Scout, Atticus, & Boo: A Celebration of Fifty Years of To Kill a Mockingbird

by Mary McDonagh Murphy

Overview

To commemorate the 50th anniversary of Harper Lee’s beloved classic To Kill a Mockingbird, filmmaker Mary Murphy has interviewed prominent figures—including Oprah, Anna Quindlen, and Tom Brokaw—on how the book has impacted their lives. These interviews are compiled in Scout, Atticus, and Boo, the perfect companion to one of the most important American books of the 20th Century. Scout, Atticus, and Boo will also feature a foreword from acclaimed writer Wally Lamb.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780062011718
Publisher:	HarperCollins
Publication date:	12/15/2023
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	239
Lexile:	1000L (what's this?)
File size:	849 KB

About the Author

Mary McDonagh Murphy is an Emmy Award-winning producer and an independent documentary director whose work has appeared on NBC, PBS, and CBS. This book is based on her interviews in the film Harper Lee: From Mockingbird to Watchman, broadcast on PBS's American Masters in July 2015. Murphy has written for Newsweek, the Chicago Tribune, Daily Beast, and Publishers Weekly. She lives in Scarborough, New York, with Bob, Kate, and James Minzesheimer.

Editorial Reviews

Murphy—an Emmy-winning writer, director, and producer—celebrates Harper Lee's only novel with a documentary, Hey, Boo, and this book, a collection of mostly venerating interviews with writers and celebrities, black and white, from Oprah Winfrey to Tom Brokaw, Rosanne Cash, and Richard Russo. A few incisive remarks emerge. James McBride, for example, takes issue with calling Harper Lee brave—doing so “absolve[s] yourself of your own racism.” Wally Lamb and Allan Gurganus, among others, reveal Lee's influence on their writing. Unfortunately, in Part I, Murphy summarizes the most interesting of her subjects' comments, creating a sense of déjà-vu when the reader gets to the actual interviews. Racism, smalltown America, Lee's 50-year silence since the book's publication, her relationship with Truman Capote, and the appeal of the book's principal characters are touched on by most of the interviewees; such shared themes and opinions result in redundancy. Readers should turn (or return) to To Kill a Mockingbird before bothering to dip into this disappointing collection. 11 b&w photos. (June)

Publishers Weekly

And that’s really what reading this book is like: attending a big book club meeting with 26 lovers of To Kill a Mockingbird.

|Los Angeles Times

And that’s really what reading this book is like: attending a big book club meeting with 26 lovers of To Kill a Mockingbird.

Los Angeles Times

You come away from Murphy’s book with a renewed amazement at what Lee was able to achieve with a single perfect novel.

Entertainment Weekly

You come away from Murphy’s book with a renewed amazement at what Lee was able to achieve with a single perfect novel.” — Entertainment Weekly

“And that’s really what reading this book is like: attending a big book club meeting with 26 lovers of To Kill a Mockingbird.” — Los Angeles Times

From the Publisher