Go Set a Watchman in Around the World

Jul 24, 2015 Karen Witzler rated it it was ok

It was a quick and easy read that seems in keeping with the zeitgeist of the summer of 2015: this summer when Confederate flags are finally coming down in Alabama and other states. I tried to read it as if the author were dead and this was an oddity published afterward with other found papers. (I did not pay money, but borrowed my copy from the library.) I feel certain that this was a preliminary draft of To Kill A Mockingbird. Go Set A Watchman feels short and unfinished, with thin characteriza It was a quick and easy read that seems in keeping with the zeitgeist of the summer of 2015: this summer when Confederate flags are finally coming down in Alabama and other states. I tried to read it as if the author were dead and this was an oddity published afterward with other found papers. (I did not pay money, but borrowed my copy from the library.) I feel certain that this was a preliminary draft of To Kill A Mockingbird. Go Set A Watchman feels short and unfinished, with thin characterizations and a weak and misguided romantic angle, although the written version of Maycomb itself is quite lively. Jean Louise Finch comes to see that the "Heart of Dixie" (for those among you who remember those Alabama state license plates), like that of her dead brother Jem, was deformed from birth and doomed to fail. This realization forms the core of the book, but the thinking is muddled and inchoate, and the editor or whomever read it first, rightly saw that the one clear golden chapter is the one where three children mirror in play the social mores of their town. (Lovely to read, that.) The meeting with Calpurnia is heartbreaking, but only if you have read the other book. Everything to do with Henry felt like a writing failure. The ending wherein Jean Louise confronts and receives explanatory rationales from her family for following the Code, for membership in the Klan, states rights, keeping the NAACP down, reminded me of nothing so much as the ending of Rosemary's Baby, where the clueless main character discovers the true nature of her family and neighbors and must decide whether to stay or go. This is a short and inferior book, but worth reading if you have any interest in the South, Southern literature , or Harper Lee. As for the saintly lawyer Atticus, let me say that Harper Lee's original Atticus was the one critics of To Kill A Mockingbird always suspected was there, always told you was there, and that duality is real cultural and artistic fuel for discussion in this summer of 2015 as we grapple with the inherited racism deep in our American hearts.

06/2019 Revised rating 2 stars -- a piece of sh*te that toppled the reputation of To Kill A Mockingbird -- This was never meant for uncritical publication. Greed on the part of the Lee's lawyer and publisher. ...more

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Jun 03, 2015 Astrid Lim rated it liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: series, classic, literature, america, race, book-club

I'm quite disappointed with this book. Somehow I imagined myself would be walking down the memory lane to the charming Maycomb County with the ever lovable Scout and her brother Jem. Turned out, the journey was very different than I thought it would be. Scout (now 26 years old and called by her real name, Jean Louise) - is no longer fun, innocent, and charming. She's very rigid, a bit boring and unsympathetic. Atticus is a racist, but that's not the worst of all. The worst thing about this book ...more

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