Ann B. (officeann) reviewed on + 3 more book reviews
First of all, To Kill a Mockingbird pulls in the reader from the very first page. Go Set a Watchman - I had to make myself finish it. Even the start of the book shows the harshness of the "new" character of Jean Louise. And from the beginning, it's difficult to follow. Jean Louise in one breath acts like she can't stand her beau Henry - then she is calling him pet sweetheart names. And this continues. It is confusing. The endearing nature of Scout - or Jean Louise - is completely gone. She comes across as angry and difficult.
There are also passages that strike me as gratuitous. The long passages about the first date to the dance with Henry, and the resulting actions of the principal; the long passage about Jean Louise's coming of age and naivety about her body and her concerns - those do not come across with the natural humor of the "hot steams" and other humorous parts of To Kill a Mockingbird. They come across as attempts to insert humor that have nothing to do with the actual story.
Furthermore, a great novel does not tell the reader what to think. It shows the reader, through the action. Go Set a Watchman is filled with long passages of Jean Louise arguing: arguing with Henry, arguing with her uncle, Dr. Finch; arguing with Atticus. And in most of the arguments, she is showing off her extensive vocabulary of unflattering swear words. The men try to convince her of their position; she refuses to listen but just swears back at them. This is not a book where the reader follows action by the characters, and then on his own comes to the moral conclusion the author is trying to make.
Very poor. Not at all indicative of Harper Lee's abilities. I frankly am not convinced that Harper Lee wrote Go Set a Watchman. The style is nothing like To Kill A Mockingbird. The depth of writing is much weaker. And would Lee, writing in the 50s, really have presented Scout as a hard-hearted feminist? With such a deep concern for the racial problems of the day? Reading from a 21st century bias, we see many such characters today. But in the 50s, they just did not exist.
Here is a celebrated author, in a nursing home, with no lawyer-sister here any more to defend and protect her interests, and who is not as lucid as she once was. It might be fairly easy to pull off such a hoax.
There are also passages that strike me as gratuitous. The long passages about the first date to the dance with Henry, and the resulting actions of the principal; the long passage about Jean Louise's coming of age and naivety about her body and her concerns - those do not come across with the natural humor of the "hot steams" and other humorous parts of To Kill a Mockingbird. They come across as attempts to insert humor that have nothing to do with the actual story.
Furthermore, a great novel does not tell the reader what to think. It shows the reader, through the action. Go Set a Watchman is filled with long passages of Jean Louise arguing: arguing with Henry, arguing with her uncle, Dr. Finch; arguing with Atticus. And in most of the arguments, she is showing off her extensive vocabulary of unflattering swear words. The men try to convince her of their position; she refuses to listen but just swears back at them. This is not a book where the reader follows action by the characters, and then on his own comes to the moral conclusion the author is trying to make.
Very poor. Not at all indicative of Harper Lee's abilities. I frankly am not convinced that Harper Lee wrote Go Set a Watchman. The style is nothing like To Kill A Mockingbird. The depth of writing is much weaker. And would Lee, writing in the 50s, really have presented Scout as a hard-hearted feminist? With such a deep concern for the racial problems of the day? Reading from a 21st century bias, we see many such characters today. But in the 50s, they just did not exist.
Here is a celebrated author, in a nursing home, with no lawyer-sister here any more to defend and protect her interests, and who is not as lucid as she once was. It might be fairly easy to pull off such a hoax.
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