It is an American classic. And when this book is within a few miles of radius, with a friend, how can I not read it ?! So I borrowed and jumped into it with a new-found energy.
Thirty pages into the book, I was beginning to wear out. The language was hard, the 1960's English where the words were unfamiliar, the names of the characters unusual ( Atticus, Calpurnia, Scout, really? I never heard names like that before ) and the story not going anywhere. I was still not connecting with the book. The beginnings are always slow, as the author takes time to weave subtleties around her characters to help readers understand who they are and why are they the way they are.
I almost gave up on reading the book, but being stranded in the airport for five hours and being way from home, alone, for 12 hours, journeying to the other corner of the country, gave me a chance to reconnect.
Three more chapters and the book became un-putdownable. I found myself laughing out loud at Scout's humor, that was sometimes satirical, and sometimes innocent. I felt myself feeling warm at the way Atticus raises his children, how the children study him and perceive him, and got exposed to a refreshing view of the ways of the world from a child's perspective. It amused me how children have a very undiluted view of right and wrong and how, as we grow, our thought process gets skewed by various other factors that become more important than being right.
The best take away for me from the book is the line, 'Its not yet time to worry Scout.' It beautifully and subtly reminds us that we begin to worry too early in the game. That its not over until it is over.
Its a very interesting read, if you are able to survive the first few chapters. This book helped an impatient person like me, sail the 5-hour wait. It gotta be good.
Some beautiful lines from the book :
~ You never really understand a person until you consider things from his point of view.
~ I wanted you to see what real courage is. It is not when a man has a gun. It is when you know you are licked even before you started, you begin anyway and see it through until the end.
~ Its not time to worry yet.
~ People generally see what they look for. And hear what they listen for.
~ They are certainly entitled to think that, and they are entitled to full respect for their opinions..but before I can live with other folks, I've got to live with myself. The one thing that doesn't abide by majority rule is a person's conscience.
~ Atticus, he was real nice.
Most people are Scout, when you finally see them.
~ When we say all men are created equal, it doesn't mean everybody is equal. Some are smarter, some are born with more opportunities, some make more money, some make better cakes. Some people are born more gifted than beyond the normal scope of most men. But they are equal in one place, one human institution where a pauper is equal to a Rockfeller, the stupid man equal to Einstein and an ignorant man equal to a college president. That place, gentlemen, is the Court.
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