Tuesday, April 28, 2009

Lee on her birthday

Maycomb was an old town, but it was a tired old town when I first knew it. In rainy weather the streets turned to red slop; grass grew on the sidewalks, the courthouse sagged in the square. Somehow, it was hotter then: a black dog suffered on a summer's day; bony mules hitched to Hoover carts flicked flies in the sweltering shade of the live oaks on the square. Men's stiff collars wilted by nine in the morning. Ladies bathed before noon, after their three-o'clock naps, and by nightfall were like soft teacakes with frostings of sweat and sweet talcum.

To Kill A Mockingbird
~ Harper Lee

3 Comments:

Blogger Pamela Terry and Edward said...

Isn't that the most perfect paragraph ever???

5/03/2009 12:58 PM  
Anonymous Terry said...

I have always enjoyed reading this paragraph .I also loved the gift of a Harper Lee .What a treasure for all readers.
Thank you for sharing her.

5/08/2009 12:46 PM  
Blogger Chris Overstreet said...

I began re-reading TKAM two nights ago. This passage is so much more descriptive than the abridged version she recited in the film. But, thanks to the film, I always "hear" the book, and especially this paragraph, in her own voice.

5/08/2009 4:46 PM  

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