Hanging out with Harper Lee

The Mockingbird Next Door: Life with Harper Lee
By Marja Mills
Non-Fiction Memoir 

"To Kill a Mockingbird is one of the best loved novels of the twentieth century. In 2004, with Alice and Harper Lee's blessing, Mills moved into the house next door to the sisters. She spent the next eighteen months there, sharing coffee at MacDonald's and trips to the laundromat with Nelle (aka Harper Lee), feeding the ducks and going out for catfish suppers with the sisters, and exploring all over lower Alabama with the Lees and their inner circle of friends. 

"Nelle shared her love of history, literature, and the Southern way of life with Mills, as well as her keen sense of how journalism should be practiced. As the sisters decided to let Mills tell their stories, Nelle helped make sure she was getting that-and the South-right. Alice, the keeper of the Lee family history, shared the stories of their family." 

I wasn't quite sure what to expect when I checked this book out of the library, as I've never read a book about living next door to a famous author. Mills opened up a window into these sweet women's lives, who were graciously willing to allow her and us, the readers, into them. It was mind-boggling how simple their lives truly are (except for, perhaps, that Alice still practices law at age 90). Why wouldn't they be? But we, at least I, expect people who write great things to live great lives. Not that simple living isn't great, but it just wasn't what I had in mind. It was refreshing, though, to relax and just enjoy the simple pleasures in life that the Lee's explore on a day-to-day basis. 

There is some background information about the making of the various movies, the Lee's family, and Harper Lee's fears, which help put flesh on this mysterious woman, and I found fascinating. 

I enjoyed traveling with Mills through the back roads of Alabama with these wise, yet fun-loving, sisters and their friends. I loved seeing how their Alabama, the Alabama of To Kill a Mockingbird, once existed, and how, sadly, it is fading away like a cicada's song at the end of summer. At the end of the book, I felt like I had become good friends with all three, a part of their intimate, book-loving, adventure-hunting trio. It was sad to say good-bye on the last page. 

I do wish I had re-read the novel before I read this book, as characters and places from the book are mentioned in this memoir, and they're bit foggy in my memory. You don't have to re-read the classic tale before you read this book, but I do suggest it so you can reap even more gold from Mill's laid-back telling. I also wish she had mentioned something about the second novel Lee wrote, Go Set a Watchmen, since she discusses almost everything, but perhaps she left before then or didn't have permission. 

I give this novel a 4 out of 5 and recommend it for anyone (older than a child) who adores To Kill a Mockingbird. 

What I learned: Beauty can be appreciated without the need to possess it.