Amagine - One of my favorite books of all time is To Kill A Mockingbird, but I must caution you that Go Set A Watchman is not in the same universe with Lee's former book. I, and many others, were greatly disappointed with it. It would have been far better had Lee not published it at all. Frankly, I feel it besmirches her memory. On the other hand perhaps it sets the record straight and just maybe this is what she wanted to do before she died ... see below.Amagine wrote:I don't know why the sequel has been out for so long and I haven't read it! I wonder if they will do a film version. As rare as this is to say, I enjoyed the film version of To Kill A Mockingbird more than I did the book!
When Harper Lee was writing To Kill A Mockingbird she was under the strict guidance of an editor named Tay Hohoff who made her rewrite it 5 times before it was published. At one point Lee wanted to quit but Hohoff prodded her on. I am now convinced that much of the inspiration and perhaps many of the ideas of the first book came from Hohoff; therefore, it is my current belief that half the credit for her first book should have gone to the editor because the second book is an example of what Mockingbird would have been without Tay Hohoff's guidance. Perhaps Lee's agreement to publish Go Set A Watchman was actually her way of fessing up.
Perhaps this is why it took so long for a second novel. It pains me to say this, but I think Lee herself knew she didn't have the talent to have written the first book without her editor's help. She even confessed to a cousin in later life that she could never duplicate the quality of the first book. She never, never should have agreed to publishing the second book. I would have preferred to have been left with my former opinion of her skills. After reading Watchman I once again felt the way I did when I discovered the fact that there was no Santa Claus. I would have preferred to have been left with the illusion.
Here is the story of Tay Hohoff and Harper Lee .... nytimes.com/2015/07/13/books/the-invisi ... .html?_r=0