Discussion thread for Harper Lee's 2nd published novel Go Set a Watchman

[sarah_j]

Someone was telling me today that there’s been speculation for decades
that Truman Capote actually wrote To Kill a Mockingbird.
That was news to me, but I googled it and, sure enough, people have
been wondering about that.
For one thing, it would explain why Harper Lee never wrote another
book.

Just wondering what you all think about that.

It would be interesting to read both books back to back to see
how the writing style compares.

 

[7_Sorrows]

Someone was telling me today that there’s been speculation for decades
that Truman Capote actually wrote To Kill a Mockingbird.
That was news to me, but I googled it and, sure enough, people have
been wondering about that.
For one thing, it would explain why Harper Lee never wrote another
book.

Just wondering what you all think about that.

It would be interesting to read both books back to back to see
how the writing style compares.

interesting. I have never heard that before. I think they werr good friends. I saw the movie Capote and Harper Lee’s friendship was briefly pary of the movie.

 

[dixieagle]

Someone was telling me today that there’s been speculation for decades
that Truman Capote actually wrote To Kill a Mockingbird.
That was news to me, but I googled it and, sure enough, people have
been wondering about that.
For one thing, it would explain why Harper Lee never wrote another
book.

Just wondering what you all think about that.

It would be interesting to read both books back to back to see
how the writing style compares.

I’ve lived in southern Alabama for nearly 40 years, and have heard this rumor sporadically. Here is an interview with a renowned retired Auburn University professor who pretty much puts the rumor to rest:

npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=5244492

 

[3DOCTORS]

Well, I should get to read it soon - I’m No. 27 on the library list and I started out as No. 88 or something! I’ll probably want to buy a copy just because I like books and for the comparisons with TKAM. If I don’t enjoy it I might hope to find a used copy, and I wonder if a lot of people will read it once and donate it to the Goodwill . . . We shall see. And as soon as I read it I’ll share my thoughts here.

 

[3DOCTORS]

Thought I’d post an update as I now have a copy from the library and am about halfway through it. I’m finding it compelling enough to want to keep reading. As someone who writes myself (and as a big TKAM fan) I really do find it fascinating how this was the basis for TKAM. The big bombshell about Atticus has been dropped, but there hasn’t yet come a confrontation between Jean Louise and him. There are a lot of reminiscing scenes and my initial impression of those is that Harper Lee was writing her way into knowing the characters and the themes of alienation from one’s hometown as a young person who has been away and exposed to different ways of looking at the world. Also exploring what it means to be Southern - lots of that.

Well, that’s all for now; I’ll pop back in when I’ve finished with a complete summary of my take on it. Hope others will give their impressions. I think because it’s out there, whatever the circumstances surrounding its publications, it can and should be reckoned with, even if it does have more characteristics of a first draft than a finished novel. I’ve always been one who is curious about stages in a writer’s development, though, given my English major background and my own writing attempts.

 

[Songcatcher]

I was in my twenties when I discovered my dad was racist. When I talked to my mom about it, she said he hadn’t changed. But she did not allow him to express certain things in front of us when we were little.

Some people also feel it is okay to say whatever they want as they get older. And others become like their neighbors in an effort to fit in. There are so many reasons people change, some good, some not so good.

CAUTION: SPOILERS AHEAD!

This pretty much exactly describes the character arc of Atticus from TKAM to GSAW. GSAW takes place shortly after Brown v BOE and Scout discovers that her father is involved with a group that is fighting that Supreme Court ruling. She is shocked because she had never known her father to be racist and this group is known to be just a fancy, sheetless version of the Klan.

She cites the time Atticus defended Tom Robinson and the many times he told her as a child that “the negro” deserved equal justice. Atticus tells her that, yes, he believes in equality for blacks but he also believes in segregation-separate but equal. He is upset that the Supreme Court is telling Alabama they must integrate on their timetable when he feels they are not ready and that they were moving towards this on their own, in their own time. Much of the conversation at this point seems ripped from today’s headlines.

Earlier in the book, when Scout first makes her discovery, there is a discussion with her Aunt about Atticus that is very much like the quote above. She tells Scout that her Father never said ugly things about blacks because well-bread people don’t talk like that in polite society. There is actually a lot in this book about class differences and how the different classes may share the same views but express them differently.

I liked the book a lot and did not find it at all inconsistent with TKAM. It’s very raw which is both good and bad. It could have used some editing but that is also part of its appeal because it wasn’t tailored for a 2015 audience. Still, it is both timely and timeless. Lovely and disturbing. I can’t imagine it as a stand-alone though as much of the power of this book resides in the fact that, based on the Atticus we knew and loved from TKAM, we are as shocked and saddened by the revelations of GSAW as Scout is.

 

[7_Sorrows]

CAUTION: SPOILERS AHEAD!

This pretty much exactly describes the character arc of Atticus from TKAM to GSAW. GSAW takes place shortly after Brown v BOE and Scout discovers that her father is involved with a group that is fighting that Supreme Court ruling. She is shocked because she had never known her father to be racist and this group is known to be just a fancy, sheetless version of the Klan.

She cites the time Atticus defended Tom Robinson and the many times he told her as a child that “the negro” deserved equal justice. Atticus tells her that, yes, he believes in equality for blacks but he also believes in segregation-separate but equal. He is upset that the Supreme Court is telling Alabama they must integrate on their timetable when he feels they are not ready and that they were moving towards this on their own, in their own time. Much of the conversation at this point seems ripped from today’s headlines.

Earlier in the book, when Scout first makes her discovery, there is a discussion with her Aunt about Atticus that is very much like the quote above. She tells Scout that her Father never said ugly things about blacks because well-bread people don’t talk like that in polite society. There is actually a lot in this book about class differences and how the different classes may share the same views but express them differently.

I liked the book a lot and did not find it at all inconsistent with TKAM. It’s very raw which is both good and bad. It could have used some editing but that is also part of its appeal because it wasn’t tailored for a 2015 audience. Still, it is both timely and timeless. Lovely and disturbing. I can’t imagine it as a stand-alone though as much of the power of this book resides in the fact that, based on the Atticus we knew and loved from TKAM, we are as shocked and saddened by the revelations of GSAW as Scout is.

Thanks for the run down and your thoughts.

 

[3DOCTORS]

Having finished it now, I echo/reiterate the view that it has some qualities of a first draft. The pacing and how exposition is worked in (or not worked in) are more awkward than in TKAM. The time span and ending are rather underdeveloped. I think what worked in TKAM better is that the pacing was more even and consistent.

As for Atticus and Scout’s relationship, her disillusionment - I detected an almost Freudian or some sort of psychoanalytical undercurrent in the way that relationship was described particularly toward the end of the book. I don’t mean incestuous, more the idea that Jean Louise saw her father as godlike. The revelations could have been more subtly conveyed than they are. And I think if this novel had been expanded and reworked it would have attained that subtlety.

However, it did keep me reading and when I put it down I awaited eagerly the time when I could sit down with it again. No doubt much of that was curiosity and the enjoyment of finding out more about characters familiar and a few new. I was sad that Jem had died, interested in Henry’s place in the Jem-Scout-Dill childhood scenes.

The heart of the conflict - Atticus’s views on race and Scout’s shocking discovery of them - it was difficult to connect that Atticus with the Atticus of TKAM. Scout herself acknowledges her own attitudes about race which still have some evolving to do. The sense of the Southerner being forced to examine their hearts and consciences, if they’re brave enough and willing, that came across pretty well, especially when the reader acknowledges the historical time GSAW is set in.

 

[GEddie]

Since I haven’t the time or eye-strength to read everything I would like to, for the time being, I’ve decided to give **GSAW **a pass.

Edit: Now that I know that Jem was killed off, I’m not reading it. What’s with the need to kill off male characters unnecessarily, just because the main character is female?

ICXC NIKA

 

[codefro]

Alert - contains spoilers

As a huge fan of To Kill a Mockingbird, I know I was shocked.

Entire article here - nytimes.com/2015/07/12/books/racism-of-atticus-finch-in-go-set-a-watchman-could-alter-harper-lees-legacy.html?_r=0

I also don’t know if I care for the adult Scout (Jean Louise) Finch who is so much more cosmopolitan, has affairs, etc. I didn’t expect her to remain prepubescent, but I guess I did see her as more of a grown-up Southern lady like the character Miss Maudie, but not racist like so much of the town was in TKAM. And I fully expected and hoped to see Jem as an adult and their sibling bond in adulthood, rather than him be deceased already.

To read the first chapter:

wsj.com/articles/harper-lees-go-set-a-watchman-read-the-first-chapter-1436500861

Two books I hated reading in school: “To Kill a Mockingbird” and “Roll of Thunder Hear My Cry”. No desire whatsoever to read the sequel.

 

[utah_rose]

My Liberian wife would recommend getting on the waiting list for the book and read it for free!

Or, if you own a Kindle the E book is very inexpensive.

 

[3DOCTORS]

Since I haven’t the time or eye-strength to read everything I would like to, for the time being, I’ve decided to give **GSAW **a pass.

Edit: Now that I know that Jem was killed off, I’m not reading it. What’s with the need to kill off male characters unnecessarily, just because the main character is female?

ICXC NIKA

Well, it could be autobiographical influence - Harper Lee had two sisters who lived into old age and one brother, Edwin, who died at age 31. The character of Jem is more developed in Mockingbird because of the story taking place when Jean Louise is a child.

GSAW is a fairly quick read. I forget how many pages but it’s shorter than TKAM. Still, I get what you’re saying - so many books, so little time :coffeeread: so if a book doesn’t compel you enough, there are always others!

 

[ToeInTheWater]

I haven’t read the book, as I was never a big fan even of TKAM, which I only read because I had to for high school. However, I have followed the controversy. I’ve also heard that Harper Lee herself now suffers from dementia, and therefore, we’ll likely never know if she meant for the Atticus of GSAW to be the exact same character as the Atticus of TKAM.

But I do think it’s important to be aware that GSAW was written before TKAM. Hence, it is NOT actually a “sequel” the way most of us would define it.

So, just because Lee portrayed the Atticus of GSAW as a racist who believes in segregation while still believing “equal justice”, does not mean that when she wrote TKAM, she still meant for him to have these views. She could have, she could have meant for Scout’s POV to be completely unreliable, and I do recall when I read TKAM that she DID seem to idolize her father in a way that seemed a little “off” for me.

And certainly, one can argue that believing “innocent black people should not be railroaded into jail or worse” is a very basic civil rights point, that a man could hold, while still thinking it best if the races didn’t mingle.

Or, Lee could have re-formulated the Atticus character to actually be, or at least close to being, the paragon of virtue that Scout saw him as. That’s also possible.

Though I also recall a speaker who spoke at some event in HS, I believe sponsored by the African-American club, and stated as if it was obvious fact, that Harper Lee herself was a racist, and that TKAM itself espoused racist views. (In a general rant about how most white people were racist.) She never even bothered to explain why, it was so obvious to her. But perhaps she thought that Tom Robinson’s end was a cop-out that let Atticus off the hook for his failure to actually secure his freedom, and played to racist stereotypes of black people as lawless, as Tom Robinson is eventually killed trying to break out of jail.

As to the whole controversy as to how the book came to be; I’m no conspiracy theorist, but it is interesting how the book is being released at a time when race relations are so strained again, and it seems some non-white people, see white people as all essentially, unredeemably, racist at the core, that even those who don’t seem that way are just hiding like Atticus. And that Atticus’s attitude toward “negroes” might be compared to some conservative beliefs toward homosexuals – “So you claim you don’t support gay bashing and bullying, and I guess you wouldn’t want a gay person being sent to prison for a crime he didn’t commit. But if you don’t support marriage equality, then you’re a homophobe just the same.”