HARPER LEE AND ME

In this imaginative debut literary study, Dessauer seeks to unlock “secrets” surrounding Harper Lee’s classic novel, To Kill a Mockingbird.

Here, Dessauer has three key aims—to understand Lee’s silence following the publication of TKAM, to discover the author’s sources of inspiration, and to prove that the novel couldn’t have been written by Truman Capote (a persistent rumor). Dessauer believes that Lee refrained from discussing TKAM during her lifetime because she wanted the reader to uncover the novel’s secrets for themselves, which would lead to a “far greater appreciation of this book.” Regarding her inspiration, Dessauer contends that Lee, moved by her Methodist upbringing, references numerous biblical passages in her writing. For example, TKAM mentions an episode of a radio play (“One Man’s Family, Chapter XXV, Book II”); the chapter and book number point toward Proverbs 25:2, which begins: “It is the glory of God to conceal things.” (Dessauer suggests that Lee’s book abounds with similar concealed references.) About the rumor that Capote wrote the famous novel, the author has a simple response: The In Cold Blood author couldn’t have written TKAM because Capote courted celebrity and couldn’t have kept mum about that singular achievement. Along with presenting his three aims, Dessauer offers intriguing observations about TKAM. For example, he combed through Rammer Jammer, a student magazine to which Lee contributed, and draws thought-provoking links to Lee’s novel. He spotted an advertisement for Billups gas station in issue 25.2 of the magazine and notes that “X Billups is a minor character” in Lee’s masterpiece. Dessauer’s research into Rammer Jammer unearths many more convincing examples that suggest Lee was drawing from the magazine in her later work. Such proposals would most likely prove interesting to Lee scholars, but it’s disappointing that this brief book doesn’t expand further on these ideas. Scant attention is paid to academic tone or structure. The result is a meandering work that draws interesting but premature conclusions in its introductory passages but neglects to provide a developed or meaningful conclusion at its close.

A provocative new perspective of TKAM that often misses the mark.