[Review] To Kill a Mockingbird - Harper Lee

Title of book: To Kill a Mockingbird
Author: Harper Lee
Publisher: Qanita

"Shoot all the bluejays you want, if you can hit 'em, but remember it's a sin to kill a mockingbird."
A lawyer's advice to his children as he defends the real mockingbird of Harper Lee's classic novel—a black man charged with the rape of a white girl. Through the young eyes of Scout and Jem Finch, Harper Lee explores with rich humor and unswerving honesty the irrationality of adult attitudes toward race and class in the Deep South of the 1930s. The conscience of a town steeped in prejudice, violence, and hypocrisy is pricked by the stamina and quiet heroism of one man's struggle for justice—but the weight of history will only tolerate so much.
One of the best-loved classics of all time, To Kill a Mockingbird has earned many dis-tinctions since its original publication in 1960. It has won the Pulitzer Prize, been translated into more than forty languages, sold more than forty million copies worldwide, and been made into an enormously popular movie. It was also named the best novel of the twentieth century by librarians across the country (Library Journal). HarperCollins is proud to celebrate the fiftieth anniversary of the book's publication with this special hardcover edition.


To Kill a Mockingbird is a classic novel about a lawyer who defends black man charged with rape of a white girl. I've been wanting to read this book. To Kill a Mockingbird is phenomenal, everyone has read this book (except me), my friends have read it and talk about it. I read this book's translated version. My friend has To Kill a Mockingbird in Bahasa Indonesia and I borrowed it from her. She gave me keywords about this book when I asked her to borrow it. Child, court, and racism. I don't know why, but the first thing that came to my mind was John Grisham. Maybe because some of his books that I've read revolve in such themes.
Anyhoo, first time reading the book, I'm a bit confused. Some of the sentences didn't make sense to me. The only reason that I could think of is this book was originally written in English, probably some meanings had been distorted when being translated into another language. So I have to reread from the start veeeery slowly just to get the feeling of this book. Thank God I wasn't far enough when I decided to reread the book.
In the first hundred pages, I was bored. I've heard that To Kill a Mockingbird is about racism and 'prejudice'. So I waited for that part to come. The copy that I read is about 500 pages and the main conflict (I think, because honestly I don't know which conflict is intended by the author to be the main) where the narrator's father, a white man, defended a black man in court is presented in page 300-ish. It's a looong way to go. The story was written from a child's point of view, so there's a lot of distraction. Hey, don't worry I get that. But sometimes, there are things that in my opinion, are too complicated to be told by a child. Hmm, maybe it's the language or anything else, I don't know.
Of all the part of the book, I like the court scene. I always like court scene anyway. The court scene is where things excite me most. The tension between Tom Robinson and The Ewells. It's a good read but I'm sorry, I got bored in the first few chapters so I only give 3 out of 5 for To Kill a Mockingbird.



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