Audiobook review: To Kill a Mockingbird
To Kill a Mockingbird is one of these books where I've heard or read the title many times before, but I had really no idea what it was about.
I got motivated to listen to it through the computer game Tiny Bookshop. Doing so was interesting, certainly enjoyable, but not always easy. Not because of the quality of the recording or because of the story, both of which are good, but because the subject of the book is hard to stomach.
The story
Harper Lee is telling this story through the eyes of Jean Louise Finch, a girl growing up in the 1930s in the deep south of the US. Writing children is hard, but when it is done well as is the case here, it can bring a lot of perspective to a story. In this book, the children are written very believable. And to see the world through their eyes and to hear what they think with their innocence and infinite capacity for optimism is truly beautiful. So much the worse, to see their hopes and believes disappointed.
The story starts of slow, and the main plot only starts about half way in. Despite that, the first half is not at all boring. We get to know the family, the town and to experience life in the southern US.
The story eventually goes on to talk about racism and how black people at that time were denied their rights routinely and how that seemed normal. Other than this one, I have also enjoyed a number of excellent books by John Grisham on very similar subjects. It's not always easy to listen to, but it makes one think — appreciate one's own privileges, appreciate the progress we've made in the past decades and question what injustices we might still be committing to this day, even in these enlightened times.
The recording
The reading by Sissy Spacek is good. Unfortunately, she doesn't give strong separate voices to the characters, but the pacing and emphasis are great. The result is an engaging audiobook.
The audio is clear, nothing bad to say about it.
Who is it for
It is my believe that everyone will benefit from listening to this book.