September 20, 2015

Series Sunday: Go Set a Watchman

(To Kill a Mockingbird #2)


Series Sunday is a bookish meme hosted by Literary Marie of Precision Reviews. I encourage all of my fellow book bloggers and bookhearts to play along.
  • Read an installment of a series.
  • Share your review/recommendation below.
  • Include the title, author and series name.

My Series Sunday pick is Go Set a Watchman, the follow-up to classic book To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee. Twenty-six-year-old Jean Louise "Scout" Finch makes her fifth annual trip home to Maycomb, Alabama. Her father, Atticus Finch, is 72 years old now. Her homecoming turns bittersweet when she finds out disturbing secrets about her family and the town. Through flashbacks to her childhood, Scout's memories are compared with her current values.

I drank the pop. I couldn't help but to read Go Set a Watchman, the novel that so many critics gave bad reviews on. However, I waited until the hype died down a bit and until I was finished re-reading To Kill a Mockingbird. I was curious whether this new novel—that wasn't meant to be published—would tarnish the classic reputation of Harper Lee's first novel. Especially for those people that named children after Atticus. (You deserve ALL the side-eyes o_O)

"You know good and well if I walked in church today with a hat on they'd think somebody was dead." ~ pg. 65

Le sigh. Go Set a Watchman barely passed my 50-page Rule. I only continued reading for the sake of curiosity though I determined early on that majority of the bad reviews were right. If this was about her estate taking advantage of her old age and wanting money, then I wish an anniversary or special signed edition of TKAM was released instead. I don't think it is a coincidence GSAW is found and published in the middle of the #BlackLivesMatter movement or nationwide race debates. If anything, GSAW was a literary reminder of how far we haven't come. It is not much difference in how blacks are treated now in 2015 than in 1960 when TKAM was first published. It is definitely not surprising to read that Atticus Finch fought for equality and justice in public but was perceived as a closet racist to some, granted he gave an explanation as to why he attended Ku Klux Klan meetings in this new unnecessarily published novel. (Roll your eyes here.)

It was a reason Harper Lee's editor rejected Go Set a Watchman when the manuscript was first presented. Too bad it conveniently reappeared.

Author: Harper Lee
Published: July 2015
Pages: 192
Edition: eBook
Rating: ♥♡

  

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