 |
 |
Sign in/joinLanguage: English [ others ]
Over forty million books on members' bookshelves.
|
Loading... To Kill a Mockingbirdby Harper Lee
LibraryThing recommendationsMember recommendations
Loading...
won't like
will probably not like
will probably like
will like
will love Sign up for LibraryThing to find out whether you'll like this book. KTtheWife | Jul 2, 2009 |   I somehow escaped reading this at school, and, perceiving it as "something we read at school" never bothered much about it since. After all, we all know what it's about... Now I finally have read it, I would say that I'm pleasantly surprised. Scout is an engaging and funny narrator, and the story is a lot more complex than I imagined. It's not just a simple attack on racism, but a more nuanced look at how issues of race and class might have been perceived (by white people) in a small town in the American South in the thirties. The child narrator device allows Lee to question some basic assumptions, but of course it only provides a single point of view and doesn't really allow her to represent the black characters in very much depth. (  )thorold | Jul 1, 2009 | 1  When I was a Jr in high school this was given to us to read, I love the story. Atticus Finch is a white lawyer and he is defending a black man who is being charged with the rape of a bi racial woman. The small town in Alabama they live in an uproar over it, and this is all seen thru the eyes of his daughter Scout. (  )dbhutch | Jun 28, 2009 | 1 A Favorite ( )wikiro | Jun 17, 2009 | 1 One of the few books I've read twice. No one should be given a high school diploma without having read this book, yet somehow, I managed that. I didn't read this book until adulthood and after seeing the movie. It is a true American classic novel. And one of the best. (  )belleek | Jun 16, 2009 | 0.060 seconds to build listing
Amazon.com (ISBN 0446310786, Mass Market Paperback)"When he was nearly thirteen, my brother Jem got his arm badly broken at the elbow.... When enough years had gone by to enable us to look back on them, we sometimes discussed the events leading to his accident. I maintain that the Ewells started it all, but Jem, who was four years my senior, said it started long before that. He said it began the summer Dill came to us, when Dill first gave us the idea of making Boo Radley come out."Set in the small Southern town of Maycomb, Alabama, during the Depression, To Kill a Mockingbird follows three years in the life of 8-year-old Scout Finch, her brother, Jem, and their father, Atticus--three years punctuated by the arrest and eventual trial of a young black man accused of raping a white woman. Though her story explores big themes, Harper Lee chooses to tell it through the eyes of a child. The result is a tough and tender novel of race, class, justice, and the pain of growing up. Like the slow-moving occupants of her fictional town, Lee takes her time getting to the heart of her tale; we first meet the Finches the summer before Scout's first year at school. She, her brother, and Dill Harris, a boy who spends the summers with his aunt in Maycomb, while away the hours reenacting scenes from Dracula and plotting ways to get a peek at the town bogeyman, Boo Radley. At first the circumstances surrounding the alleged rape of Mayella Ewell, the daughter of a drunk and violent white farmer, barely penetrate the children's consciousness. Then Atticus is called on to defend the accused, Tom Robinson, and soon Scout and Jem find themselves caught up in events beyond their understanding. During the trial, the town exhibits its ugly side, but Lee offers plenty of counterbalance as well--in the struggle of an elderly woman to overcome her morphine habit before she dies; in the heroism of Atticus Finch, standing up for what he knows is right; and finally in Scout's hard-won understanding that most people are essentially kind "when you really see them." By turns funny, wise, and heartbreaking, To Kill a Mockingbird is one classic that continues to speak to new generations, and deserves to be reread often. --Alix Wilber (retrieved from Amazon Fri, 24 Apr 2009 07:57:53 -0400) The first test round has been closed. Visit the Open Shelves Classification group for details. |
Abebooks |
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
"Set in the small Southern town of Maycomb, Alabama, during the Depression, To Kill a Mockingbird follows three years in the life of 8-year-old Scout Finch, her brother, Jem, and their father, Atticus--three years punctuated by the arrest and eventual trial of a young black man accused of raping a white woman."
I'm so glad I decided to read this book. It's definitely my favorite "classic" that I've read so far. Also, it's on the 1001 Books to Read Before You Die list. I was very surprised that it was in the perspective of such a young girl. I really had no idea what the book was about before I read it. I liked that Scout eventually realized that all men really are created equally by the end of the book. I think this is definitely a book that all people should read. It's very good. (