Harper Lee's 'To Kill a Mockingbird,' and What It Isn't

There has been a bit of publicity about the 50th anniversary of the film version of Haper Lee's rather dull and obvious tale, written on children's level, loaded with platitudes and adored by secondary education because it is so fatuous.

It is not a classic by any stretch. Many think Truman Capote outlined the basic story for her in the same vein as he wrote his children's book "A Christmas Memory." Then he re-wrote or edited it for her after it was at first rejected. Capote's ego also had to allow himself the conceit of being a character in her book.

Harper Lee's To Kill a Mockingbird, and What It Isn't | By Allen Barra - WSJ.com

from June 24, 2010

Georgia had Flannery O'Connor and Carson McCullers; Mississippi had William Faulkner and Eudora Welty; Louisiana inspired the major works of Kate Chopin and Tennessee Williams. Alabama had. . .

Well, while Zora Neale Hurston and Walker Percy were born in Alabama, those two great writers didn't stick around my home state for long. And as for Harper Lee—Alabama born, raised and still resident—she doesn't really measure up to the others in literary talent, but we like to pretend she does.

Ms. Lee is at the head of the Southern class in one big way, however: The numbers are imprecise, but according to a 1988 report by the National Council of Teachers of English, her novel, "To Kill a Mockingbird," was required reading in three-quarters of America's high schools. Since its publication 50 years ago this summer, it probably ranks just behind "The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn," with American high-school students not only required to read the book but to tackle related projects. These range from drawing the courthouse where Tom Robinson, a black man accused of raping a white woman, was defended by Atticus Finch, to writing articles for the Maycomb Tribune recounting the trial, and recasting the movie with contemporary actors. ...

Atticus speaks in snatches of dialogue that seem written to be quoted in high-school English papers. Among them:

....

• "The one thing that doesn't abide by majority rule is a person's conscience."

• "Why reasonable people go stark raving mad when anything involving a Negro comes up is something I can't pretend to understand."

• "If you can learn a simple trick, Scout, you'll get along better with all kinds of folks. You never really understand a person until you consider things from his point of view . . ."

• When asked if he loves Negroes: "I do my best to love everybody."

Atticus is a repository of cracker-barrel epigrams....

It's time to stop pretending that "To Kill a Mockingbird" is some kind of timeless classic that ranks with the great works of American literature. Its bloodless liberal humanism is sadly dated, as pristinely preserved in its pages as the dinosaur DNA in "Jurassic Park."

-Bravo! This review needs to be attached to every copy of the book and DVD of the film. More is at the above link-