- In To Kill a Mockingbird, Atticus was his own man; here, he essentially tells Scout you have to go along to get along. This Atticus, we're told, joined the Ku Klux Klan in his youth; now, he's on the local Citizens Council. This Atticus is a eugenicist: He believes in racial theory and reads pamphlets with titles like "The Black Plague." He warns the horrified Scout that: "We're outnumbered here [in Maycomb]" and observes that "Our Negro population is backward" and "Negroes down here are still in their childhood as a people." Scout, who takes up her fallen father's torch of progressivism, likens his views to those of Hitler and Goebbels.
I have my doubts that Harper Lee was of sound mind when she agreed to have this published.
Hey I love a good piece of pop culture trash. Yes, it is sad to see a sacred cow get turned into Big Macs but let's not forget burgers are delicious as is watching a fall from grace. I welcome reading an author destroying their beloved creation. It has a "Misery" sheen to it. Sorry for everybody's fond memories getting pissed on but I didn't write the damn thing.
hate to do this to ya, tng, but: I think a lot of the thoughts you're having are the same ones others are expressing there - a lot of disappointment, and doubts of sound mind. I think it's a real sad thing.
Yeah, it's a bummer. I stand with rd95, I will likely not read it. I'd rather preserve my memory of TKaM as well.
I think if I was going to read it I would have to walk into it as a "Alternate History" TKaM.
I knew it was gonna be bad. She wouldn't change her mind after all these years to finally just make a sequel out of the blue.
I refuse to read the book, the Atticus Finch of TKAM is one of my literary heroes and I don't want that ruined.
I recall reading when the news first came out about this that she wrote it long, long before TKAM, and that she never liked it. It was her place of inspiration for the novel, but it was never meant to see the light of day. There was some debate about her ability to sign over power of attorney when she did as well. So to blame her, or Mockingbird, or her writing for this atrocity would be wrong if all those things are true. This is purely the wrong of money-hungry relatives and lawyers. But then, confusingly: I don't know what to think. I'm also reading further that there's another "found" book and I have to wonder if this is even more sinister. A fraud writing under her name that knows her, trying to milk it for all they can. And, seemingly, a racist. I cannot believe that Harper would ever choose to make Atticus into that.... disgrace that's described here.[...] but I'm suspicious: It reads much more like a failed sequel. There are lots of dead patches in Go Set a Watchman, pages where we get long explanations of, say, the fine points of the Methodist worship service.