As a native Alabamian, I couldn’t pass up this unassuming paperback about the author of one of the bestselling novels of all time, one which many have cited as the most influential book of their lives. Harper Lee is noted for her fierce insistence on privacy, and she has even been called reclusive. (She also doesn’t go by the name Harper in real life; instead, she uses her first name, Nelle.) Thus, it seems like a work which claims to paint a portrait of her might be a bit more prying than I’d appreciate. However, Shields sets the record straight regarding his motive in his introduction:
Consequently, this book has been produced without Lee’s help, although I have repeatedly solicited it. She has declined with vigor, even to the extent of refusing to respond to my attempts to check facts by mail and encouraging friends not to speak to me. After the publication of the hardback edition, she let it be known that she would not support any literary events in which I was included. I believe it is important to record Lee’s story while there are still a few people alive who were part of it and can remember. I have tried to balance her desire for privacy with the desire of her millions of readers who have long hoped for a respectful, informative view of this rarely seen writer. (2)
This is what Shields has accomplished: a “portrait” limited in scope but balanced and with a tone of utmost respect. There are times when I felt like I didn’t really get the answer I wanted, specifically in regard to what it was about A.C. Lee (Nelle’s father and the inspiration for Atticus) that made him so larger-than-life in her eyes and why, oh why, she remained friends with Truman Capote for all those years. However, knowing that Shields wrote this book using old interviews and Nelle’s own writing (and a lot of it, back from the day when Nelle Lee hadn’t retired from public life), I appreciate the fact that he doesn’t speculate. He just reports in a very engaging way on what there is to know.
Mockingbird is divided into ten distinct chapters, and each chapter addresses some time period or aspect of Nelle’s life. We see her, a Scout Finch prototype in many, many ways, as a young girl. We see a family life strained by the mother’s mental illness, although again, Shields does not speculate. We see the beginning of Nelle’s friendship with Capote, inspiration for Dill in To Kill a Mockingbird. We see her years as a student at Huntingdon College (where, incidentally, I attended Alabama Girls State over twenty years ago!) and at the University of Alabama (and yes, I am an alumnus of its School of Library Information Studies 😉 ). We see her growing toward a career as a writer and away from a career as a lawyer, which was her father’s wish. We see her bucking familial expectations and moving to New York City to pursue her writing dream. We see the lifelong friendships she made in New York. We also see her struggle to bring To Kill a Mockingbird to life. We see Nelle through the making of the movie. Mostly, though, we see the post-TKM years, during many of which another novel was promised. Ultimately, we see why perhaps why another novel never came to be. Shields says it best, again from his introduction:
I have come to believe that Harper Lee was inspired by love to create her great novel–love for the world of the South, for her little town, for her father and her family, and for the values she found among the people she most admired. She was lucky enough to have captured many of the things she most wanted to replicate her first time out. Many writers have done much less after fifty books. Maybe she was, in some sense, satisfied. Maybe her deed was done. (9)
This is a highly enjoyable and informative read for any fan of Harper Lee and her beloved To Kill a Mockingbird. I give it a Highly Recommended. (St. Martins, 2006)
Related links here at Hope Is the Word:
- More Mockingbird links
- Review of In Search of Mockingbird by Loretta Ellsworth
- TKM quote
- My thoughts on TKM
- Review of Mockingbird by Kathryn Erskine
This is definitely going on my TBR list. I love To Kill a Mockingbird, one of my all time favorite books.
I’ve just pinned it to add to my list! I have never read a bio about Lee before, though I’ve read TKAM about 10-15 times…
I do have a recommendation for you. The Mockingbird Parables. I read it years ago and really enjoyed it. http://livelearnlove226.blogspot.com/2010/11/mockingbird-parables.html
Huh. I have an interesting reaction to this. I AM curious to know about people. The more they dislike publicity the more I’m curious. I think that’s human nature. I know Bill Watterson is the same way and there was an insistent biographer who wrote a book about him despite Watterson’s aversion. (My review of that one: http://www.readingtoknow.com/2010/09/looking-for-calvin-and-hobbes-by-nevin.html)
I think I rather feel the way about this book about Lee. If she went out of her way to ask the author to stop their work and was not being heard or respected in this, then I think it probably should not have been written. We can be curious about things but it doesn’t give us a Right to Know. Anyway, my two cents. I AM curious. But I would have a hard time picking it up seeing that the author was practically begging for this book not to be written.
Yes, Carrie, I get that, too. In fact, had Shields not done such an excellent job of being highly respectful and non-speculative, I would’ve hated the book. (But then that would’ve required me to read it anyway, right?). I do get where he was coming from, though, in the idea that Lee’s friends and acquaintances will be gone before many more years have passed.