I missed this pretty important anniversary the other day. A couple of days ago a truly great book celebrated it's 50th anniversary -- To Kill A Mockingbird by Harper Lee. I read this book the first time as a teenager and it has always remained one of my favorite books.In fact, I loved the book so much that I was afraid to see the movie at first. After all, Hollywood has ruined hundreds of books by making really bad movies out of them. But I need not have worried. The movie was great and very faithful to the book (and I have watched it many times over the years).
Personally, I consider To Kill A Mockingbird to be one of the two best novels written by an American -- with the other one being The Grapes Of Wrath by John Steinbeck. These two books powerfully take on two of America's worst problems, racism and poverty.
What do you think? Are there any American novels better than these two?
I've read it a dozen times and it's still great each time.
ReplyDelete"What do you think? Are there any American novels better than these two?"
ReplyDeleteI don't know about better, but certainly in the same league - perhaps even just as good:
On the Road by Jack Kerouac;
Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger;
Gone With the Wind by Margaret Mitchell;
... and my personal favorite, a book that speaks to our times more than 50 years after first being published:
Atlas Shrugged by Ayn Rand