29.07.11
I have no idea how I've managed not to read this for so long. It's one of those classics that you can almost get away with not reading, because it's so absorbed in literary culture. It's about a court case, right? And racism? Told from a child's point of view. Well, sort of. My impression is that it's more character-driven than plot driven - the plot is almost incidental, a devise to throw light on the vividly drawn population of a particular town. The court case is almost an awkward intrusion among other tales of childhood. But it's not told from a child's point of view at all - the narrator is an adult remembering events as a child, which (whisper it) doesn't always ring too true. It is also rather weighed down with metaphor - almost as if it was written in order to inspire a million essays. I did enjoy it but, as with all classics, let's not get distracted by sentimentality here.
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