To Kill A Mockingbird 8/10

Everyone but me read this in school, so despite having seen the movie, and because it was the book's fifty anniversary I proposed to the sig that we both read it if for no other reason than to cross it off the list, see if it deserved the goodreads.com designation of "best book ever", and listen to my first Slate Audio Book Club episode after actually having read the title under discussion.

"cry about all the simple hell people give other people....without even thinking"

Wow, did it come though, so fulfilling, the writing could have spun its tires for days and I would have still stayed transfixed, the southern charm enveloped in a urbane sophistication that dumped the awesomeness of childhood innocence on the reader while remaining completely self-aware. I have a soft spot for Old Dan and Little Ann, but normally hate the backed up drain of cheap sentimentality that is the coming of age story, maybe that's because movies mostly botch the bildungsroman, or maybe the genre is just a plebeian haunt. Knowing the ending did decrease the momentum of the latter chapters, but the final porch scene is also to blame for the score, which should be higher. Oh, and it now holds the laughed out loud belt for novels in my limited federation, see the following.

"No we don't have mobs and that nonsense in Maycomb. I've never heard of a gang in Maycomb."

"Ku Klux clan got after some Catholics one time."

"Never heard of no Catholics either."

"the class tied Eunice Ann Simpson to a chair and placed her in the furnace room.....until someone investigated and brought forth Eunice Ann saying she didn't want to play Shadrach any more.... Jem Finch said she wouldn't get burnt if she had enough faith, but it was hot down there."

"Jem opened the door. He was in his pajama bottoms. I noticed not without satisfaction that the mark of my knuckles was still on his mouth."

"They're real strong magic, they make you have good luck. Not like fried chicken when you're not lookin' for it, but things like long life n' good health, n' passing six weeks tests...these are real valuable to somebody."

"Jem, I ain't never heard of a ______ snowman"