I finished it today and passed it along to my wife. No need to worry; I am not spilling the beans about the plot. When someone does that for me, I really hate it. Tell me if you liked or hated it, but don't tell me what happens, be it a book, movie, television show or game. I will figure it out!
Amid myriad errands and things to do today, I stopped at Jersey Mike's for lunch. Todau I went healthy, with the Chicken Philly. I had my copy of the book with me, since I wanted to spend a little but of time reading it, partially to check out my new glasses.
While waiting in line, a young woman behind me said that she was not going to read the book. We got to talking. She was an English minor but was not teaching (she had been in South Korea for six weeks, so I told her about my three weeks there for Team Spirit in 1988). I told her that I taught English, and used to teach "Mockingbrd".
(Interesting sidelight: once a student asked me what I studied at Penn State. I told him I was a German major. He was rather surprised and said, "But I thought you were in OUR Army!" Fortunately, most of the class told him what he needed to know.)
As I spoke with the young woman, I said it was a backward way of reading, but that's how it happened. "Watchman" came back to Harper Lee with the recommendation that she develop Scout's childhood more. In "Watchman" Atticus Finch is not the stalwart, progressive figure of "Mockingbird". That's all I'm going to say; but that had some people beside themselves in confusion and maybe rage.
For a first novel, "Watchman" is quite good, although we do not know what Scout/Jean Louise actually does in New York City. Most likely the editors saw that, and some other things, and made the right suggestion. It is worth reading, however, and I recommend it unless one is so enamored of "Mockingbird" that any alteration is blasphemy.
Speaking personally, I would hate to see an earlier version of "Far From the Madding Crowd" where Bathsheba Everdene moves to London and works as a made for the Duke and Duchess of Something-or-the-Other.
I will post this from the Guardian. Since the General Election, I only do the Quick Crossword, but eventually I will scan the rest of the paper. http://www.theguardian.com/books/2015/aug/04/us-bookshop-offering-refunds-for-go-set-a-watchman-harper-lee
No comments:
Post a Comment