– by Harper Lee

Review by Kuhoo Goyal

A beautiful book is rare. A book worded so intricately and enchantingly, that the picture it paints in your mind, the thoughts it incites, linger long after you have flipped the last page. To kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee is one such book.

The book which struck at the conscience of the entire American nation, which taught virtues when the world was fraught with vices, is one of the most thoughtful books one would ever read.

The book chronicles the daily life of a young female, Jean Louise Finch, a girl of six, who lives in the morally challenged America of the 1930s.

Lee masterfully weaves the racist undertones through the girl’s childlike narratives. She portrays the morally flawed conscience of the dwellers of Maycomb county.

Amidst all this, she carves out her protagonist- Atticus Finch, a doting father to Jean and Jem, a lawyer who tirelessly endeavours to wake the country from its racist sleep.

A book Is good if you can empathize with the characters and embrace their sorrows. If you remember every mark on the wall, every grass on the footpath. If it makes you ponder upon the world, to reason the good and the evil. And this is an example of one.

When you’ve met with Calpurnia and Jem and boo Hadley, played with Scout and read to Mrs Dubose, and admired Atticus Finch in your hearts, the book gives you a life’s worth of thoughts to ponder upon, all through this beautiful journey.

And memories of this journey stay with you long after you’ve flipped the last page.