Thank You, Harper Lee

     

     It is not my practice to have a “favorite” of anything. Just last week, when I'd finished my Thursday gig, a guy asked me what my favorite song is. I told him that I have many, many constantly evolving favorites from a vast and varied catalog, but have never considered there to be a Number One. He seemed taken aback. I feel the same way about bands and musicians, artists, movies, filmmakers, actors, authors and food for that matter.

     However, there has always been one book that defies this rule. I have never hesitated to claim “To Kill a Mockingbird” as my favorite novel.

     I didn’t read “To Kill a Mockingbird” the first time for school. I sought it out on my own. I don’t know how many times I’ve read it, but I can say without hesitation that the amount dwarfs any other novel I’ve ever reread. With the news of Harper Lee’s death at the age of 89 last Friday, I have picked it up again. And once again, the subtlety of its depths stagger me. The huge cast of beautifully realized characters in itself should have made it a classic. It weaves courtroom drama, alcohol and drug addiction, race, bigotry, tolerance and intolerance, poverty, class, wealth, heritage, politics, comedy, tragedy and the perils and joys of family relationships, within a tale of a young girl’s coming-of-age. It is also a crystal clear encapsulation of a specific period in a small town of the American South, and manages to be unflinching in the depiction, yet graceful and forgiving.

     Through the wise eyes of our tomboy narrator, “Scout” Finch we experience the human capacity to
survive and endure love and hate from the vantage of both sides of every story. While watching Tom Robinson’s trial from the balcony, Scout realizes that Mayella Ewell “must have been the loneliest person in the world. She was even lonelier than Boo Radley, who had not been out of the house in twenty-five years.”

     This is a deeply human story, and Ms. Lee at a young age was able to distill and report in a deceptively, simple way all that it means to be an adult and a child during difficult and yet, rewarding times. If you have never read it, I urge you to give it a chance. I will even lend you a copy. I say this, as someone who has lent and subsequently had to buy enough new copies to fill a closet. You will laugh, and…if there is a heart beating in there, you will cry. If you are not inclined to read, this is one of the few novels where the movie version does the story and characters justice. After watching, I defy you to read it and imagine anyone else but Gregory Peck as Atticus Finch. Hell, that can be said of the whole cast. It was a perfect storm of the right actors for each respective part.

     In closing, please allow me to paraphrase one of the multitude of great lines from “To Kill a Mockingbird”: “Miss Jean Louise, stand up. Harper Lee is passin’.”