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A review by n0tg4b
Go Set a Watchman by Harper Lee
1.0
dnf at 38%
I can go on a whole spiral about elder abuse and how Harper Lee said she never wanted to publish another book after mockingbird and was not cognitively there enough to consent to publish this in 2015, but let's just go around that. before you read this, know that this is a manuscript called watchman, which is a very very early version of mockingbird. and yet it was edited like it was to be a sequel.
this book is just blurbs and bubbles of decent ideas. it's barely cohesive. it's extremely obvious that Lee has had these characters dancing around in her head for a long time, and this is obviously a very early version of them.
•spoilers•
scout is portrayed as a major rebel, which is not new. however, this is more of a bratty rebellion than it is little girl stubbornness rebellion. I was not a fan at all.
the severe lack of jem just makes me sad!! I'm not really sure why it was like that but it leads me to believe that the manuscript was edited in the context that mockingbird was already released. I hated the fact that there wasn't much about how jem ended up but that's whatever.
this story is also set in the idea that atticus won the Robinson case. this book was advertised as a sequel, and yet we got that?? not cool. I would've taken a "tkam story" or whatever but this is very obviously not a sequel.
atticus is also a raging racist. just gonna leave that there.
this book was really obviously published just to get more money into Lee's estate before she died. there is no way she was cohesive enough to actually consent to publish this! and knowing that watchman is an early manuscript of mockingbird, it becomes more and more clear that this had to be heavily edited to suit the idea that it was a "sequel", and that this was never meant to be seen by the public. this publication of this book was total elder abuse. her legal representative failed her and tarnished her legendary name by giving this to her publisher. the publishers failed her by editing it so heavily (to make it a sequel) that Lee's charm and control of the reader that we see so clearly in mockingbird is not there.
the entire shroud of confusion and disarray and editing and failure that hangs over this book makes it impossible to enjoy. this is not Harper Lee's.
I can go on a whole spiral about elder abuse and how Harper Lee said she never wanted to publish another book after mockingbird and was not cognitively there enough to consent to publish this in 2015, but let's just go around that. before you read this, know that this is a manuscript called watchman, which is a very very early version of mockingbird. and yet it was edited like it was to be a sequel.
this book is just blurbs and bubbles of decent ideas. it's barely cohesive. it's extremely obvious that Lee has had these characters dancing around in her head for a long time, and this is obviously a very early version of them.
•spoilers•
scout is portrayed as a major rebel, which is not new. however, this is more of a bratty rebellion than it is little girl stubbornness rebellion. I was not a fan at all.
the severe lack of jem just makes me sad!! I'm not really sure why it was like that but it leads me to believe that the manuscript was edited in the context that mockingbird was already released. I hated the fact that there wasn't much about how jem ended up but that's whatever.
this story is also set in the idea that atticus won the Robinson case. this book was advertised as a sequel, and yet we got that?? not cool. I would've taken a "tkam story" or whatever but this is very obviously not a sequel.
atticus is also a raging racist. just gonna leave that there.
this book was really obviously published just to get more money into Lee's estate before she died. there is no way she was cohesive enough to actually consent to publish this! and knowing that watchman is an early manuscript of mockingbird, it becomes more and more clear that this had to be heavily edited to suit the idea that it was a "sequel", and that this was never meant to be seen by the public. this publication of this book was total elder abuse. her legal representative failed her and tarnished her legendary name by giving this to her publisher. the publishers failed her by editing it so heavily (to make it a sequel) that Lee's charm and control of the reader that we see so clearly in mockingbird is not there.
the entire shroud of confusion and disarray and editing and failure that hangs over this book makes it impossible to enjoy. this is not Harper Lee's.