From the Bookshelf of Retro Chapter Chicks …

Go Set a Watchman

Harper Lee

Start date: September 1, 2015

Finish date: September 30, 2015

Discussion leader: Kris (My Novelesque Life)

Why we're reading this: Our Featured Book Month, moderator book choice.
[close] Our Featured Book Month, moderator book choice.

Find A Copy At

Libraries

Group Discussions About This Book

No group discussions for this book yet.

What Members Thought

Feb 03, 2015 Melissa ♥ Dog/Wolf Lover ♥ Martin rated it really liked it

Shelves: own

www.melissa413readsalot.blogspot.com

The high rating on this book is all for Scout! She is amazing. Even though this book was written before To Kill A Mockingbird, it's still the same ole Scout. She cusses up a storm, doesn't put up with anyone's nonsense and fights for what is right!

I was very sad at some things in the book..no spoilers. And there are some things that just made me sick. I could understand Scout up there cussing every body and their mama!

Aunt Alexandra is the same hateful woman ...more

47 likes · Like · see review

Sep 06, 2015 Book Concierge rated it really liked it

Shelves: concierge, library, social-commentary, southern-lit, audio, coming-of-age, own, racism, family, strong-women

Book on CD performed by Reese Witherspoon

A young woman returns to her small-town Alabama home to visit her elderly father. She expects to be welcomed back into the bosom of the loving family she knew as a child, but what she finds is somewhat different, and she hardly recognizes the people she has always loved.

What most resonated with me about this novel is how Jean Louise comes to realize that the father she adored as a child actually has some significant faults, and that his tumble off the pe Book on CD performed by Reese Witherspoon

A young woman returns to her small-town Alabama home to visit her elderly father. She expects to be welcomed back into the bosom of the loving family she knew as a child, but what she finds is somewhat different, and she hardly recognizes the people she has always loved.

What most resonated with me about this novel is how Jean Louise comes to realize that the father she adored as a child actually has some significant faults, and that his tumble off the pedestal on which she has kept him is perhaps more painful to her than to it is to Atticus. Oh, how I remember when I realized my Daddy was a man, not a god; it was a difficult transition but eventually I realized that we could disagree and still love one another. Lee does a great job of exploring this kind of family dynamic, though I did think parts of the confrontation between Jean Louise and Atticus were a bit heavy-handed.

What Lee really does well, however, is to put the reader smack dab in the middle of this setting. The timeframe is a turbulent one, and those of us who lived the Civil Rights movement know how “heated” the atmosphere was, especially in the South, during this time. Lee’s prose brings the culture, the physical heat, the townspeople, the smells, sounds, tastes and sights of Maycomb to life. Part of this were Scout’s recollections of her childhood, though I did think some of these reflections detracted from this novel’s story arc.

I like to give each book an independent look, though that is difficult in a series. To Kill a Mockingbird is such an iconic American novel that it is virtually impossible to review GSAW without referencing that first published work. I hate having to go there, but …

We’ve all heard the background of this novel’s road to publication. How it was actually Lee’s first book, but that her editors felt most strongly about the episodes where Jean Louise recalls her childhood, and that they recommended Lee write the book from that perspective. Rather than re-write THIS novel, Lee wrote a new book - TKAM - which has become beloved by legions of readers, this one included. I wish that Lee had either changed the names of the characters when she wrote TKAM, or that she had changed the character names in this novel before it was published. Having the same characters begs people to make comparisons between the two (and yes, I found myself remarking as I read/listened “that’s not how it happened in TKAM!” or “that character died in TKAM”), which does a disservice to both novels, in my humble opinion.

Reese Witherspoon does a marvelous job performing the audio version. From the beginning I felt as if Jean Louise, herself, was telling the story.
...more

5 likes · Like · see review

Feb 08, 2022 Ƹ̴Ӂ̴Ʒ Jenn Ƹ̴Ӂ̴Ʒ Schu rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: historical-fiction

“Prejudice, a dirty word, and faith, a clean one, have something in common: they both begin where reason ends.”
“The time your friends need you is when they’re wrong, Jean Louise. They don’t need you when they’re right”

I took my time to read the book that was a buzz when it was first published 7 years ago.
This procrastination on my part was because I didn't want to diminish my love for To Kill a Mockingbird. I will say that my love for TKM was not lost in Go Set a Watchman. In fact, I greatly en ...more

3 likes · Like · see review