Greatest novel of the 20th century?
One of the most enjoyable facets of editing a magazine like Mystery Scene is the research. Finding photos, writing captions, tweaking articles and reviews, all this requires a lot of rooting about in the history of the genre.
Which is why I recently re-read To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee.
There’s no doubt that this tale of racial and class injustice in the Deep South of the 1930s qualifies as an important book. First published in 1960, To Kill a Mockingbird won the Pulitzer Prize and has sold more than 30 million copies worldwide. It is taught in the majority of American schools, and is regularly chosen for “One Book, One City” programs. Recently, librarians voted it the best novel of the 20th century.
Impressive credentials, but dry, very dry. These kind of descriptions don’t convey the sheer pleasure of reading Harper Lee’s novel. Here’s a typical comment from Scout Finch, the book’s narrator, discussing her brother Jem. Atticus Finch is their father.
“The sixth grade seemed to please him from the beginning: he went through a brief Egyptian Period that baffled me - he tried to walk flat a great deal, sticking one arm in front of him and one in back of him, putting one foot behind the other. He declared Egyptians walked that way; I said if they did I didn’t see how they got anything done, but Jem said they accomplished more than the Americans ever did, they invented toilet paper and perpetual embalming, and asked where would we be today if they hadn’t? Atticus told me to delete the adjectives and I’d have the facts.”
This excerpt isn’t a vital part of the narrative but that’s the point. Lee doesn’t skimp on any aspect of writing. The narrative voice, characterizations, setting, plot, and moral vision of this novel are all equally important and equally well-done. This isn’t a dry sermon, it’s a living, breathing slice of life.
Be good to yourself, read, or re-read, To Kill a Mockingbird.
The upcoming Fall Issue #101 of Mystery Scene has an interesting article on Harper Lee by Art Taylor which we think you’ll enjoy. It includes opinions from Carolyn Hart, Margaret Maron and Michael Malone — three writers who know about about Southern literature.
–Kate Stine, Editor