Harper Lee sits snugly among the likes of Truman Capote and F. Scott Fitzgerald as contender for the American novelist, and so, could To Kill A Mockingbird be the American novel? 30 million copies sold and 40 different language translations would point that way, but it is the unerring adulation and detailing of dark themes in a southern gothic style that sits it in STARBURST’s wheelhouse. Well, that, and this version is presented as a graphic novel- something the fine readers of the mag seem to find near irresistible.
The novel charts the goings on of young Jean (nicknamed Scout) and Jem Finch, their father Atticus and friend Dill. The three children become fascinated by their reclusive neighbour Arthur ‘Boo’ Radley and try to tempt him out of his house to little success. In the meantime, their father, a lawyer is appointed to defend a black man accused of raping a white woman. This in turn affects the children themselves when they are bullied for being the children of a ‘n*****-lover’ – a slur used by Lee to cement the central themes of the novel and the use of which is actually explained in the novel’s afterword.
To say any more on the plot would be to detract from the novel’s intense exploration of racial segregation, injustice and commentary on southern attitudes. It also manages to detail the innocence of childhood whilst very much casting a dark shadow over what it means for the children when that innocence is inevitably lost. The first half is a dark southern take on The Wonder Years, the second half a courtroom drama far further reaching in consequence than merely for the man on trial.
This graphic novel is adapted and illustrated by Fred Fordham, the artist known for inking Phillip Pullman’s first graphic novel, The Adventures of John Blake: Mystery of the Ghost Ship. Fordham’s style belies that of a man of his age, instead it would seem to belong to some 70 year old master of the art, such is the quality on show here. Every box is a miniature painting worthy of hanging in the finest of homes, each portraying the essence of the emotion or action in a way that is both simple and complex in its simplicity. This is such an accomplished graphic novel for a man so early in his career, it is astounding.
Fordham’s adaptation of the prose is in line with the quality of the artwork. It cannot be an easy thing to trim a novel of its descriptive prose without removing any of the bite from the dialogue, but Fordham has pulled off a neat trick. If this is your first taste of Lee’s masterwork, you will not be disappointed. If you’re a veteran of the family Finch, do give this a go. The Great Gatsby next, Mr Fordham?
TO KILL A MOCKINGBIRD / AUTHOR: HARPER LEE, FRED FORDHAM / PUBLISHER: WILLIAM HEINEMANN / RELEASE DATE: OUT NOW
