Go Set A Watchman – Harper Lee

I want to tell you I loved it; but I can’t. I am not ready to tell you I hated it, either. I tried my best to ignore all of the spoilers and media-hype as I was reading this story, and I think I was fairly successful.

photo courtesy of http://pastemagazine.com
photo courtesy of http://pastemagazine.com

But; life goes on as it always goes on, and I was well beyond distracted with work, daughters, school-things, editing, and oh, yeah: I have not been feeling well for 6+ days now.

So, I will absolutely cut Ms. Harper Lee some slack here. But I do feel that even in my most focused state of mind, I would have found this a bit difficult to read.

When I first started it, it was like a breath of fresh air: someone who wrote because they had to, and it all came natural and nothing sounded forced. But then the point-of-view was changing faster than my teenage daughters change their clothes, or minds, or attitudes; truth-be-told.

At this point I am looking forward to hearing what you thought of it. One passage that I absolutely have to share:

‘Why doesn’t their flesh creep? How can they devoutly believe everything they hear in church and then say the things they do and listen to the things they hear without throwing up? I thought I was a Christian but I’m not. I’m something else and I don’t know what. Everything I have ever taken for right or wrong these people have taught me – these same, these very people. So it’s me, it’s not them. Something has happened to me.’ (Ms. Jean Louise Finch, pg 167, Go Set a Watchman).

Did you love it, or did you hate it?

3 thoughts on “Go Set A Watchman – Harper Lee

  1. Emilie August 14, 2015 / 8:06 pm

    Great quote – but honestly I was also a bit disappointed with the novel. I think it’s just because To Kill a Mockingbird was an amazing book and it was quite a contrast to read the sequel. Even if I felt great deception while reading it, I still liked it because I actually enjoyed reading the book and I liked the themes that were involved in its writing. Maybe if it hadn’t been a sequel to TKAM I would’ve appreciated it differently, I’m not so sure.
    I am hesitant between having liked it, the book being a light and refreshing one, and being very disappointed, as the storyline and character development were terrible and the plot was pretty much nonexistant.

    • Angela August 14, 2015 / 8:38 pm

      I agree Emilie. I can’t really put my finger on what exactly I didn’t like about it, but there were things I did not like. Thanks for posting!

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