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Summary: The Best Novel Ever!
Review: This is the book that got me started reading novels. It is a great story of truth as told through a childs view of events happening in a small southern town during The Great Depression. In dealing with adult subject matter this is not a childrens book Right and wrong, good and evil are dealt with here better then any book I have read since. The movie is equally as good as the book. So if you don't have the time to read the novel,then see the movie, you won't be disappointed.
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Summary: The Best Book I've Read
Review: this book is truly moving. i've read it numerous times and i love it more each time. the loss of inocence is depicted beautifully in this book. the town of maycomb is the perfect setting for such a beautiful book.
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Summary: a true classic, for everybody to cherish
Review: The story is set during the great depression of the 1930's, in a small town in the southern United States. Scout and Jem Finch are the motherless children of a lawyer in the town of Maycomb, who spend their carefree summer days with their friend Dill. Their sunny-sweet world is turned upside down when their father is appointed to defend Tom Robinson, a black man, who is accused of committing a terrible crime against a white woman. The children are exposed to the narrow-mindedness and hypocrisy of their community, and the discrimination faced by black Americans in their town. This book is without a doubt my all-time favorite, and is easily endearing for many reasons. The characters are varied and colorful, from Ms. Maudie, the children's acid-tongued neighbor, to Miss Stephanie Crawford, the neighborhood gossip, from Mr. Avery, the pot-bellied gainsayer, to Arthur 'Boo' Radley, the mysterious recluse who lives in the 'haunted' house down the street. Above all, the most engaging characters are the children - innocent, sweet, mischievous and absolutely delightful.
The thing I liked most about this book was the flow and innocence of the narrative. The entire book is told as seen through the eyes of a young child, making the language straightforward and easy to comprehend. The style is bold and forthright, putting forward debatable issues with a candid frankness.
While it is a book with a serious theme and a solemn message, the book is interwoven with instances of carefree childishness and subtle comedy. The perfect balance of solemnity and pleasantry make this a hearty, wholesome book.
This book is both emotionally thought-provoking and educationally stimulating. As Harper Lee's first and only novel, To Kill A Mockingbird is a touching story of innocence and humanity that I believe everyone should read.
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Summary: Outstanding literature
Review: It's novels like this that make literature so beautiful. Harper Lee writes one of the best, most touching novels you'll ever read. I absolutely loved it....and to think I would have never read it unless I was forced to in school. This is what makes us so happy to have English classes that force us to read books that we think we won't like. =) "To Kill a Mockingbird" is a beautiful piece of literature, but you have to allow yourself to get into it. Like most other books, you have to get through the humdrum of the beginning in order to get into it. This novel follows the escapades of 12-year-old Jem and his little sister Scout in the 1930's. What they experience in a short period of time will change their lives forever. There isn't much to say about this novel. It's heartrending, touching, and thoroughly engaging, and the writing is among the best I've ever seen in one novel. Harper Lee deserves all the recognition she receives for this moving account on living life and growing up. I definitely recommend that you buy this novel, but the only way you can come to love it so much is if you are patient with Harper Lee's deep writing style and if you allow yourself to feel the human emotions of the characters. It's a beautiful story with a lot of meaning and depth. Well worth every piece of your money, that's for sure!
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Summary: To Kill a Mockingbird
Review: Harper Lee opens the pressing issue of discrimination through the eyes of an innocent child in a small southern town.
Harper Lee tells the story of a young girl growing up in a small town where she witnesses the discrimination of race, gender, and class through everyday happenings in her town. The reader is moved to ponder the reasons for prejudice as the main character, Scout, does when the results of racism cause the death of an innocent man. The characters interest the reader and the events make the reader think about important life situations faced by people every day.
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Summary: Best book I have ever read!
Review: This book is the journey of a lifetime for a reader. You cannot put this book down. This is definately a must-read book. Also see the video version of the book. They are both fantastic.
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Summary: Gets Better With Age
Review: I first read this book for an English class in high school and hated it. Luckily, I recently bought this hardcover edition and read it again. It's now one of my favorites. I'm sure there's plenty of other reviews that deal with the plot, but I'd like to emphasize the brilliant characters in this book. Atticus Finch has easily become one of my most favorite literary characters. Lee's brilliance with Finch is that while as the plot unfold you see what a truly great man he is, she shows her audience his flaws as well. This makes him a very complete and rounded character. Scout's also great - she's wise beyond her years, which makes reading a book that centers around such a young character enjoyable. Besides these two great characters, it also is a wonderful book.
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Summary: One of my favorite classics.
Review: "To Kill a Mockingbird" is mainly about the trial of a black man for raping a white woman -- an offense not taken lightly in 1930s Alabama. And while a rape trial is very serious topic, Harper Lee chooses to write the book from the point of view of an eight-year-old girl. She takes her time getting around to the trial, writing at length about the exploits of Scout, her brother Jem, and their friend Dill. There are lots of laughs -- particularly the night the three of them went to see Boo Radley's house, and Jem ripped his pants so badly he had to return home without them. There are also lots of tearful moments, especially after Tom Robinson got convicted and after he died. He hadn't raped the girl and everyone in town knew it, but essentially he was condemned from the moment after Mayella screamed. The ending, however, is sort of a happy one in spite of what happened to Tom. Yet, not all people in town are racist rednecks. Harper Lee does not go into stereotype. Plenty of white people supported Tom Robinson, Atticus most of all. I met a woman who named her son after Atticus Finch, and after reading the book I can see why. He was my favorite character in the book because of his high-mindedness and fair sense of justice. All in all a terrific piece of work, one that will make its readers think differently after they're done.
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Summary: A well crafted masterpiece
Review: Harper Lee spent years crafting this classic novel of life in small town Alabama in the mid 1930s. Ms Lee wrote a first draft which her editors felt read more like a series of interconnected short stories rather than as a cohesive novel so, she went back to the drawing board and ultimately produced this popignant tale of life as seen through the eyes of an adult narrator remembering her childhood. I read this book for a reason. My son, a high school student read this as an assignment for his honors English class. As an attorney, his teacher asked me to talk about life as a lawyer before the class. She mentioned this book in particular so I read it to compare my experiences with those of the novel's main character, Atticus Finch. I'm glad that I read it. I have seen the movie a couple of times but, the book offers great character analyses which cannot be duplicate on the screen (although the movie does a reasonable amount of justice to the book). The book was written in the late 1950s and completed in 1960, as the evils of the Jim Crow era were coming to a head. Ms Lee could have painted portraits of good guys and bad guys, however, she looks affectionately upon most of the characters, seeing them as complex individuals. Therefore, she confronts their prejudices with understanding rather than in anger or self righteousness. Also, she does not paint the deep South of that time as monolithically rascist. There are those, in the book, who rise above narrow prejudice. Again, I read the book to be able to comment on the legal system portrayed therein. However, I got much more out of this book; a beautiful and compassionate character study.
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Summary: Enjoyable guilt?
Review: Books I consider exemplary have a few qualities: straightforward but engaging narration, likable characters, and a plot which examines "issues" without becoming strained in doing so. To Kill a Mockingbird possesses each of these qualities. What makes it especially outstanding is the point of view and what is left unsaid. One main driver of the plot is an incident which we never witness and only learn of through some testimony. One of the main characters in relation to the plot we spend a scant few pages with--we never really know him in order to sympathize with him as a character. And another main character, Atticus, though extraordinarily quiet, maintains a powerful presence reminiscent of Howard Roark in Ayn Rand's The Fountainhead. The simplicity and one-sided nature of the trial can be considered a shortcoming, but they actually make the novel's point that much more powerful. It's believable that the jury would find Tom guilty despite his obvious innocence, and this emphasizes how much man can be cruelly unfair to his neighbor. The ending does seem a bit strained as Atticus somehow is unable to see who killed whom when his children were attacked, but this is a very minor flaw. Overall To Kill a Mockingbird tells a powerful, emotional tale with the easy childhood innocence of its narrator. It makes the reader feel tremendously guilty, seeing what we as a society could be vs. what we unfortunately are. If we interpret this not as an accusation by Lee but rather as an inspiration then maybe we can improve things a bit.
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