I first read To Kill A Mockingbird many years ago whilst at school. As it was a set text the obligatory pulling apart line by line was done complete with pencil notes in margin which is the kind of thing I love. Unlike some school texts (Far From the Madding Crowd, Macbeth) this one escaped my teenage loathing and I look back on it with fondness rather than with a shudder of exam stress.
We had clocked this book as soon as it came out but being price conscious (and carrying hardbacks on train adverse) decided to wait until it was out in paperback. I was surprised to note it was written in the 50s and had only been released very shortly before Lee's death. This made me suspicious as I was immediately dubious as to whether she wanted it released. Why wait so long? It didn’t stop me though and I approached it as you would meeting a long lost friend.
I initially enjoyed the train ride with Jean Louise and viewed the folding bed incident to similar trouble she would have gotten in to during Mockingbird. As the book enfolded however the plot seemed to falter. Viewing the return to ones home town through changed eyes and meeting old characters became an attempt to impress political views upon an audience that now had little recollection or understanding of the time. I don’t know the American constitution, I don’t really know of the political/race struggles that went on in that part of America in the 50s and whilst I'm not adverse to learning more, in a book that is very slim in the first place trying to encapsulate that in amongst recollections of childhood and deliberations about marriage proposals was just too much.
The book then swerved and became about Jean Louise and her idolisation of her father that needed to be severed so she could become her own person. All very well but to do this it felt like the Atticus in this book was totally different to that in Mockingbird. We discussed how he was always about justice and how if this went against white people so be it but phrases such as the Negro population is backward made him appear as a racist bigot something he simply wasn’t in Mockingbird.
What also didn’t follow was if Jean Louise was so straight laced black is black, white is white and we are all equal why would the book end with her agreeing with her Uncle that she wouldn’t marry Hank because he wasn’t her type – not because she didn’t love him but because he was trash. I think this is the part of the book I was most disappointed with. It was a throw away paragraph at the end of the book despite Hank and his attachment to Jean Louise being one of the main parts of the book.
I found at times the writing style hard to follow. The third person narration shifted haphazardly and I had no idea what Jean Louise's Uncle was talking about half the time. We discussed that this was how Jean Louise found him frustrating and full of riddles but it was just one more negative in a list that was becoming quite lengthy.
We all loved the parts where Jean Louise became Scout again and we reminisced with her. The school prom and Scouts 'pregnancy' were particular highlights. We also enjoyed the parts between Jean Louise and Hank – will they/wont they, should they/shouldn’t they. I loved the part where she questioned whether she should marry him as she would only go off and have an affair with the man she should have married had she had waited.
We definitely all learned something during our meeting. One of the group came fully armed with text books from the 50s and even pictures, brilliant! The biggest shock of the night to me was the fact it was written before To Kill A Mockingbird. We spent quite some time discussing this and the fact Trueman Capote was rumoured to have written Mockingbird. Dill is supposedly based upon Capote as a child! We concluded it felt like a draft that had been written and scrapped as the spark of Mockingbird emerged from its ashes.
Our scoring was very complicated this month with marks being given for plot, enjoyment, characters and writing style. Plot came out worse, characters the best but they all pretty much hovered around the 5/6 mark. It’s a shame in a way it was published as it almost lessens Mockingbird. The epic that is taught in schools everywhere the stoic moral rights compass that is Atticus, the hope of emerging racial tolerance are all stamped upon. Perhaps somethings should just be left as they are.
Question of the month – biggest shock for me wasn’t the book but the fact it was written before Mockingbird. What shocking facts do you know about literary giants?
We had clocked this book as soon as it came out but being price conscious (and carrying hardbacks on train adverse) decided to wait until it was out in paperback. I was surprised to note it was written in the 50s and had only been released very shortly before Lee's death. This made me suspicious as I was immediately dubious as to whether she wanted it released. Why wait so long? It didn’t stop me though and I approached it as you would meeting a long lost friend.
I initially enjoyed the train ride with Jean Louise and viewed the folding bed incident to similar trouble she would have gotten in to during Mockingbird. As the book enfolded however the plot seemed to falter. Viewing the return to ones home town through changed eyes and meeting old characters became an attempt to impress political views upon an audience that now had little recollection or understanding of the time. I don’t know the American constitution, I don’t really know of the political/race struggles that went on in that part of America in the 50s and whilst I'm not adverse to learning more, in a book that is very slim in the first place trying to encapsulate that in amongst recollections of childhood and deliberations about marriage proposals was just too much.
The book then swerved and became about Jean Louise and her idolisation of her father that needed to be severed so she could become her own person. All very well but to do this it felt like the Atticus in this book was totally different to that in Mockingbird. We discussed how he was always about justice and how if this went against white people so be it but phrases such as the Negro population is backward made him appear as a racist bigot something he simply wasn’t in Mockingbird.
What also didn’t follow was if Jean Louise was so straight laced black is black, white is white and we are all equal why would the book end with her agreeing with her Uncle that she wouldn’t marry Hank because he wasn’t her type – not because she didn’t love him but because he was trash. I think this is the part of the book I was most disappointed with. It was a throw away paragraph at the end of the book despite Hank and his attachment to Jean Louise being one of the main parts of the book.
I found at times the writing style hard to follow. The third person narration shifted haphazardly and I had no idea what Jean Louise's Uncle was talking about half the time. We discussed that this was how Jean Louise found him frustrating and full of riddles but it was just one more negative in a list that was becoming quite lengthy.
We all loved the parts where Jean Louise became Scout again and we reminisced with her. The school prom and Scouts 'pregnancy' were particular highlights. We also enjoyed the parts between Jean Louise and Hank – will they/wont they, should they/shouldn’t they. I loved the part where she questioned whether she should marry him as she would only go off and have an affair with the man she should have married had she had waited.
We definitely all learned something during our meeting. One of the group came fully armed with text books from the 50s and even pictures, brilliant! The biggest shock of the night to me was the fact it was written before To Kill A Mockingbird. We spent quite some time discussing this and the fact Trueman Capote was rumoured to have written Mockingbird. Dill is supposedly based upon Capote as a child! We concluded it felt like a draft that had been written and scrapped as the spark of Mockingbird emerged from its ashes.
Our scoring was very complicated this month with marks being given for plot, enjoyment, characters and writing style. Plot came out worse, characters the best but they all pretty much hovered around the 5/6 mark. It’s a shame in a way it was published as it almost lessens Mockingbird. The epic that is taught in schools everywhere the stoic moral rights compass that is Atticus, the hope of emerging racial tolerance are all stamped upon. Perhaps somethings should just be left as they are.
Question of the month – biggest shock for me wasn’t the book but the fact it was written before Mockingbird. What shocking facts do you know about literary giants?
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