth reading was written before 1850.

[Ditto]

I will say that it the one book Mike Nifong and the Duke 88 should read it to understand that women can lie about rape and how mob justice and corrupt prosecutors can destroy innocent people's lives.

[durasell]

Nobody knows what went on between those two — they were both very secretive about their work.

[carton253]

Methinks you want it to be so... so let it be so.

[durasell]

The only way to judge any of it is by the work itself. Neither of them talked. But some of the writing in Mockingbird does read like the New Yorker of half a century ago.

[carton253]

Like I said... you want it to be so.

[Carolinamom]

I was astounded to see “The Color Purple” on an 8th grade reading list. Either the teachers had not read the book themselves or had dismal judgment about appropriate reading matter for 13 year olds.

[ReignOfError]

Nobody really knows what what on between the two. Remember, they were friends from the time they were seven or eight years old — or there abouts.

If I were to guess, I’d say he helped her edit — it has that “crisp” New Yorker magazine style.

If I'm working on a book, and I happen to have a close friend who's a best-selling author, I'd certainly bounce drafts off of him.

I think a lot of the speculation about Capote writing Mockingbird comes from the fact that some folks just can't believe that a small-town Southern woman who never wrote another book could have created something that good. Surely her much more famous friend must have been behind the curtain pulling the strings.

Margaret Mitchell never wrote another book, either. One of the rules my mom taught me is that a gentleman, or a lady, always knows when it's time to leave. If you've just got one book in you, and it's a great one, why muddy the waters with mediocre follow-ups and sequels?

[Mount Athos]

Nabokov is amazing. English isn’t even his native language.

[Pablo64]

Amazingly, even though I have been a prolific reader all my life (read Ben Hur when I was in 5th grade) I have never read this one. Mrs. Pablo64 has read it and she has placed it on our list of required reading for our homeschooled children, so I guess I better get busy and get it read (it wouldn't do for the kids to have one up on old dad).