to kill a mockingbird

[Gowgirl]

Every time I read this I want to cry, yet I still keep going back.....anyone want to discuss?

The Grapes of Wrath is my favourite Steinbeck. An amazing snapshot of the period.

Now there is a story that will really make you sob.

In fact tis time I read it again...

Some good American novels are Gone with the Wind, The Winds of War, The Grapes of Wrath, Babbitt, The Scarlet Letter, Kingsblood Royal, The Accidental Tourist, The Right Stuff, Little Women/GoodWives, Tom Sawyer, and The Price of Salt.
I referred to Harper Lee as a one book wonder, as I sincerely believe Watchman was a failed draft that Lee didn't wish to publish.

My ds found Atticus totally unbelievable, and thought it was more a case of childhood hero worship than anything else. Which got him interested in the idea of unreliable narrators, so that was positive. When I told him that Atticus later becomes a racist in the Watchman book he thought that was entirely plausible, which I thought was interesting.

ds is a total social justice warrior so the book should have resonated with him, but he found it very unrelatable. I suspect it's partly just too dated now. Teenagers should be reading books about their own communities I think, not just 18th century English literature or American 'classics'. We are in Canada and I really don't know why they were reading to Kill A Mockingbird anyway, instead of a more recent Canadian author (there are some fantastic writers about the effect of residential schools on Aboriginal families that would be much more relevant). There must be hundreds of fantastic British authors that write about racial tensions and issues too.

My dh says that it's used for teenagers learning about literary criticism because it's themes pretty much hit you you over the head with a sledgehammer and so are easy to spot and so discuss.I suspect it's more because schools have lots of copies.

noob I just thought chapter after chapter of teen angst with little else going for it didn't deserve the accolades it received.

I also had to study it with an ineffective teacher so that probably had something to do with it

I enjoyed it as a story but I dont think its up there as a great, classic peice of literature. Its a good book though and I enjoyed it.
I didnt do it at school, I read it as an adult. I think Atticus was a bit unbelievable as a character.

Nooka has your ds read White Fang?

I like its quietness. Hillary Jordan's 'Mudbound' and Alice Seybold's 'Lovely Bones' are with it.. they quietly tell a tale of some horror.

Jez I took a group to the Regents Park production including a reluctant 14 year old lad.

At the end, he'd clearly been in tears and when we got home he insisted on borrowing the book.

The other one he loved, also American, is A Separate Peace.

Lovely Bones was grim, almost as upsetting as "We need to talk about Kevin" - both done as really good film adaptations too.

What about Beloved, is that still taught?

I know a 10 year old boy called Jem (well, actually it is spelled Cem as it's Turkish). Suits him. There's a Jem Cole in the Thomas the Tank Engine books (a mechanic?). Jem needs a comeback for boys I agree.

There was a tiny boy Atticus toddling round the park the other day. Haven't met any Scouts yet though.

I loved this book as a teenager, but I've now read, studied taught and watched this so many times I have lost that emotional reaction to it. It's a great story though.

I read Beloved at university. I loved it. Had quite a heated argument with the prick who called her a terrible mother for trying to stop her children being taken the only way she could (the bit at the beginning).

Beloved is heart breaking, the things people went through during slavery.

I loved Sula too, got it from library recently again when I found out Toni Morrison reads her own audiobooks

Does she?

Goosebumps all the way through Sula, one of the few audiobooks I could not do other stuff and listen too, had to neglect life and retreat with headphones - a totally different experience to hear it read by the author - left me utterly spooked!

Her voice is AMAZING by the way, may have to download Beloved but might be too scary and likely to disturb sleep for some time!

DozyDotes

I understand the point you are making. The white nice, kind and gentle man is how things change not the angry black man (or white) as that makes uncomfortable reading/viewing. We see this in films too The Green Mile, Fried Green Tomatoes at the Whistle Stop Cafe

I do love the book I like the innocence of how children often view their world, the discription of the Deep South.

I like John Steinbeck books, he is very descriptive and the characters feel real

Dozy I agree, the whole 'white saviour' narrative is deeply troubling. Thanks for articulating it better than I ever could.

Walter I read Catcher in the Eye aged 12 and was too young for it and again aged 25 when I was too old for it. I can imagine there's a brief window in your mid to late teens when it could be the most important book in your universe.

I can't get into Beloved

I so want to have the audio download to maybe I am trying to hard. It seems to be such an interesting and deeply moving book

I can imagine there's a brief window in your mid to late teens when it could be the most important book in your universe.

You could be right. I had classmates who were enthralled by it. I just didn't connect the way they did...

Nooka I think Watchman makes TKAM more interesting in a way. It was written first which makes TKAM a revisionist prequel rather than a sequel. 'Real' Atticus was a segregationist member of the KKK but wasn't palatable in the context of the civil rights movement. Revised Atticus was much more relatable and comforting to people who would have liked to have imagined they would have seen and responded to the oppression around them if they had lived in the south during the 30s.

OneShot I can definitely see how TKAM can speak to people as a coming of age story. I was older when I read it and probably like Nooka's DS had already developed a sensitivity to white savior stories so it never had the opportunity to speak to me in the same way

I absolutely loved To kill a mockingbird, but never finished Watchman, just could not yet into it. As regards Jem only being used a a 'pet' name , Scout was only a pet name in the novel, her real name being Jean Louise. The chef Lesley Waters has a daughter called Scout.