Go Set A Watchman by Harper Lee ***Warning***

[Little Star]

Some may not want to click on the link.

http://www.theguardian.com/books/ng-interactive/2015/jul/10/go-set-a-watchman-read-the-first-chapter?CMP=share_btn_fb

[mainstreetonce]

1. Anybody reading this?

I am about halfway through.

Love to discuss it when I'm done.

[Goblinmonger]

2. I finished it yesterday

Let me know when you are done.

[pamela]

3. I read it.

I really liked it. I think, with a bit more editing, it could have been a masterpiece. Very powerful.

I'm really surprised that more people here aren't discussing this book. In many ways it's much more complex than TKAM and so timely. After reading it, I'm starting to think that some of the concerns about Harper Lee's condition, and the debate over whether she was coerced to publish, reek of condescension. I can totally see why she would want it published now. I'm glad she lived to see it.

I have to wonder if the editor who encouraged her to turn this into TKAM didn't do so partly because a male "white savior" protagonist was more marketable and palatable to the white audience of that time. Don't get me wrong, I love Mockingbird and I'm glad it exists but I wish this novel hadn't been scrapped in the process. I'm glad Nelle Harper Lee finally got to be the hero in her own life story.

Spoilers ahead:

I see a lot of people saying this novel ruins the Atticus of TKAM and is inconsistent with his portrayal in that novel. I don't think that is true at all. GSAW has made me realize that Atticus was always a more complex man than we saw in TKAM and that, in fact, some of that complexity was evident even then. GSAW just exposes the dark underbelly of the "polite" southern middle class. I've experienced that with my own southern relatives-known people as a child who were warm and kind and fair and then later heard words come out of their mouths that made me want to vomit.

The Calpurnia scene was amazing and I wish that had been explored more. I saw a discussion about this on a GSAW review article in which people were saying that didn't ring true because Calpurnia loved Scout and wouldn't have changed that drastically. I thought it was one of the truest moments in the book because Calpurnia had her own family, children and grandchildren, whose lives were being deeply effected, even threatened, by the activities of the Citizen's Council and their ilk.

One of the really fascinating aspects of this book, for me, was all the discussion about class differences and the frequent use of the term "trash" and "white trash." I actually have so many thoughts on this that I am having a hard time processing and articulating them so I'll save that for another post if anyone is interested.

[mainstreetonce]

4. I wish

all the people who are discussing Southern culture in light of the SC flag would read this book.

Read this book and really try to understand Atticus and then discuss what does that flag stand for and why should it come down.

[raccoon]

5. I finished it last week. I was disappointed, which I expected to be. I don't like the **SPOILERS**

way she portrayed Atticus, don't like that she killed Jem off.

[Goblinmonger]

6. SPOILERS

Her brother died young in the war if I remember correctly, so there might be some of that in there. Though I, too, kind of did an "awww" when she just dumped it on us that he died.

Atticus makes sense to me. Think back to the lynching scene in TKAM. Afterward he says that Mr. Cunningham is a good guy. No he's not. He was going to kill a black man that OBVIOUSLY didn't rape Mayella. OK, sure, Mr. Cunningham is the lone holdout on the jury, but that's only because of Scout and Atticus and not anything to do with Tom. And think back to Mrs. Dubose. Sure, she is a morphine addict and she kicks it right before she died just because. That takes some guts. And when I teach the book, I use her as the example of there being no clear lines as to good and bad, but come one, Atticus, she is a horrible person and makes your kids feel like shit and calls you a nigger lover and you talk about how noble she is? What Lee writes in this new book about Atticus actually helps make sense of some troubling scenes I've been dealing with in a couple decades of teaching the book.

But I get it. Atticus is a great character and he is changed with this book.