Book Review – To Kill A Mocking Bird by Harper Lee

To Kill A Mocking Bird, the Pulitzer Prize winning novel by Harper Lee, published in 1960 is acclaimed as a classic in American literature. I read it as the story of innocence jumping into sometimes brutally indigestible wisdom. It takes you on a journey into childhood that says however secluded you are, you learn things or have them blown into your face. It deals with racial injustice but from such an entrancing point of view that you’re lured into the narrative.

It made me look inwards and around and realize how great a load of prejudices we do carry and how variety of prejudices have been imbibed way deep into the society so that sometimes it is bypassed and even taken as a matter of course. The more we grow, the more immune we become.  However, the book gives you also the fatalistic life goes on and even a silver lining ending and the  hope for change. All this melds with the child’s growing up and learning that you can be a participant and if you have someone who can guide you the right way you can take something away from it and gel back into the world you live in.

The only thing I found difficult to contend with in this book was the somewhat meandering pace. Yes, it was faithful to its story world and characters.But very difficult to wade through at least in the first half. Since the blurb didn’t give any hint of the main characters, I had to leaf through and find out if the story concerned their childhood only or somewhere they were going to enter adulthood. Yes, I’m impatient but it helped me fit the story into a time frame so I could settle back to read once I knew where it was headed. After the middle though it really took off and in the end was satisfying. You know like when you press a button and expect to hear a click. The click was right in place. Though I wouldn’t have minded reading about a sequel in which they were all grown up. All the characters were riveting. Though I applauded his way of dealing with the kids’ curiosity, I did find Atticus a hard parent but then me being  a slightly overprotective mom, maybe I was bound to do that.

In short, it’s a story faithful to the theme and delivering a thumping point in a gentle telling.

I give it three stars for hooking the reader (readability), five stars on concept, five star for my takeaway impression.
If you want a book to make you think and touch your heart, go for this.

If you’ve read it, what was your impression? Did you like Atticus and uphold his parental policies? Did you find the first half difficult to get through like me? 🙂 Do share your views, would love to hear!