#1 New York Times Bestseller“Go Set a Watchman is such an important book, perhaps the most important novel on race to come out of the white South in decades.” — New York Times A landmark novel by Harper Lee, set two decades after her beloved Pulitzer Prize–winning masterpiece, To Kill a Mockingbird.Twenty-six-year-old Jean Louise Finch—“Scout”—returns home to Maycomb, Alabama from New York City … Mockingbird.
Twenty-six-year-old Jean Louise Finch—“Scout”—returns home to Maycomb, Alabama from New York City to visit her aging father, Atticus. Set against the backdrop of the civil rights tensions and political turmoil that were transforming the South, Jean Louise’s homecoming turns bittersweet when she learns disturbing truths about her close-knit family, the town, and the people dearest to her. Memories from her childhood flood back, and her values and assumptions are thrown into doubt. Featuring many of the iconic characters from To Kill a Mockingbird, Go Set a Watchman perfectly captures a young woman, and a world, in painful yet necessary transition out of the illusions of the past—a journey that can only be guided by one’s own conscience.
Written in the mid-1950s, Go Set a Watchman imparts a fuller, richer understanding and appreciation of the late Harper Lee. Here is an unforgettable novel of wisdom, humanity, passion, humor, and effortless precision—a profoundly affecting work of art that is both wonderfully evocative of another era and relevant to our own times. It not only confirms the enduring brilliance of To Kill a Mockingbird, but also serves as its essential companion, adding depth, context, and new meaning to an American classic.
more
To me, this was a retelling of To Kill a Mockingbird with few changes and not nearly as good. The characters did not seem as deep and formed.
Having let a few days drift by after reading Mocking Bird I picked up this book with great trepidation. Would I be disappointed? Would I recognise the characters? It was all false worry!
Set 20 years after Mocking Bird, this story sees Scout, now Jean Louise, return to her home town of Maycombe. Her relationship with her father is still at the centre of story and as much as she thinks she is her own person – she’s not.
Lee’s wit is just as sharp as it ever was and her capacity for drawing in the reader is not in any way diminished. There are familiar characters here, some have aged, some have drifted away into a lesser role and sadly some have disappeared never to return. But that is very much how life is generally.
I found this to be yet another incredible read that skilfully dissects and displays human frailties and relationships. I’m really glad I read it and yes I cried at the end! But then Lee seems to make a habit of making me do that.
Despite the controversy when this book was first published, in my opinion it sits well beside Mocking Bird and I will be reading it again at some point in the future.
This book should never have been published. The author didn’t ant it published and for good reason.
As the impetus for To Kill A Mockingbird, I found Go Set A Watchman fascinating, both in terms of the story and how much the story changed between the two books. The influence of Harper Lee’s editor, Tay Hohoff, changed the entire direction of the story.
I was expecting a great, enjoyable read. This didn’t deliver for me.
I was disappointed in this book.
This book has a lot to say and much of it is relevant in today’s world. Scout’s spirit is still very much there as she navigates her 20s and wrestles with who she is and how and where she was raised.
Quite possibly the biggest literary disappointment in my life.
There is a reason Harper Lee didn’t release this book for so many years.
She knew it was no match for To Kill A Mockingbird.
To lovers of To Kill a Mockingbird , this does not read like the rich prose of Harper Lee. I questioned the authenticity from the first pages. NOt recommended.
It was disappointing after To Kill A Mockingbird. It did not have a strong plot, and didn’t have as much life to it.
Did not compare to: To Kill A Mockingbird. That was one of the best books I have ever read…so I was disappointed in this one.
Great read! I would recommend reading it after To Kill A Mockingbird, because I liked having the stage set for what comes after. Highly readable!
Great book
It explains life in the south and how the book
To kill a mockingbird
Comes about
I didn’t care for it. Was disappointing.
I was very disappointed in this book.
If you have read “To Kill A Mockingbird” – you will know all about this book. It is a first draft to that book. In this story, Scout is a 26 year old who lives in New York City. She returns to Maycomb to visit her aging father, Atticus. Her brother, Jem, has died. Her father, in this story, is a racist as is most of the town he lives in. Atticus is not the father that Scout thought he was, and she isn’t sure she can live with that reality.
This book wasn’t great. I don’t have much to say about it. I am glad this didn’t come out before To Kill A Mockingbird where Atticus is a hero and a champion among the less fortunate in his town. Here he is just a man who doesn’t think that Black people have as many rights as white people and that they are definitely a lesser people who will never catch up to the white man. It is terrible. And the book gets a little ranty about the subject in the end. To the point I just wanted to finish it because I was so disgusted.
I know I shouldn’t be. I have read many a story with controversial material where people are treated much worse. (i.e. the several WWII novels I have treasured for their writing). I think it was BECAUSE of the Atticus we know from To Kill A Mockingbird that it made it hard for me to like this book.
My eldest read To Kill A Mockingbird this year for 8th grade. Her teacher talked to them about Watchman, and she refuses to read it because she doesn’t want to tarnish the picture perfect story she sees with Mockingbird. And now that I have read this book, I can’t blame her.
This was the book chosen for our book club. I watched the movie “To Kill A Mockingbird”; as I had not read the book, before reading this book so that I would have some background. I found the movie interesting and it definitely helped me to relate to Jean Louise Finch when reading this story. This is a powerful story about a girls awakening into womanhood on an psychological vs. physical level. Jean Louise becomes disillusioned when she sees Hank (her Maycomb boyfriend) and her father. This story is all about Jean Louise and her journey of self-discovery/awareness and how she handles some harsh truths about herself, her family, and her hometown. There is truth in the old adage that “you can’t go home again”; because, it is the mental not the physical act of going home. Most of us have an idealistic view of “home” and when you are away from that for a while and return; there is a harsh reality to the “new” home since you weren’t there to grow along with the changes in your community.
All-in-all a good story that shows some of the realities of desegregation in the South after WWII and how a young girl that now lives/works in NYC sees her hometown when she returns for an annual vacation.
I understand this one was written prior to To Kill a Mockingbird even though it reads like a sequel. It cannot to compare to Mockingbird, but it helps with the worldview that Mockingbird shared.
Extremely disappointing. It’s so radically opposite of To Kill A Mockingbird. Not at all what I was expecting.