The focus here is not on the 1962 movie, but on the 1960 novel that had already become one of the most popular and best-selling American novels of all time before the light first hit the screen. Here are reprinted recent essays on the book and author, critical contexts, and critical readings, most published since the turn of the century but a few from the 1990s. The topics include the Paris Review review, casting the self as the other, growing up good in Maycomb, Atticus Finch and the mad dog, the importance of the Africanist presence, the female voice, and the destabilization of heterosexuality. Annotation ©2010 Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)