Book Review: To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee

ISBN:  0673583503

Release date:  December 1982 (originally published in 1960)

Publisher:  Warner Books (Note: The cover pictured is not the cover of the book I read.)

Read from February 21st to March 9th, 2011
Rewards:  Pulitzer Prize for Fiction (1961)
Synopsis from Goodreads:

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.

I was excited when my English teacher told us we were going to be reading this book.  I'd heard a lot about it, and everyone I knew who read it talked about how great it was.  I think everyone in my class enjoyed reading it as well.

I've read some negative reviews on Goodreads that criticize the book saying it's naive or idealistic.  I can see where their coming from, but I don't think that makes it a bad novel.  It may not be very realistic for a man to defend a black man in the south (or anywhere in the U.S. for that matter) during the time period when To Kill a Mockingbird takes place, but I don't think that really matters.  It is, after all, a work of fiction.  I also don't think naivety is necessarily a bad thing in certain cases, but I don't want to talk much about that.

I really enjoyed reading this book, and I'd definitely recommend this to others.

*I'm not really to happy with this review.  It's probably because it's late.  I'm tired, and I don't know if any of this will make sense after I've slept.  I may come back and edit this later, but I felt like I needed to (finally) get it up.