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Go Set a Watchman, Initial Impressions_August 2015
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Lawyer, "Moderator Emeritus"
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Aug 02, 2015 08:42AM
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I am enjoying this for what it clearly is, that is to say an extremely rough draft and in no way a sequel to TKAMB and trying to see how Harper Lee used some of this and ideas in it as maybe a spring board. So, what has changed and what has been elaborated on ?There is so much more life in TKAMB than this book which I find to be a series of static views of the South. All the freshness and possibility of change that makes up TKAMB s charm is absent -just a thought
I just start Watchman last night. It will take me a few weeks as it was originally my next read so I am doing two books at the same time. I just joined so playing catch-up also I'm not the world's fastest reader.So far this book hasn't grabbed me like To Kill a Mockingbird did but after seeing the reviews this is what I expected .
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As I approached it my feelings were curiosity and excitement. The lively voice and humor caught my attention right off. What do I think? To Kill a Mockingbird had the most brilliant editor. If the stories about draft are true, then every editor and writer in the world should read these 2 books.
Good for Monroeville being divided. And now that I've learned a 3rd novel exists bridging the two, I think someone (corporate) is exploiting Harper Lee.
What an amazing editor indeed
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When I finally began to read Watchman I could instantly recognize that the voice of Scout in Mockingbird is the same voice as that of Jean Louise that we meet in Watchman.I agree Tom, and in many ways this is why the voice didn't work for me in Watchman, it seemed to come across, in some scenes -the Dance scene - as rather naïve or worse childish and uppity as when Jean Louise is criticising the men s observations of the Klan without seeing the whole picture she is too quick to judge This turns into Atticus' walking in someone else s shoes in Mockingbird. so, that was ironed out.
I recognized the lively voice right off and it was a delight. I was also really surprised at the opinion she formed of Atticus seeing him at that meeting. He didn't say one word and she jumped to the worst conclusion.
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I took that anger as the result of finding tarnish on a figure she had revered for her entire life. (I.E.: "What a hypocrite! That's not how you raised me!")
I can definitely relate to the righteousness of youthful idealism and the moral friction that occurs when attempting to keep peace at the dinner table. I've certainly been disillusioned by some of the things that have come out of the mouths of loved ones...and had to learn to live with it for the sake of a peaceful family Thanksgiving, Christmas, etc. I had to go back and remember my 14 year old self in order to not view Jean Louise's reaction as completely over the top.
"Aunty," she said "why don't you go pee in your hat" -Jean Louise Finch
The voice of Scout ? Very much so. I think her editor took one look at this manuscript and rejected it and told Harper Lee to re-write it as Scout. She went from being a novelist to being a storyteller.
Anyone else see Clock Without Hands as a similar situation? If I am incapacitated, don't publish any "lost" works. Really. If one doesn't try to publish a finished piece, there's probably a reason.
Bill wrote: ""Aunty," she said "why don't you go pee in your hat" -Jean Louise Finch
The voice of Scout ? Very much so. I think her editor took one look at this manuscript and rejected it and told Harper Lee ..."
That rings true to me. I've been speculating on the circumstances that brought this about, and I think you hit the nail on the head.
Clock Without Hands? Anyone?
Jane wrote: "What an amazing editor indeed"What Jane said. This book is an excellent example of the importance of a good editor. If she had intended to publish it, she would have worked on it a lot more, with her editor, and writer friends. It's so similar to the fiasco of McCullers last novel. Both, however, are better than anything I have finished, so I'm not going to dis them.
Mike wrote: "Here's the place to begin discussion of the long lost novel of Harper Lee. What are your feelings as you approach this read? Excitement? Trepidation? What do you think? I was present in Monroe..."The money folks will always publish anything by a successful writer with no regard for their artistic integrity. The moral of this story is to have a very good lawyer, and not to leave anything private in a safety deposit box.
Jane wrote: "I am enjoying this for what it clearly is, that is to say an extremely rough draft and in no way a sequel to TKAMB and trying to see how Harper Lee used some of this and ideas in it as maybe a spri..."I agree with your seeing this for what it is. If one expects TKAM, one will be sorely disappointed.
I always loved To Kill a Mockingbird, but appreciate it even more now that I know its origin. Harper Lee must have made an enormous number of revisions. No wonder she threw her manuscript out the window into the snow when she got frustrated.
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Diane wrote: "I read in someone's review that if Lee hadn't wanted this published, she should have destroyed it. Surely she knew, (if she doesn't now) that the vultures would be all over anything she's ever wri..." I have finished it and I really don t believe that it needed to be published at all -never thought I d say that
My initial thought was that this was not meant to be published but my hopes were that Harper Lee has approved of it at this time. I don't think we'll ever know . I agree with the others here who have said that they recognized the writing and feel of the book . I did so from the very beginning.I considered this to be a rough draft or the seed of TKAM .
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I think that there are a lot of autobiographical elements to Watchman. Both Harper/Jean Louise grew up in M___, Alabama, went to live in New York, and returned home during the height of the Civil Rights era. With that in mind, I believe she wrote the book to express her concerns about what was happening in the place of her birth. Unlike her New York friends, she didn't have the luxury of rejecting southerners out of hand. She was one. They were her people. What was happening must have been tearing her apart.
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Her father, Amasa Lee, practiced law and served in the Alabama State Legislature. Her maternal grandmmother's maiden name was Finch. Do you think for a minute that she wasn't writing about people near and dear to her heart?
Tom wrote: "Flash Beagle wrote: "I recognized the lively voice right off and it was a delight. I was also really surprised at the opinion she formed of Atticus seeing him at that meeting. He didn't say one w...I took that anger as the result of finding tarnish on a figure she had revered for her entire life. (I.E.: "What a hypocrite! That's not how you raised me!") "
I think's that's the reason too. That is where an editor would come in: Ok, she's known Atticus forever; knows he is thoughtful, carefully thinks things over. He is cagey: when Scout's falsies were found in the tree (very funny scene), Atticus is the one who basically said if all the girls had falsies then how could anyone tell who they really belonged to. He also said something like he wouldn't mind pulling the wool over a juryman's eyes.
Given those facts, Mr./Ms. Imaginary Editor should question Scout seeming to forget her father's own caginess, thoughtfulness, and jump to conclusions and scream at him. It's story content and making it make sense; a better way do something. It's really unusual to critique a book that is a draft/didn't receive final go-ahead until only recently.
Tom wrote: "Jane wrote: " I have finished it and I really don t believe that it needed to be published at all -never thought I d say that "I think that there are a lot of autobiographical elements to Watchma..."I agree with you Tom.
I intentionally read TKAM before starting Watchman, and being only a third of the way into it, I do not yet get the same sense of Scout we all know so well. There are glimpses of her spunk, sure - I just got past the flashback to the baptism-in-the-pond scene - although it is still a bit shallow. It is probably impossible to honestly evaluate Watchman because we are all stained by TKAM. It would be interesting to find an adult out there who has not read or seen TKAM and get his unbiased opinion of Watchman.
Leanne - I am struggling to do so . I have not read TKAM in over 25 years and I am struggling through it . I am remembering some parts but not every detail. It is a children's book in my eyes except for a few mature topics . I was really surprised they had to wait so last to teach the book in schools . Look how old Scout and Jem were during the time . So be patient and I think I can give you an honest opinion like someone has never read the books. I never liked TKAM. I must be the only one in the world , but it always reminded me of Tom Sawyer a bit . I read that the summer after first grade. My teacher gave me the book. We were military and I had to move to North Dakota before the end of the year . My little ears never looked at people as different . On base , we were always in school together and lived next door , etc... The only time I noticed a strangeness was when I spent my summers with my Grandparents in Tula, MS . Right outside of Oxford. My grandmother would use the "N" word and it was as though I had heard a cuss word .
I still would never use it .
I will let y'all know when I finish ....
Dawn
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First and continuing impressions: These are two very different books. For me they bear no resemblance to one another. GSAW is the story of a young adult woman at conflict with the values of her father whom she did not know he possessed. She questions her heritage. The values of her home. She believes that she is the only color blind person in Maycomb County. Incidents central to TKAM are absent in GSAW. Only in flashbacks do we catch glimpses of young Jem, Scout, and Dill whom we recognize as the children of TKAM. At this point, I question the value of GSAW. Had it been published, would it have become a hallmark of American literature? My current thoughts are absolutely not. Are my impressions subject to change? Of course. And, if so, you'll catch them in final impressions.
I've done much back story reading. And the story of the development of TKAM is a fascinating one. I'll not delve into that here. However, look for it in final impressions. It is a revealing look at the close working relationship between author and editor.
And, what's the story on Harper Lee's consent to publish this work? Well, we'll never know. However, there's interesting information regarding that, too. I'll include that in final impressions.
One final note on GSAW. This work IS highly autobiographical. Considerably more than TKAM. An excellent companion read is Mockingbird: A Portrait of Harper Lee by Charles J. Shields.
Dawn, I look forward to your objective review and agree that TKAM feels very much like a middle school book! People have a feel-good nostalgia for it, probably tied to reading it as a kid. I think they may be let down by Watchman because it is like learning that Santa isnt really magic. Sure, we are adults, but it is natural to pine for a sweeter past.
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Someone mentioned destroying writing if didn't want published. Maragret Mitchell asked her husband to destroy her work on Gone With the wind at her death which he did except he saved a few documents in case It was ever questioned that she actually wrote the novel. She didn't want people to see what it looked like before the finished product.
I missed Jem, too. The way I looked at it was in its real-world chronology. Watchman was written first, where Jean Louise was the star attraction - a young adult returning home to find that her childhood heroes were not who she once thought. In that little universe, she was the sun around which all others revolved. Jem and Dill were necessary only so that she could interact with in the flashback scenes. The whole goal of the flashbacks (and therefore the boys) was that we got to see how spunky she was and how revered her father was. The trial was mentioned just as briefly as Jem was.
One really has to give kudos to Ms Lee's editor and publisher - and of course the author herself - for seeing that the charm and morality lessons in the flashbacks was worth their very own book.
Jem didn't disappear in Watchman, so much as he was conjured in TKAM.
Laura wrote: "Thoughts on why Jem was not part of her adult life? Why was he killed off? Someone mentioned destroying writing if didn't want published. Maragret Mitchell asked her husband to destroy her work o..."
Well, she did originally name her character Pansy O'Hara, didn't she? It is good that her book underwent an editing process, for that reason if for none other.
Note - typing on my phone, in the dark, so please overlook my boo-boos!
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Good points, it's hard for me to think that this came first.
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Well said.
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I had no trouble at all. I just looked at Lee's picture on the dust cover and said, 'Yep. That's Scout alright.'
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I picked up this book with only one expectation: that I would learn more about the lives of the characters.When I found out that Jem was dead, I was disappointed, sure.
But the tone, Scout's "voice" was there. Yes, she's been living "outside of the World" by living in NYC, but she quickly adjusted, knowing all her people, their characters, well. And they accommodated her, keeping her in comfort.
Yes, it could use some editing. But, I keep track of ALL the errors in the books I read (check out some of my latest reviews), and most times, I'm very picky. I'm on pg 93, and have ONE error, and ONE quibble. (I leave what I call "style markers" alone.)
I'm enjoying the book. A lot. Like Scout, um hm, Jean Louise, I accept the old town as old, stuck in its ways. "Colored people" is honestly what I learned to name African Americans in public, (though in my heart, there never was any more difference between me and my friends except hair color or eye color. We all ran all summer long like almost naked savages, playing all the day, getting food where we could, crab apple trees weren't safe; neither were mulberry bushes, apricot trees, or sweet old ladies with cookies and milk).
I feel that flavor, that of the Time That Was, in this book.
One of my reviewer notes says: I hope the sales of this book and the excitement it brings will give Miz Lee all the $$$$ needed to keep her comfortable for the rest of her years. I can't believe she's hung onto this manuscript all these years!
So, exploited or not, she will get income, more than she had. ALL the publishing houses look for old manuscripts in cases like these! The sensation it generates, regardless of lack of stars, will sell books. It's a fresh injection of blood into the business.
And honestly, I'm glad the book isn't ~too polished. If it were, I'd greatly suspect a ghost writer at work. ;)
Oh, and whether it should have been published or not? I have read MUCH worse books, that are ~very popular, that aren't worth the match to light them up. Yet, they are published. They won't be remembered 20 yrs from now (thank the powers that be!). This one will be there. Maybe reclassified as an autobiography, who knows?
And of Scout herself... At 25, I was a know it all ~snot, weren't you? I knew better than anyone, at least when it came to morals... Yet I was a mess, I made wrong assumptions all the time. I believe, entirely, that Jean Louise would react as she has, so far. And will, if what I'm reading from y'all is correct. ;)
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Meran wrote: "One of my reviewer notes says: I hope the sales of this book and the excitement it brings will give Miz Lee all the $$$$ needed to keep her comfortable for the rest of her years...So, exploited or not, she will get income, more than she had. ALL the publishing houses look for old manuscripts in cases like these! The sensation it generates, regardless of lack of stars, will sell books. It's a fresh injection of blood into the business."To put this in perspective--
Harper Lee is very wealthy from royalties from Mockingbird. According to court papers filed against her former agent, HL earned $1,688,064.68 in royalties for the first 6 months of 2009. Mockingbird has been in print for 55 years--you do the math.
(http://www.celebritynetworth.com/arti...)
Even if HL does benefit financially from sales of GSAW, what about the ordinary people who bought GSAW expecting a good book and a valid sequel to Mockingbird? They have been disappointed, and according to some reviews on amazon.com, they feel cheated.
Also, IMO, book publishing does not need a publication like this--the first draft of an already published book, marketed as a sequel and a "newly discovered novel," which it is not. There has been widespread criticism of GSAW as a scam. One example:
http://www.nytimes.com/2015/07/25/opi... A triumph for the publishing biz? I don't think so. Many reviewers on amazon.com say it is a disgrace, and I agree.
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Did publishers make money? Absolutely! I really can't understand why so many people are against the publication of this book. I certainly do understand why some people choose not to read it. I hope Harper Lee is getting some good laughs from all the publicity surrounding it.
If Im not mistaken, Ms Lee has a scholarship fund, so whatever readers paid for Watchman can be considered a partial donation to deserving kids. Works for me. Ive read FAR worse books than Watchman and did so at hardback retail pricing. Finally, perhaps a bit more honesty in advertising wouldve made everyone happy. If sold merely as her first draft, then expectations would have been lower, and it couldve opened peoples eyes as to how long and hard authors & editors work to make the final work pop off the page.
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It's not like this was a secret. I knew exactly what I was getting into before I received the book. Granted, I ordered it on Amazon the first day it was available but, considering the author, I would have bought a phone book if her name was on the cover.
Having had my expectations adjusted by the truth of GSaW's publishing, I enjoyed it for what it was, an opportunity to get further insights into TKaM.
Diane wrote: "I really can't understand why so many people are against the publication of this book...I hope Harper Lee is getting some good laughs from all the publicity surrounding it." I would have had no objection if GSAW was included in a collection of the author's papers and made available through a research library. That is the typical practice for first drafts, memos, etc by an author.
I also would have had no objection if the publisher explicitly stated that GSAW is a preliminary work. Instead, the book was promoted and sold as a regular commercial novel, which it does not deserve to be. While the people on goodreads are informed about the nature of this book, a large number of other readers out there never got the message. They believed the promotion by the publisher and got no farther. I don't blame them for that, either. People typically buy books without researching the publishing back story, and they shouldn't have to. They trust that a book that is sold as a commercial novel is a commercial novel for recreational reading, not a literary artifact.
I've been reading the reviews on amazon.com. A large number of readers, especially those who pre-ordered or bought GSAW in the first week of its release, don't comprehend why the book is so poorly written and doesn't match up with TKAM. They are confused and disappointed, and they feel cheated in the money they spent. Some of them are heartbroken by the changes in their beloved characters. That's the wrongdoing right there: hurting readers like that for the sake of greed. If Harper Lee were aware of what is happening in the world with her book, I don't think she would be laughing about it.
LeAnne wrote: "If Im not mistaken, Ms Lee has a scholarship fund, so whatever readers paid for Watchman can be considered a partial donation to deserving kids...perhaps a bit more honesty in advertising wouldve made everyone happy."
When I googled HL's history of charitable giving, I found no information about sustained or regular charitable gifts, to a scholarship fund or anything else. She doesn't even fund the literary award named after her--a corporation funds the prize. This year she and her attorney set up a nonprofit to insure "the literary significance and historical contribution made by To Kill a Mockingbird." As far as I can tell, the nonprofit is set up but unfunded. Nor has it announced any plans for substantial charitable giving. For now I'm assuming that most of HL's book royalties are held as her personal fortune, estimated to be $1-$3 million dollars in income per year.
I realize you mean well by your remark, but "honesty in advertisement" is not a courtesy. It's the law. I've checked out information about violations of false advertising laws on the Federal Trade Commission website. I don't know if HarperCollins' practices meet the level to support a lawsuit. I sure would like an informed legal opinion, though. It's possible that someone will file a class action lawsuit against the publisher. The FTC also has the power to conduct an investigation, if it receives consumer complaints.
Tom wrote: "It's not like this was a secret...
There was plenty of pre-publication controversy about GSAW, but almost all of it centered on whether the book was being published with Harper Lee's valid consent. I don't recall much discussion about GSAW being a first draft of TKAM. The unpublishable quality of the book became an issue after the book was released, and enough people got a chance to read it. Also, IIRC, the publisher departed from usual custom, and permitted few professional reviews prior to the book's release. IMO, this secrecy meant that consumers were slow to find out exactly what GSAW is.
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Diane wrote: "...I just can't agree with that reasoning. I don't believe you can expect any publisher to guarantee that you're going to like a book just because you shelled out money for it."Hmm...let me try again. I am not saying that a customer is entitled to "like" a book simply because he/she has paid for it, or that such a thing should be guaranteed by the publisher. That would be ridiculous, and if you don't mind my saying so, a farflung interpretation of what I posted. We've all bought new books and lived with dissatisfaction after reading them. I've tossed out so many disappointing books in my lifetime that now I just shrug when I discard another one.
I am saying that GSAW has been marketed as a sequel and a "newly discovered book" when it is not. In that sense, readers are entitled to expect a valid sequel to TKAM, which GSAW is not. GSAW is a flawed and inconsistent early draft of TKAM, as has been discussed on this topic and elsewhere.
One bookstore in Michigan decided to come clean with its customers and offered refunds because GSAW is not what it has been promoted to be.
http://www.brilliant-books.net/go-set...
also:
http://www.usatoday.com/story/life/bo...
I have heard anecdotes of refunds given by other retailers, but none have been as upfront about their policy as this bookstore.
IOW, some ethical bookstores recognize why these readers are disappointed and distressed, based on how GSAW was marketed, and they have tried to correct the situation.
On the Southern Literary Trail
Books mentioned in this topic
Go Set a Watchman (other topics)To Kill a Mockingbird (other topics)
My Father and Atticus Finch: A Lawyer's Fight for Justice in 1930s Alabama (other topics)
Go Set a Watchman (other topics)
Mockingbird: A Portrait of Harper Lee (other topics)
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