Why To Kill a Mockingbird Matters - by Tom Santopietro (Paperback)

About the Book

With forty million copies sold, To Kill a Mockingbird's poignant but clear-eyed examination of human nature has cemented its status as a global classic. Tom Santopietro's book Why To Kill a Mockingbird Matters takes a 360-degree look at the Mockingbird phenomenon, both on page and screen.

Book Synopsis

With forty million copies sold, To Kill a Mockingbird's poignant but clear-eyed examination of human nature has cemented its status as a global classic. Tom Santopietro's book Why To Kill a Mockingbird Matters takes a 360-degree look at the Mockingbird phenomenon, both on page and screen.

Review Quotes

A detailed account of a classic novel's context, transformation, and acclaim.

A fascinating new book. Santopietro does To Kill a Mockingbird proud. Even Harper Lee―so reticent, so resistant to attention―would have been mighty pleased at this affectionate, meticulous and masterful explanation as to why Mockingbird still matters.

Absorbing and full of beguiling detail.

Fans of To Kill a Mockingbird, the film and the novel, will enjoy this work.

I barreled through Why To Kill a Mockingbird Matters, Tom Santopietro's comprehensive and multi-faceted investigation of Mockingbird's backstory, the movie's making, and the enduring influence of a story which, as Santopietro observes, is simultaneously straightforward and complex, traditional and subversive. Santopietro masterfully examines the novel's impact during the era in which it was published and also within the context of these present, more cynical times of race-baiting politics, the Black Lives Matter movement, and what readers might make of that flawed "other" Atticus Finch in Harper Lee's Go Set a Watchman. If, like me, you're a fan and a student of To Kill a Mockingbird, you will love this fascinating and timely book.

Meticulous attention to detail . . . Readers not familiar with the stories behind the novel and film will find much to relish.

Santopietro has certainly done his homework, and he applies the rigor of his knowledge admirably . . . Why To Kill a Mockingbird Matters is astute.

Tom Santopietro gets to the heart of the matter in every subject he has tackled in his illustrious career. His latest, the story behind the great American novel To Kill A Mockingbird and its superb film adaptation is fascinating. This gifted author takes you inside the world that inspired the novel and the process that led to its telling as only he can. Inspiring, hopeful and surprising at every turn, this is a glorious read in the moment we need it most.

About the Author

Tom Santopietro is the author of The Sound of Music Story, Barbara Cook: Then and Now, The Godfather Effect, The Importance of Being Barbra, Considering Doris Day (a New York Times Editor's Choice), and Sinatra in Hollywood. A frequent media commentator and interviewer, he lectures on classic films, and over the past thirty years has managed more than two dozen Broadway shows.