nomadreader

The backstory: When the publication of Go Set a Watchman  was announced, I finally read To Kill a Mockingbird , which I didn't love , but I still hoped to enjoy Go Set a Watchman  more, and I did. The basics: Jean Louise Finch returns to Maycomb from New York City for her annual two-week visit. My thoughts: Going into Go Set a Watchman , I admit I was reading it in multiple ways. I was reading it as though it were a sequel to To Kill a Mockingbird , which it sort of is. I was also reading it as a first draft of To Kill a Mockingbird, which it also sort of it. But both of these readings exist with To Kill a Mockingbird  as a known book. Much as I tried to identify what it would be like to read this novel without having read that book, I couldn't. While I both enjoyed Go Set a Watchman  more and think it's a better book, I'm not sure it would stand on its own as well as it stands next to To Kill a Mockingbird. My issues with To Kill a Mockingbird  were ...

The backstory:   To Kill a Mockingbird  won the Pulitzer Prize in 1961. The basics: Told from the point of view of Scout, a precocious girl in 1930's Maycomb, Alabama, To Kill a Mockingbird  is the story of that town, its views on race and class, and Scout's family. My thoughts: I wanted to love this book, as it is nearly universally loved. I respond strongly to themes of race and class, and yet I failed to connect to this narrative, with a few exceptions. I wrote last week about Calpurnia , who was by far my favorite character in the book. She was fascinating and complex, and I wish there were more of her in the novel. I appreciate that Lee chose to write this novel from the perspective of Scout. At times it helps the reader see things as an outsider, but it also limits the narrative. Admittedly, one of my literary pet peeves are child narrators who are impossibly smart and perceptive, and Lee avoids that quagmire by making Scout consistently her age, but I misse...