Harper Lee (1926–2016)

What impressed me most about this nearly perfect novel is how well Harper Lee pulls off one of the most difficult tricks in writing: to write a story for adults told through the eyes of a child. Scout, the narrator, is eight to ten years old in the two years covered by this story, and almost everything she recounts is told in a way that a precocious tomboy would have experienced it and in words she would use. I rarely came across something I doubted a child would have noticed at the time or told in the words of an adult reflecting.

I’ve seen the movie at least twice, but one of the blessings of age is that I didn’t recall the plot perfectly. One thing I did remember was Gregory Peck’s portrayal of Atticus Finch. To drive that out of my mind, I pictured my great-grandfather, justice of the peace, as well as almost everything else in a small Southern town, with gray hair, a blind eye, and a deep voice. My mother would have been about the same age as Scout, so that helped complete the picture.

How long is the list of stories that were excellent both as a novel and a movie? This certainly belongs on it.… (more)