A 50th anniversary worth celebrating

On the 50th anniversary of its publication, I've been rereading "To Kill a Mockingbird," Harper Lee's description of life in the segregated South seen through the eyes of a child. The novel has been called the best novel of the 20th century, and I'm not sure I could argue with that assessment, although there is plenty of competition. Rereading it for the first time in perhaps 40 years, I am struck by its utter and beguiling simplicity. Lee gives Scout, the child narrator, an inimitable voice and a juvenile insight that can be more profound that any adult's. Scout's sentence structure is simple, but her vocabulary and understanding are not at all childish.

The most memorable portion of the plot is the concluding rape trial, but the trial is only one aspect of life in this small town. With childish fascination, Scout looks at a great many aspects of her hometown and finds meaning and insight far beyond her years. She portrays the diverse manners of race relations and the humiliating horrors of segregation through the eyes of a wondering child. Her father, Atticus, is one of the great, moral characters of American literature.

The novel was made into an Oscar-winning movie with Gregory Peck, in his greatest role, as Atticus Finch. But the movie, as good as it was, could not express the simple sincerity that Scout's narrative gives the novel. If any novel should be required reading for every American, perhaps this is the one.