Reading Journal 2024: My Father and Atticus Finch: A Lawyer’s Fight For Justice In 1930’s Alabama
Author: Joseph Madison Beck
While Harper Lee is on record saying that the story of To Kill a Mockingbird was not modeled after Joseph Becks trial case of a black man (Charles White), at least part of this research project, undertaken by Beck’s son, Joseph Beck, was driven by the curiosity to explore the possibility. Mostly though it’s the product of one man’s desire to learn the story of his father through parsing through the details of his most famous case.
The story is told from the voice of the son, bouncing back and forth between his observations as he uncovers bits and pieces through his research, and dramatized treatments of pivotal points in his father’s life as he prods and grows his way through the case. As such, we get a detailed picture of life in the south and the racism that held it in its grip, even as the seeds were being planted for potential change.
It’s an easy read. The end of the book offers some reflection on the parts of Beck’s case that parallel Lee’s novel, and the parts that deviate. As such, it leaves one always uncertain about which way this story is going to go, in line with the book or travelling it’s own course. This becomes part of the intrigue.
I picked it up at a local bookstore during my trip to the south, including to Monroeville. Looked like it might be a good snapshot of the history and the culture, being a real life version of the iconic Mockingbird. and it satisfied those hope’s.
The Stories of my Life 