Mockingbird: A Portrait of Harper Lee by Charles J. Shields Reviewed by Deborah Friedell
The New Republic Online
"Why are there writers who stop writing? Writers of remarkable ability who claim depletion of talent, or desertion by the muse, or even ? incredibly ? that they would just like to try something else? Their refusal or inability to follow up on their successes provokes forsaken readers into demanding explanations, the more fantastic the better. Failing for decades to publish a novel after Call It Sleep, Henry Roth came up with a variety of excuses, including sore elbow, anti-Semitism, and laziness." Read the entire New Republic Online review.