"To Kill A Mockingbird" gets a sequel
Does anyone know why she didn't have it published in the first place? Maybe she wasn't happy with it and decided not to.
mrincredible said:
I vote for "Mockingbird 2: Kill Harder".
Does anyone know why she didn't have it published in the first place? Maybe she wasn't happy with it and decided not to.
I'm sometimes a little wary of this, but since Lee is still alive and involved in the release she must be okay with it! In the link in the OP, she says she was persuaded to write a different book, from a young person's perspective (Scout).
"In the mid-1950s, I completed a novel called 'Go Set a Watchman,'" the 88-year-old Lee said in a statement issued by Harper. "It features the character known as Scout as an adult woman, and I thought it a pretty decent effort. My editor, who was taken by the flashbacks to Scout's childhood, persuaded me to write a novel (what became 'To Kill a Mockingbird') from the point of view of the young Scout.
"I was a first-time writer, so I did as I was told. I hadn't realized it (the original book) had survived, so was surprised and delighted when my dear friend and lawyer Tonja Carter discovered it. After much thought and hesitation, I shared it with a handful of people I trust and was pleased to hear that they considered it worthy of publication. I am humbled and amazed that this will now be published after all these years."
Also, excellent choice of sequel title!
The success of Mockingbird was overwhelming. It seems that except in her small community she was interrupted all the time to respond to people who had read her book. Strangers coming up all the time to their house. Plus, I'm not sure she had the drive to continue working on novels. She did spend time in NYC and seemed to like it, but I think the invasions of her privacy were worse there.
gerryl said:
Hmmm...on Facebook was a notice that this book was published 3 months after the death of Harper Lee's sister, Alice. Alice was both Nell's attorney and protector. So some feel her current attorney has taken advantage of Harper Lee's aging, unclear mind.
I read a similar story that left a bit of a bad taste in my mouth.
http://gawker.com/how-unauthorized-is-the-new-book-about-harper-lee-1605214844
http://jezebel.com/be-suspicious-of-the-new-harper-lee-novel-1683488258
"Sadly, this news is not without controversy or complications. Harper Lee's sister Alice Lee, who ferociously protected Harper Lee's estate (and person) from unwanted outside attention as a lawyer and advocate for decades, passed away late last year, leaving the intensely private author (who herself is reportedly in ill health) vulnerable to people who may not have her best interests at heart... Tonja Carter, Harper Lee's attorney since Alice Lee retired at the age of 100, acknowledges that the author—who was left forgetful and nearly blind and deaf after a stroke in 2007—often doesn't understand the contracts that she signs. "Lee has a history of signing whatever's put in front of her, apparently sometimes with Carter's advice," Gawker reported last July."
http://www.theguardian.com/books/2015/feb/06/harper-lee-home-town-monroeville-surprised-bemused-sceptical
My concern would be more about reputation. If the book is kind of a dud, or really not on par with Mockingbird - after all, her publisher's initial reaction back in the day was to not publish it - it does diminish her stature a bit. That said, she doesn't seem to care much about stature.
Complicated.
Re: Go Set a Watchman - I don't know if this was already posted, but I was surprised to read the article in today's NY Times on the front page "Kind Hero of 'Mockingbird' Is Cast as Racist in New Book."
That was a very interesting book review... I need to read both books now!
Did anyone else watch American Masters on 13 last night? It was interesting to listen to all the writers talk about the work. And the story about her friends who gave her the money to write full time as a Christmas gift. They seemed to think that her mind has been clear enough to give permission to have the book published.
Today in the NY Times people on social media are protesting that this first book is not as positive as TKAM. I think it is hilarious that people are complaining about something that was written prior to Mockingbird.
As for money and compensation, it sounds like Lee made a good deal of money from the book and the movie.
For anyone who likes such, a writer, named Roy Hoffman wrote a lovely, touching column about how he and his daughter met Nell Harper Lee in 2007. This too was in the NY Times.
Also, his own book, Chicken Dreaming Corn is about Jewish immigrants in Mobile, Alabama in the early 1900's . Harper Lee wrote a very positive blurb for this book.
It sounds to me like both books are very interesting portraits of attitudes of the time when they were written, and I'm fascinated by the changes her editor requested, as well as how she originally wrote it.
Anyone else seen the movie about "In Cold Blood"? Harper Lee was very close to Truman Capote and apparently was on the scene a lot while he was doing his research for that book. Quite a portrait of him, and their relationship.
I don't see why we have to dislike a book just because it's not as "rose lens" as TKAM. This one is probably a truer reflection of how things were then in that part of the country.
Anyway, I'm going to read both now, one right after the other. The only question is, which one to start with??
Cracks me up...people talk about how this changes Atticus. He is a fictionalized character. She made a choice to change her character. I'm not so sure these changes are so unusual. Of course, if her editor had not encouraged her to change the viewpoint of the story, I doubt the book would have become the icon it did become. Perhaps she would have continued to write then. Maybe her life would have had a different trajectory.
Peggy, I think i will read both also. I had assumed I would read TKAM first since I am already familiar with it. But I was so intrigued by the Roy Hoffman column, I am going to read his book first.
Just finished reading "Go Set A Watchman." IMHO it comes across as being a much more balanced picture of the time/place than Mockingbird. What I found most interesting is that at the end of the book it is Jean Louise (Scout) not Atticus who is accused of being a bigot, due to Scout's inflexible attitude towards what is happening in her part of the South.
There was a very interesting article in the NYTimes a few weeks ago that explained that Watchman was a very early, unedited version of Mockingbird. Watchman was written first. Harper Lee, with help from her very strong and gifted editor, crafted Mockingbird from Watchman.
http://www.nytimes.com/2015/07/13/books/the-invisible-hand-behind-harper-lees-to-kill-a-mockingbird.html?_r=0
Just finished reading "Watchman" and was not impressed. Had this book been written by someone other than Harper Lee I doubt that it would have been given much attention at all. It was in my opinion just average and an OK read but not a great one!
I also just finished reading "Watchman" and was somewhat disappointed. It's a quick read and it does make you think and I do have questions.
"
First draft of a manuscript that was revised into a classic. It's nothing but a money grab. http://www.nytimes.com/2015/07/25/opinion/joe-nocera-the-watchman-fraud.html?smid=fb-share
Not sure it is a fraud, but an oddly timed money grab. I thought it was more nuanced than the reviews suggest, and that there are a few beautifully written passages that do not match some of the more pedestrian/preachy parts stylistically. Much of the dialogue is stilted, but the sense of place and evocation of time are notable. Lee may have had an amazing editor; if this is indeed an early draft of what became TKAM, her original editor was something close to a coauthor, or at the very least brilliant at suggesting revisions and course corrections. I am not sure I believe the various accounts of the manuscript’s discovery and could be persuaded that this was indeed an early attempt at a sequel. In any case, GSAW isn’t as bad as I feared it might be, and is worth the read.
It's a total money grab and fabricated "literary event" by Harper Collins. It is nothing more than a first draft of TKAM. It was never a sequel and any advertising as such is really false.
I haven't read it; I'm not really interested in doing so. The real lesson here is to destroy anything you don't want published, apparently. I won't even speculate as to whether or not Harper Lee was lucid enough to actually give consent for publication.
I think the people who are refusing to read it either out of principle or because they don’t want their image of Atticus to be ruined are missing an interesting read. I suspect Harper Lee is no longer able to give an authoritative account of what really happened and obviously there are lots of people with major financial axes to grind. All the same, the book has its moments, whether they are what Lee originally wrote, were deleted at her editor’s suggestion in the course of revisions, or were added more recently by a talented faker with an ear for midcentury history and southern cadences. I would be interested to know what southerners of good conscience make of it.
I've read it. I found the main character, Jean Louise "Scout," to be interesting,touching, and admirable. She's a young woman who, while she loves her home town, realizes that she doesn't belong there and can't live there anymore. Those of you who won't read the book should maybe think again.
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Harper Lee had written "Go Set A Watchman" (featuring Scout as an adult) in the 1950s. The manuscript was recently rediscovered and the book comes out on July 14th.
More here:
http://www.businessinsider.com/harper-lee-announces-sequel-to-to-kill-a-mockingbird-2015-2