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Overview
Overview
#1 New York Times Bestseller
"Go Set a Watchman is such an important book, perhaps the most important novel on race to come out of the white South in decades." -- New York Times
A landmark novel by Harper Lee, set two decades after her beloved Pulitzer Prize-winning masterpiece, To Kill a Mockingbird.
Twenty-six-year-old Jean Louise Finch--"Scout"--returns home to Maycomb, Alabama from New York City to visit her aging father, Atticus. Set against the backdrop of the civil rights tensions and political turmoil that were transforming the South, Jean Louise's homecoming turns bittersweet when she learns disturbing truths about her close-knit family, the town, and the people dearest to her. Memories from her childhood flood back, and her values and assumptions are thrown into doubt. Featuring many of the iconic characters from To Kill a Mockingbird, Go Set a Watchman perfectly captures a young woman, and a world, in painful yet necessary transition out of the illusions of the past--a journey that can only be guided by one's own conscience.
Written in the mid-1950s, Go Set a Watchman imparts a fuller, richer understanding and appreciation of the late Harper Lee. Here is an unforgettable novel of wisdom, humanity, passion, humor, and effortless precision--a profoundly affecting work of art that is both wonderfully evocative of another era and relevant to our own times. It not only confirms the enduring brilliance of To Kill a Mockingbird, but also serves as its essential companion, adding depth, context, and new meaning to an American classic.
- Format: TradePaperback
- Author: Lee, Harper
- ISBN: 9780062561022
- Condition: Used
- Dimensions: 8.20 x 1.00
- Number Of Pages: 288
- Publication Year: 2016
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Don't go cursing Atticus just yet.
Hunter S. - 1 year 10 months agoDon't go cursing Atticus Finch just yet, nothing has changed since To Kill a Mocking Bird except Scout's point of view. In the previous novel, Scout was in her naive adolescence just trying to make it through life while in this novel Scout is struck with one of adulthood's most undesirable side effects, realization.
HPB Staff Review -
Prequel Sequel Syndrome, but not the author's fault
Esther C. - 4 years 2 months agoBy way of introduction, I grew up in Michigan. High school, college, grad school, career, and now Half Price Books. I just rolled over my sixtieth birthday and here I am. Now to the book. I don't think you can read this new book without already having To Kill A Mockingbird in your fiber somehow. Having said that, Go Set A Watchman is the same story for me. It is a good story, mind you, but the same story set 20 years later. In the first book, Scout is about eight years old and lives in Maycomb, Georgia. Her father is the wonderful, dignified, decent and upright Atticus Finch. He is strong and true and acts for the disenfranchised. Scout is very much her father's daughter. All around them swirl the doings and misdoings of Maycomb, little down in the Deep South of Georgia. In this new book, Jean Louise Finch, now of New York City, comes home to Maycomb for a visit. She is in her mid-twenties. Atticus is in his seventies. The times are the 1950s and (to borrow a phrase) they are a-changing. Jean Louise's hometown sweetheart is somewhere between a fianc and a best friend not to mention Atticus' law partner. Atticus is aging and Aunt Alexandra has come to care for him. The wise and reliable Calpurnia has retired to a little house in the African-American part of town. The sleepy little town of Maycomb is beginning to live with the civil rights movement and they aren't comfortable with it at all. There is a citizens' committee to keep things from changing too much, to maintain the comfort zone. Jean Louise discovers that her near perfect father is a member of the citizens' committee and she is passionately and totally disillusioned. Discussions with her Uncle John - alternately aggravating and then clarifying - serve to restore Atticus' standing, while giving Jean Louse a more sophisticated appreciation of her not quite perfect but still amazing father. Harper Lee's rendition of the confrontation is painful to read, this young woman speaking of a racial relationship that has been 'understood' for generations and is now struggling for equality. The titles of both novels bring up the idea that we all have a conscience that our sense of right and wrong is the constant watchman. In this new millennium, we are still struggling. Just as To Kill A Mockingbird captures a slice of the 1930s, Go Set a Watchman gathers up the 1950s. It might be interesting to find another book in Harper Lee's papers that jumps into the 1990s and takes a look around. This novel is a worthy read. I do not doubt that it is Harper Lee's writing, nor do I see a reason to disbelieve that a worthy editor would read it and suggest that she write a novel introducing the characters at an earlier age. Grab a copy, immerse yourself in the 1950s and enjoy.
HPB Staff Review -
A timely new American classic!
Caitlin R. - 4 years 11 months agoHarper Lee's much-awaited novel offers readers a further exploration of Jean Louise "Scout" Finch and her world. In this follow-up to Lee's American classic To Kill A Mockingbird, Jean Louise returns home to Maycomb county, Alabama to spend time with her father, the distinguished Atticus Finch. In the face of national reform, Jean Lousie must come to terms not only with finding her place as a woman, but also the long-held conservative views of old family and friends still dear to her. With striking relevance, Go Set a Watchman offers today's readers a look at intrapersonal and national issues through the eyes of a young American trying to find her place between tradition and personal conviction.
HPB Staff Review