To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee
My rating: 5 of 5 stars
Nelle Harper Lee wrote and published To Kill a Mockingbird, winning the Pulitzer in 1961, along with many other awards, later becoming an international bestseller, and ultimately a classic in American literature.
Much of the book is loosely based on her experiences of racism in her hometown of Monroeville, Alabama, where she was the daughter of a lawyer. Even several characters of her novel are named after her mother Frances Cunningham Finch, and the young boy named Dill in the novel is further based on her childhood friend Truman Capote. In 1962, the book was made into a movie with Gregory Peck.
What strikes me most about this novel is that it becomes political without trying to, and it’s an easy reminder of Harriet Beecher Stowe’s novel Uncle Tom’s Cabin that changed the course of American history (some claiming her book started the Civil War).
Nevertheless, To Kill a Mockingbird did have a tremendous impact on race relations in the United States, and librarians recently voted it the best novel of the twentieth century.
What I liked most about it is the nostalgia of home it brings for me. Lightning bugs. Crazy old aunts and neighbors. Growing up with older siblings. Porch swings. Mystery during childhood. Trying to understand a far bigger and greater world than we can ever come to know. And the small town feeling that is becoming lost in America. Harper Lee did in fact write a great American novel, and rightly so it has lasted, and will last several more generations.
After all these years, I have heard much about this book and one of the principal characters, besides Atticus Finch (father and lawyer), Boo Radley always predominated much of the conversation; however, Boo doesn’t make an official appearance until the last few chapters of the novel, and what a denouement it becomes, despite being the first sentence of the first page: ‘When he was nearly thirteen, my brother Jem got his arm badly broken at the elbow.’
Harper’s sentences are lean and precise and the story of a young girl, Jean Louise ‘Scout’ Finch, becomes an innocent glimpse into growing up in the Deep South in 1935. And the writing is all story:
‘When she squinted down at me the tiny lines around her eyes deepened. “There’s some folks who don’t eat like us,” she whispered fiercely, “but you ain’t called on to contradict ’em at the table when they don’t. That boy’s yo’ comp’ny and if he wants to eat up the table cloth you let him, you hear?’ ” (pg 27)
How can one not love Atticus: “Simply because we were licked a hundred years before we started is no reason for us not to try to win” (pg 87).
Also the origin of the title: ‘That was the only time I ever heard Atticus say it was a sin to do something, and I asked Miss Maudie about it.
“Your father’s right,” she said. “Mockingbirds don’t do one thing but make music for us to enjoy. They don’t eat up people’s gardens, don’t nest in corncribs, they don’t do one thing but sing their hearts out for us. That’s why it’s a sin to kill a mockingbird” (pg 103). ‘
So shall you sing your heart out.
To Kill a Mockingbird is a very strong recommend, and I pray for all to have a chance to experience such a beautiful story.
CG FEWSTON
The American novelist CG FEWSTON has been a Visiting Scholar at the American Academy in Rome (Italy), a Visiting Fellow at Hong Kong’s CityU, & he’s a been member of the Hemingway Society, Americans for the Arts, PEN America, Club Med, & the Royal Society of Literature. He’s also a been Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts, Manufactures and Commerce (RSA) based in London.
He’s the author of several short stories and novels. His works include A Father’s Son (2005), The New America: A Collection (2007), The Mystic’s Smile ~ A Play in 3 Acts (2007), Vanity of Vanities (2011), A Time to Love in Tehran (2015), Little Hometown, America (2020); A Time to Forget in East Berlin (2022), and Conquergood & the Center of the Intelligible Mystery of Being (2023).
He has a B.A. in English, an M.Ed. in Higher Education Leadership (honors), an M.A. in Literature (honors), and an M.F.A. in Creative Writing & Fiction. He was born in Texas in 1979.
A TIME TO FORGET IN EAST BERLIN
BREW Book Excellence Award Winner
BREW Readers’ Choice Award Winner
“A spellbinding tale of love and espionage set under the looming shadow of the Berlin Wall in 1975… A mesmerising read full of charged eroticism.”
~ Ian Skewis, Associate Editor for Bloodhound Books, & author of best-selling novel A Murder of Crows (2017)
“An engrossing story of clandestine espionage… a testament to the lifestyle encountered in East Berlin at the height of the Cold War.”
~ Lone Star Literary Life Magazine
“There is no better way for readers interested in Germany’s history and the dilemma and cultures of the two Berlins to absorb this information than in a novel such as this, which captures the microcosm of two individuals’ love, relationship, and options and expands them against the blossoming dilemmas of a nation divided.”
~ D. Donovan, Senior Reviewer, Midwest Book Review
“A Time to Forget in East Berlin is a dream-like interlude of love and passion in the paranoid and violent life of a Cold War spy. The meticulous research is evident on every page, and Fewston’s elegant prose, reminiscent of novels from a bygone era, enhances the sensation that this is a book firmly rooted in another time.”
~ Matthew Harffy, prolific writer & best-selling historical fiction author of the “Bernicia Chronicles” series
“Vivid, nuanced, and poetic…”
“Fewston avoids familiar plot elements of espionage fiction, and he is excellent when it comes to emotional precision and form while crafting his varied cast of characters.”
“There’s a lot to absorb in this book of hefty psychological and philosophical observations and insights, but the reader who stays committed will be greatly rewarded.”
“Readers of The Catcher in the Rye and similar stories will relish the astute, critical inspection of life that makes Little Hometown, America a compelling snapshot of contemporary American life and culture.”
“Fewston employs a literary device called a ‘frame narrative’ which may be less familiar to some, but allows for a picture-in-picture result (to use a photographic term). Snapshots of stories appear as parts of other stories, with the introductory story serving as a backdrop for a series of shorter stories that lead readers into each, dovetailing and connecting in intricate ways.”
~ D. Donovan, Senior Reviewer, Midwest Book Review
“The American novelist CG FEWSTON tells a satisfying tale, bolstered by psychology and far-ranging philosophy, calling upon Joseph Campbell, J. D. Salinger, the King James Bible, and Othello.”
“In this way, the author lends intellectual heft to a family story, exploring the ‘purity’ of art, the ‘corrupting’ influences of publishing, the solitary artist, and the messy interconnectedness of human relationships.”
~ Lone Star Literary Life Magazine
GOLD Winner in the 2020 Human Relations Indie Book Awards for Contemporary Realistic Fiction
FINALIST in the SOUTHWEST REGIONAL FICTION category of the 14th Annual National Indie Excellence 2020 Awards (NIEA)
“Fewston’s lyrical, nostalgia-steeped story is told from the perspective of a 40-year-old man gazing back on events from his 1980s Texas childhood…. the narrator movingly conveys and interprets the greater meanings behind childhood memories.”
“The novel’s focus on formative childhood moments is familiar… the narrator’s lived experiences come across as wholly personal, deeply felt, and visceral.”
This is my good friend, Nicolasa (Nico) Murillo, CRC, who is a professional chef & a wellness mentor. I’ve known her since childhood & I’m honored to share her story with you. In life, we all have ups & downs, some far more extreme than others. Much like in Canada, in America, the legalization of marijuana has become a national movement, which includes safe & legal access to cannabis (marijuana) for therapeutic use & research for all.
“This is a wellness movement,” Nico explains. The wellness movement is focused on three specific areas: information, encouragement, & accountability.
In these stressful & unprecedented times, it makes good sense to promote & encourage the state or condition of being in good physical & mental health.
To learn more you can visit: Americans For Safe Access & Texans for Safe Access, ASA (if you are in Texas).
The mission of Americans for Safe Access (ASA) is to ensure safe and legal access to cannabis (marijuana) for therapeutic use and research.
Link: https://www.safeaccessnow.org/
TEXANS FOR SAFE ACCESS ~ share the mission of their national organization, Americans for Safe Access (ASA), which is to ensure safe and legal access to cannabis (marijuana) for therapeutic use and research, for all Texans.
Link: https://txsafeaccess.org/about-1
Stay safe & stay happy. God bless.
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Reblogged this on BookAddictGurl and commented:
To Kill A Mockingbird is still one of my favorite classical literature books. I first read this book as part of my CXC syllabus in high school (for non-Caribbean readers, that equivalent to GCSE O levels). The following review highlights the major points that Harper Lee wanted to convey with her novel. This is even more relevant in today’s society and especially calls to mind the Trayvon Martin/Zimmermans trial. Racism is still alive and well.
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