A surprising oversight remedied
Believe it or not, I went through the US public-school system from kindergarten through senior year and was not once either requested or required to read To Kill a Mockingbird. Nor, for some reason, did I ever read it in subsequent years. Imagine!
So, at age 45, I resolved to remedy this oversight. I found a copy cheap at the remarkable Strand Bookstore, and started reading. It really is an astonishing book: straightforward, yet unbelievably layered, poignant, and resonant. In a way I'm glad I didn't read it when I was 15: large amounts of its subtlety would have been wasted on me. (Most likely some still is, but at least I feel I'm in a slightly better position to understand it than I would have been 30 years ago.)
posted by Laura E. Goodin @ 9:56 PM (permalink)
3 comment(s)
3 Comments:
I didn't have to read it in school either but they did show us the movie and I liked it a lot. It's one of two movies I recall seeing at school I thought were worthwhile. The other was "An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge" from the story by Ambrose Bierce.
By some fluke, I figured out the twist ending of "Occurrence" before I got to it, which I don't think Bierce wanted to happen. Oh, well. Plenty of other times, people have said, "Oh, who didn't see that coming?" and I haven't, so I guess that evens things out.
I never had to read Mockingbird, nor was I shown the movie. I guess I'd better remedy that one day soon.
But I do remember seeing "Occurrence," too, so that must have been some kind of standard issue to public schools.
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