by
Harper Lee
TKAM won the Pulitzer in 1961. It is also featured on the Time Magazine Top 100. It is also a classic novel of growing up, growing something else, maturing, and I have no idea what this book is about. It has been almost two decades since I've read it, and I don't remember it AT ALL. Now, I don't want this to suggest I did not like the book. My memories of reading it are mostly positive. I remember I was given the book as an Easter gift, not knowing it was a classic of any great repute, and then taking a longer time than normal to get into it. Then I devoured it.
Here's something else that is sort of funny. I've seen the movie. I enjoyed the movie. I have no memory of it. I could tell you about little scenes or vignettes from either the book or movie, but I would be completely unable to reproduce the story, a line of dialogue, any sort of stirring moment...anything. This is the sum total of what I know about TKAM: Scout, Boo Bradley (and I might be wrong about that and be thinking of a band from the early 90s), it takes place in the south, and there is a courtroom scene. Also the narrator's father was a lawyer and I admired him as a reader and in the movie he was played by Gregory Peck (who is an iconic actor from a bygone age who I have always had a hard time taking seriously for some reason). If I had to write a book report on this novel I would get a D at best. Which is sad, since I generally suggest it to high school students.
This is not a normal phenomenon for me. My memory of specific scenes in books and movies is generally pretty sharp. It in fact kinda sucks that I'm starting with a book that is drawing a complete goose egg in terms of salient details. But for realzies, check it out.
One thing that I discovered about this book much much later (and I'm sure a lot of other people made this realization too while watching this movie) is that Harper Lee was actually a good friend of Truman Capote's, and actually worked with him as his research assistant while he was writing In Cold Blood. Another interesting thing about Harper Lee is aside from a short story published in Oprah Winfrey's magazine O, this is it. When I tried to write short stories and novels I was CONVINCED that a really interesting and compelling opening scene would be two people talking about how Harper Lee only wrote one novel (for thematic purposes the short story can be ignored) and maybe this conversation can lead our hero to have the courage to face any sort of quest he or she had to in order to get some sort of personal fulfillment, and be in the same league as Harper Lee, not a one hit wonder as a very cynical person would think, but a person who achieved a sort of artistic perfection and decided to never look back. I guess. I honestly don't remember very well.
Coming soon:
I actually listened to this book on CD about 2 years ago. It was great... just like last time. Afterwards I did a little bit of reading on Harper Lee, and found out that Scout is actually based on her, and her little friend is based on a young Truman Capote. I don't know if this is true, or even where I read it, but i just remember thinking that was a cool tidmit.
ReplyDeleteI will admit this is one of the few books that I actually read all the way through in high school. The thing I remember most about this book is the teacher saying that Mayella Ewell's geraniums were important, because they were the only pretty thing in her life. I remember thinking that was really sad, because geraniums aren't a very pretty flower and they are kind of stinky. Maybe that was the best she ever was going to get though and you wonder why she would lie, but why do people do a lot of things when a stinky pot of geraniums is all they have to look forward to in life?
ReplyDeleteI know you have a lot of reading on your plate right now, but I'd suggest checking this one out again. It's hands-down one of my top 10, even more so after reading Mockingbird, a biography of Harper Lee. (Dill is definitely based on Capote, and many other characters are also based on real people. Lee is also an impressive individual in her own right.) I understand and see why some critics don't like it -- it is more of a series of vignettes than a well-formed novel, but the characters are well-drawn, and there are some really beautiful pieces of language. Even after having read it probably 10 times (I teach it to my 10th graders), there are still a couple of lines that are so powerful I actually choke up while reading them.
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