She worked for years on a second novel, and then, in the mid-1980's, on a book of nonfiction about a serial murder in Alabama, neither of which worked out to her satisfaction and so she squashed them. She made her peace with being a one-book author. Unlike her friend Truman Capote, she didn't enjoy the limelight. So she backed away from celebrity, declined to be interviewed or be honorifically degreed and simply lived her life, sometimes in Manhattan, riding city buses, visiting museums and bookstores in her running suit and sneakers, seeing old friends, and most of the time in Monroeville, in a ranch house with her older sister Alice, a house full of books. Built-in bookshelves, floor to ceiling.
Lovely, isn't it? Read the whole thing.
2 comments:
I'm like, the only person in the world who hates that book.
Books are a matter of taste, and not everyone likes the same things. Everyone seems to love Catch 22, and I think it's silly and WAY too long. (Yes, I get that it's supposed to show the absurdity of war, blah blah blah, but still . . .) Not to my liking.
For me, To Kill a Mockingbird is all about my Nana giving me my first copy of it when I was in 5th grade. And I think my continued love of it has something to do with the fact that it may be one of the only books that has a heroic, noble, and modest lawyer as it's main character.
As an aside, an attorney I used to work with named his kid "Atticus." While I admire the concept, I can't help feeling sorry for that poor kid.
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