Go set a Watchman

Locations
Call Number: Fiction / Lee, Harper, Adult Book / Fiction / General / Lee, Harper
On Shelf At: Downtown Library, Malletts Creek Branch, Pittsfield Branch, Westgate Branch

Location & Checkout Length	Call Number	Checkout Length	Item Status
Downtown 2nd Floor 4-week checkout	Fiction / Lee, Harper	4-week checkout	On Shelf
Malletts Adult Books 4-week checkout	Adult Book / Fiction / General / Lee, Harper	4-week checkout	On Shelf
Malletts Adult Books 4-week checkout	Adult Book / Fiction / General / Lee, Harper	4-week checkout	On Shelf
Pittsfield Adult Books 4-week checkout	Adult Book / Fiction / General / Lee, Harper	4-week checkout	On Shelf
Westgate Adult Books 4-week checkout	Adult Book / Fiction / General / Lee, Harper	4-week checkout	On Shelf

This book is an historic literary event: the publication of a newly discovered novel, the earliest known work from Harper Lee, the beloved, bestselling author of the Pulitzer Prize-winning classic, To Kill a Mockingbird. Originally written in the mid-1950s, Go Set a Watchman was the novel Harper Lee first submitted to her publishers before To Kill a Mockingbird. Assumed to have been lost, the manuscript was discovered in late 2014. Go Set a Watchman features many of the characters from To Kill a Mockingbird some twenty years later. Returning home to Maycomb to visit her father, Jean Louise Finch -- Scout -- struggles with issues both personal and political, involving Atticus, society, and the small Alabama town that shaped her. Exploring how the characters from To Kill a Mockingbird are adjusting to the turbulent events transforming mid-1950s America, Go Set a Watchman casts a fascinating new light on Harper Lee's enduring classic. Moving, funny and compelling, it stands as a magnificent novel in its own right. - Publisher.
A wonderful new novel from one of America's bestselling authors. Exploring the tensions between a local culture and a changing national political agenda; family arguments and love: an instant classic.
Twenty years after the trial of Tom Robinson, Scout returns home to Maycomb to visit her father and struggles with personal and political issues as her small Alabama town adjusts to the turbulent events beginning to transform the United States in the mid-1950s.

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COMMUNITY REVIEWS

Review submitted by kbowden on July 14, 2015, 10:40pm Lee develops her story through long dialogue sequences that read less like conversation than competing arguments

1950s submitted by drreader on July 27, 2015, 5:27pm Having lived in rural America in the 1950s, I find Harper Lee's new book to be a comfortable re-immersion in the culture of that time. I've only read the first few chapters so far today, but am impressed with her depth of understanding and description of the human condition. I anticipate that "Go Set a Watchman" will be another American classic.

disappointing submitted by lawrencekl57 on August 6, 2015, 1:46pm The first part was just boring. The end seemed to make excuses for racism.

Not what you want it to be submitted by mzbell on August 8, 2015, 3:01am This is neither a sequel or a stand alone book. It reads like a draft as that is what the manuscript originally was. Lee wrote Watchman before publishing To Kill A Mockingbird, a much better, well thought out book.

Not What I Expected submitted by rsbrown on August 18, 2015, 8:14am Before reading it, I avoided all reviews and articles about the book. After reading it and feeling disappointed that the book was in heavy need of an editor, I researched it. This book should not be labeled a sequel or even as a second novel by Lee. This was her first draft of To Kill a Mockingbird and when the editor told her she should just write about Scout as a girl since those were the strongest areas of the book, that's what she did. Some of the writing is great, some of it is really bad. The plot is lacking. However, I think it's a good read for those who enjoyed To Kill a Mockingbird. It's neat to see where the author started and where the novel ended up. But this book was marketed badly.

What a Disappointment submitted by zixyxuan on July 24, 2017, 8:31pm This was the second book I finished for the 24in48 readathon, and to be honest, I'm still not sure how I feel about it. On one hand, I enjoyed revisiting the characters that I loved from To Kill a Mockingbird, but this story lacked narrative and plot. It was really hard to get into the story when it was constantly switching between present and past tense. I would have appreciated the flashbacks more if it provided insight on Henry or Atticus's characters. Since it did neither, the climax of the story (this chapter long argument between Scout and Atticus) was pretty anticlimactic.

Even though Scout was portrayed as more "progressive" than Atticus, her actions and thoughts still defined her as a racist 26-year-old woman. I mean, she basically agrees with her father and Uncle Jack that the NAACP is toxic for the South and that the Federal Government shouldn't have any power over states. It was cute when you were younger, Scout, but as a 26-year-old...ugh. Come on woman, didn't you learn anything from New York?

But wait there's more. That ending. So after this huge argument, Scout has with Atticus, they reconcile and live happily ever after. WTF. Literally, nothing happened in this book. The last chapter basically wrapped all the way around so that the story ended in the same way it started. The only thing substantial now is that you know Atticus Finch is racist. But since he's nice she'll just let it go? What actually happened here?

This was a huge disappointment and a waste of my time.

Overall rating: 2.25 Stars

Disappointment is the key word in most reviews of this book submitted by mickplu on July 9, 2018, 10:29am This book was so disappointing. Although there's a few quote worthy sentences, the rest of the writing is stilted. Although some of the same characters appear, they are now very tired, jaded people who bear little resemblance to their more fully developed counterparts in To Kill a Mockingbird. There is no action, no mystery, and hardly a plot at all to this book.

Underrated submitted by redwood on July 18, 2022, 8:11am Many might be sad to have the relative racial innocence of To Kill a Mockingbird disrupted, but this is a necessary book. Yes, it needed a bit more editing, but it is a serious and intense exploration of white shame over racism, of the tensions between a young woman and her family and community--that ultimately cannot sever their bonds. White people in the 21st century should read Go Set a Watchman and then go look in a mirror.

Go Set a Watchman submitted by leighsprauer on January 24, 2023, 11:05am Go Set a Watchman is a "sequel" to To Kill a Mockingbird, although an unusual one in that it was written before the "original" work, but published much later. It's important to remember both of these facts: that Harper Lee wrote it in 1957, but it was not published. In 1960 she wrote and published To Kill a Mockingbird. Go Set a Watchman was published posthumously, in 2015. Although the events of Go Set a Watchman take place after those of To Kill a Mockingbird, it is more accurately described as a first draft of the more famous novel. (Lee reuses phrases and stories in a way that would not be done for a true sequel, for one example.)
In Go Set A Watchman, Scout returns home to Maycomb, Alabama for a visit from New York. When home, she not only connects with her childhood friends and family, but makes the shocking discovery that they're not who she thought they were: they are much more racist, and much less perfect than she had always been led to believe as a child.
I have mixed feelings about this book. The first and least profound, is that Lee does a much better job telling the story in the first person of a young girl than she does in the third person of Scout as a young woman. Secondly, the ending of Go Set a Watchman is confusing and feels unfinished. (And of course it was, arguably.) In those respects To Kill a Mockingbird is a much better and more polished book. However, I prefer Go Set a Watchman because the characters are much more believable, and I think it more accurately depicts the people and culture of rural Alabama in the 40s. Atticus is, for the most part, an upright citizen and decent person, but he, like many others, is a firm believer in states' rights, and bristles at the idea of the federal government or the NAACP interfering with their government. In his eyes, the Civil War really was about more than just slavery, it was about upholding their way of life, which of course included, but was not limited to racism. The then-impeding Civil Rights Movement is seen as too much, too soon, and many otherwise good southerners reacted against it because of this.
If I had to guess, I would say Lee wrote the first version to show the nuances of racism and culture in the south, but sanitized it in 1960 so as not to appear to be opposing the Civil Rights Movement. She recognized that the Civil Rights Movement was a good and necessary change, and did not want bias people against it, even though she and others might have had reservations about its methods and timing. In other words, there were parts of the Civil Rights Movement that were necessary evils, and Lee decided to support them rather than sympathize in any way with its detractors. (Of course, I'm not her and I don't know her motives, but this makes the most sense to me. It also makes sense that the decision to publish Go Set a Watchman in 2015 may have been politically motivated, as a way to show a different and more difficult side of the Civil Rights Movement.)
In short, if you're going to read To Kill a Mockingbird, you ought to also read Go Set a Watchman; there is nothing to be gained from only looking at one side of the story.

Okay submitted by lucydelo on June 30, 2023, 12:47pm Not the original but not a bad book

boring submitted by abahta on July 3, 2023, 2:39am boring