Wer die Nachtigall...

Wer die Nachtigall stört, heißt das Buch auf deutsch. Ich habe gesucht, aber habe bis jetzt keine Erklärung dafür gefunden, warum man den Titel so weichgewaschen hat. Im Original ist er klar und hart. "To Kill a Mockingbird."

Und die Erklärung kommt direkt im Buch.

"I'd rather you shot at tin cans in the back yard, but I know you'll go after the birds. Shoot all the bluejays you want, if you can hit 'em, but remember it's a sin to kill a mockingbird."

Vielleicht sollte ich das Buch doch noch in deutsch holen. Nur um zu sehen, wie die Zeile sich dort liest: "Ihr könnt die Bluejays necken, aber stört die Nachtigall nicht.." -?

Aber vielleicht belasse ich es besser beim Originaltext. Es gab seit langem kein Buch mehr, das mich so in seine Seiten gezogen hat. Als ich das Buch mitnahm, dachte ich es fällt eher in die Kategorie Klassiker, in die ich einen Blick werfen wollte. Falsch gedacht. Ab der zweiten Hälfte habe ich nur noch kapitelweise gelesen, damit das Buch länger halt. Wahrscheinlich werde ich es irgendwann kaufen. Es hat zu viele gute Stellen. Wie diese hier:

Next morning, I awoke, looked out of the window and nearly died of fright.
My screams brought Atticus from his bathroom half-shaven.
"The world's ending, Atticus! Please do something - !"
I dragged him to the window and pointed.
"No, it's not," he said, "It's snowing."

oder diese:

Had I ever harboured the mystical notions about mountains that seem to obsess lawyers and judges, Aunt Alexandra would have analogous to Mount Everest: throughout my early life, she was cold and there.

Und neben der Geschichte dann noch 3 Verknüpfung: Lee Harper ist aufgewachsen - mit Truman Capote. Welcher Dill in der Geschichte ist, der Freund von Scout. Ich hatte keine Ahnung.

Und als ich mit Diana und Mike aus den USA mailte, und das Buch erwähnte, kamen dann ganze Geschichten zurück.

"To Kill A Mockingbird" is one of my favorite books. It is taught in school over here and is considered after Huckleberry Finn and The Great Gatsby as one of the finest American novels. And it is. Harper Lee was a childhood friend of Truman Capote. In fact the character Dill is Capote. She actually went to Kansas with him in 1960 and was his researcher and assistant while he wrote In Cold Blood.

The amazing thing is that she never wrote another novel, is extremely reclusive and irascible. There was a bio of her put out about a year ago, and if you see either of the recent movies about Capote, she's a major character in them. There are rumors that he actually wrote the book but that's ridiculous. Capote is one of my favorite writers but there's no way he wrote that book. I'm surprised you've never come across it before. Find the movie with Gregory Peck. It's very good.

My best friend Matt named his daughter harper Lee because he and his wife loved the book so much. One of my son's friends is named Atticus. I reread it every other year or so, always in the fall. It's a fall kind of book. I have a signed first edition, very rare. It's my prize.
- Mike

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I haven't read "To Kill A Mockingbird," but the movie is one of the best in American cinema. Gregory Peck plays Atticus Finch. There's an unforgettable scene in the courthouse, when Scout is upstairs with the black observers, and suddenly everyone in the balcony rises. "What's happening?" she asks worried. "Atticus Finch is passing," they say. It is the rare portrait of a good man, a moral man who stands up for what he believes.
They don't make heroes like that any more.
Harper Lee only wrote that one book and was never heard from again. Recently, with two movies about Truman Capote, they tracked her down in Alabama. The movie of "Capote" is worth seeing. But the film is completely stolen by Catherine Keener as Harper Lee.
- Diana

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Das ist, was gute Bücher machen - Kreise ziehen.

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