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    Ve y pon un centinela (Go Set a Watchman - Spanish Edition)
    Ve y pon un centinela (Go Set a Watchman - Spanish Edition)
    Ve y pon un centinela (Go Set a Watchman - Spanish Edition)
    Audiolibro8 horas

    Ve y pon un centinela (Go Set a Watchman - Spanish Edition)

    Escrito por Harper Lee

    Narrado por Adriana Sananes

    3.5/5

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    Información de este audiolibro

    Harper Lee trae una nueva novela emblemática ambientada dos décadas después de la historia de la obra maestra ganadora del Pulitzer, Matar a un ruiseñor Maycomb, Alabama. A sus veintiséis años, Jean Louise Finch —«Scout»— vuelve a casa desde la ciudad de Nueva York para visitar su anciano padre, Atticus. En el contexto de las tensiones por los derechos civiles y de los disturbios políticos que estaban transformando el Sur, el regreso de Jean Louise a casa se torna agridulce cuando descubre verdades perturbadoras acerca de su querida y unida familia, de la ciudad y de las personas que más quiere. Los recuerdos de infancia la invaden y ve cuestionados sus valores y fundamentos. Con muchos de los personajes más sobresalientes de Matar a un ruiseñor, Ve y pon un centinela capta a la perfección la situación de una joven y un mundo inmersos en una transición dolorosa para dejar atrás las ilusiones del pasado, un viaje que únicamente puede ser guiado por la propia conciencia. Escrito a mediados de los años cincuenta, Ve y pon un centinela nos ayuda a entender y apreciar mejor a Harper Lee. Esta es una inolvidable novela de sabiduría, humanidad, pasión, humor y espontánea precisión, una obra de arte hondamente emotiva que evoca de una forma maravillosa otra época sin perder su plena relevancia para nuestros tiempos. No solo confirma la inmarchitable genialidad de Matar a un ruiseñor, sino que representa además un complemento esencial que añade profundidad, contexto y nuevo significado al clásico estadounidense.
    IdiomaEspañol
    EditorialHarperCollins
    Fecha de lanzamiento14 jul 2015
    ISBN9780718076818
    Autor

    Harper Lee

    Harper Lee was born in 1926 in Monroeville, Alabama. She is the author of the acclaimed To Kill a Mockingbird and Go Set a Watchman, which became a phenomenal #1 New York Times bestseller when it was published in July 2015. Ms. Lee received the Pulitzer Prize, the Presidential Medal of Freedom, and numerous other literary awards and honors. She died on February 19, 2016.

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    Comentarios para Ve y pon un centinela (Go Set a Watchman - Spanish Edition)

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    • 3/5
      The plot is rather slow and plodding, I couldn't see where the book is heading till the last third. The main storyline is Scout learning that her father is not as good as she thinks and that at times, he is forced to do things he doesn't want to. Fair but weird.
    • 4/5
      I have to start off by saying that I listened to this as an audiobook--read by Reese Witherspoon. I'm a big fan of Ms. Witherspoon, and I know she's a true Southerner, so I believe that really helped her set the tone of the book....

      I loved this story! I've been a fan of "To Kill a Mockingbird" for ages. I was afraid to read "Watchman", after hearing some people say they were disappointed by this book. However, it was just as rich and true and heartwarming as the first, in my opinion!

      Many people have told me they were disappointed in Atticus--it worried me, that perhaps he did something completely unethical, unthinkable, inhumane. And I suppose, to Scout's mind, he did... but it was nowhere near as bad as I'd feared! In the end, it's about Scout learning that Atticus is NOT a god, he is a man, and he is fallible, and he can make mistakes. I believe what he does in this story is possibly a mistake, possibly not, depending on how each reader looks at it. I appreciate that being left to interpretation!

      I definitely recommend this book!!!
    • 3/5
      Narrated by Reese Witherspoon. Initial thoughts before I try listening to this again: I liked seeing Scout as the adult Jean Louise. There is still the spark of her personality as as child. Uncle Jack is Jean Louise's moral compass and confidant as she tries to figure out what has happened to people in Maycomb, while Atticus is less the influence on Scout than he was in "Mockingbird;" he's now a "tin idol." Jean Louise's flashback stories added a certain charm. It is hard to hear the characters' comments about blacks being backward and simple and would be especially painful to hear if I were black, even putting it into historical context. I enjoyed the story overall until Jean Louise loses it after seeing Atticus and Hank attend the Citizens Committee meeting. Then it all fell apart and got tedious for me, especially when she goes to Uncle Jack and he expounds on some kind of history that I didn't understand. All the following discussions about race relations vs the ways of Maycomb's people and how Atticus brought up Jean Louise plus states' rights became a mess of mixed messages. I wasn't sure what was trying to be said about race or the South or its tortured history or where Jean Louise stands on the treatment of blacks. You can't go home again? Love your people despite their flaws because that's where you come from? Hmmm...

      On the other hand, Reese Witherspoon does a fairly good job performing the material, voicing the smartly outspoken Jean Louise, even-tempered Atticus, and the loquacious eccentric Uncle Jack.

      My rating is more 2.5 stars for the content of the story.

      2nd pass: I understood better Uncle Jack's long-winded history lesson about Southern attitudes towards blacks. And Atticus is about upholding the letter of the law for all but he recognizes that blacks are not ready to run a town like Maycomb (still, a bit disappointing he's not as "colorblind" as Jean is). Jean Louise realizes her upbringing did not prepare her to be the leading edge of the changing South; her challenge is seeing how and where she fits in with Maycomb. Well, that's how I see it after a second listen.
    • 4/5
      I needed an audiobook for my drive today and I am pleased with my decision. I was worried about Reese Withersoon being the narrator, but I think she did a really good job. I loved the way the book was written and I love the woman Jean Louise is in the novel and I think she's a strong, well developed character as I had hoped.
    • 5/5
      I really enjoyed listening to this book. I loved the language and the stories within the story. I think to truly appreciate this novel one needs to read it without constant comparison to "To Kill A Mockinbird". Yes, Atticus Finch may not be all that you thought he was, but that only proves he's human. After reading a lot of the negative reviews about this book I realized a lot of people are too caught up in wanting this book to be more of TKAM. I appreciate Harper Lee's writing and only wish she had written more books.
    • 3/5
      I didn't plan to read this one (I love TKM and didn't want to ruin it) But I was bookless with time to kill and it was on sale. That said, I enjoyed this book much more than I thought I would. (Admittedly the bar was set pretty low.) At the beginning I read it like a continuation of TKM and didn't really like it, it was just too different and it was hard to get back into the story. So I tried reading it independently from TKM, that was ok but not great either. Eventually there are more familiar people and places and it is a little easier to read as TKM year later. There were some character I missed but the story does work without them. And to end this on an unpopular opinion note I really liked Atticus in this one, he seemed more human. I suppose an argument could be made that TKM Atticuss is Atticus from young Scout's point of veiw while GSaW Atticus is told from an adult's perspective but, especially after reading this, Atticus almost seems too good in TKM, just a thought
    • 4/5
      What a wonderful opportunity to read more from Harper Lee! While this isn't up to par with To Kill a Mockingbird (ask any writer, an unedited draft never is), but it's amazing to see how the editor pulled Mockingbird from this first draft. Harper Lee clearly created such a detailed and complex world around her story to where any piece of it could be a rich and rewarding story. Ms Lee's turn of the english language and ways of simply conveying profound understandings is truly amazing. While the "take home" from this book is much different, it was fun to read a follow-up story and visit with Scout and Atticus again. Everyone should have a crazy Uncle Jack...
    • 2/5
      Every writer has an unpublished book hidden away in a box or a desk drawer. Unfortunately, when a commercially successful writer either dies or becomes mentally infirm, his or her heirs, publishers and/or literary executors just cannot resist the temptation of publishing these manuscripts and wringing every last dime out of the writer's legacy. Unfortunately, for the most part these books are highly flawed and should never be published. And this is certainly true about Harper Lee's second (and last) novel. It is so obviously an unedited first draft - alternatively mawkishly sentimental and full of over wrought righteous indignation - that it is painful to read.The book features mot of the characters in To Kill A Mockingbird with several new ones thrown in, and is set twenty years after the first novel. It is now the 1950's and Jean Louise Finch has come home for her annual two week visit. As she arrives she tells herself that the town is the same as it always has been, but within 24 hours she realizes that not only are things different, but to her mind things are decidedly ugly ans the people she loves the most have betrayed her by showing themselves to be not the high minded idealists of her memories, but garden variety racists.Jean Louise is shocked, SHOCKED by this revelation even though she indulgs in plenty of casual racism herself (she is surprised to see black people driving cars, cannot believe the NAACP is allowed to practice law in Alabama and disapproves of the Brown V. Board of Education decision because of the 10th amendment) She seems to think that because she is not actively burning crosses on black folks; lawns that she is not racist. Yet she says, "They as a people did not enter my world, not did I enter theirs." Once the blinders fall from her eyes, she sees the town for what it is: A judgemental place full of small minded bigots, the chief among them her aunt, her fiance and her father. The scene where she confronts Atticus is almost comically overblown and the denouement with her Uncle Jack is altogether too pat..You can see Lee's untutored writing talent in the vignette's about her childhood, and this must be what her original editor saw since she turned this mess into To Kill a Mockingbird.. Unfortunately, a greedy publisher & literary executor has permanently cast a shadow on that gem of a book by publishing this one.
    • 4/5
      Even though I didn't want to read this book because I didn't want a childhood hero ruined, I'm glad I did. Atticus is much more realistic in this book, he is more true to life. The writing itself wasn't as polished as in To Kill a Mockingbird, I didn't care for they way most of the dialogue was (choppy). But I'm glad it was chosen for book club.
    • 4/5
      Enjoyed the book. In the end, the book is about Finch finally becoming her own person. Taught good moral character from Atticus, moving away to college, and then living in NYC, she was able to develop a broader mindset then the folks of her small hometown. One could imagine her returning to live in the south and making the difference happen even faster.
    • 2/5
      This book managed to be both boring and irritating at the same time. I would not recommend it unless you are a hard-core "To Kill a Mockingbird" fan, in which case you would have it already. I knew that I was in trouble when I was half-way through the book and couldn't work out what the storyline was. The Jean Louise (Scout) character, is now 26 years old. She has returned to Maycomb county, from New York (which apparently she does several times a year) to see Atticus, now suffering from crippling arthritis, and Hank, whom she is stringing a long with a promise of marriage she doesn't intend to fulfil. It finally dawns on her that she is from a town of rednecks and that good people need to compromise their principles to fit in. She comes across as naive (really she is supposed to be 26!), selfish, petty and obnoxious. Good luck with it. I had trouble finishing it.
    • 5/5
      Finished this yesterday. I've given it 5 stars, but have been unable to nail down what I would say in a review. Any other author or book, I may have put it down after the first 50 pages (especially hearing some of the negative chatter after its release), but by the time I turned the last page, I wanted to read it again, but slower, so I could soak in it. I believe after the dust settles, this will be another timeless piece by Lee.
    • 2/5
      Didn’t like it, and truthfully I didn’t understand it. I could see some bits of good writing in there, but that wasn’t enough. Definitely not my kind of book.
    • 3/5
      A very disquieting read...Atticus loves the law, but he sees blacks as children, not ready or capable of being equal to whites. When Scout realizes this, she is horrified. And though she considers herself to be colorblind when it comes to race, she seemed racist from a modern day viewpoint. You do have to read this as a slice of life in the south in that era, but the Atticus who was an idealist in To Kill a Mockingbird is not seen here. It is also a story about a young woman growing up and seeing her father has human frailties and is not the "tin God" she had made him into as a child.
    • 3/5
      I didn't plan to read this one (I love TKM and didn't want to ruin it) But I was bookless with time to kill and it was on sale. That said, I enjoyed this book much more than I thought I would. (Admittedly the bar was set pretty low.) At the beginning I read it like a continuation of TKM and didn't really like it, it was just too different and it was hard to get back into the story. So I tried reading it independently from TKM, that was ok but not great either. Eventually there are more familiar people and places and it is a little easier to read as TKM year later. There were some character I missed but the story does work without them. And to end this on an unpopular opinion note I really liked Atticus in this one, he seemed more human. I suppose an argument could be made that TKM Atticuss is Atticus from young Scout's point of veiw while GSaW Atticus is told from an adult's perspective but, especially after reading this, Atticus almost seems too good in TKM, just a thought
    • 3/5
      "To Kill a Mockingbird" has long been my favorite book AND movie. I generally re-read or re-watch it every five years or so. So my feelings were extremely mixed when the news came out about the discovery of the manuscript for Harper Lee's first, rejected novel, which contained the germ of an idea for the plot of the author's later acclaimed book. The provenance of "Go Set a Watchman" disturbs me; there's an odor of taking advantage of an elderly and reclusive author who, by many reports, has not been mentally sound for some years now. I have my doubts that Harper Lee was able or willing to bless this book, or participate in its editing or marketing. The plot is fairly simple; an adult Jean Louise Finch is returning home from New York City, where she has made her life, to Maycomb, Georgia to visit her home town and the poorly aging Atticus Finch. The time period is in the mid-1950s, a period of racial unrest in the South (and throughout the country), when black people are struggling to assert their rights and dignity, with the help of "outsider" organizations like the NAACP. Maycomb does not respond well to this perceived betrayal by their less fortunates, whom they have always bestowed their affectionate protection upon, as long as they knew their place. So when Jean Louise arrives, she discovers that the easy affection that flowed between her family and Calpurnia, their longtime maid, has become cold and brittle with enmity and suspicion. But the worst revelation to Jean Louise is when she eavesdrops on a White Citizens committee meeting, attended by Atticus and her own boyfriend and oft-assumed fiancee, and hears the hateful venom that is spewed toward the black citizens of Maycomb.There is some decent writing here, and for a novel written in the 1950s, it's a pretty daring plot that would have probably angered the contemporary bigots of the South more than "To Kill a Mockingbird" did. But it's badly in need of a good editor. I doubt that anybody at Harper Publishing had the nerve to mess with the great lady's words. And I think that most likely, had Harper Lee been in a state to speak her mind forcefully, she would have vetoed the publication of her first effort, preferring to let her masterpiece of over half a century ago speak for her, as she always has.
    • 2/5
      This book is controversial for two reasons.  First, it's questionable whether Lee ever wanted it published and possible she was exploited in her infirmity and old age.  Second, it presents Atticus Finch, one of the noble heroes of American literature, as an unrepentant racist.Of course, this Atticus is not the same Atticus as in To Kill A Mockingbird, as Go Set A Watchman is not a sequel but an early draft of that novel that was heavily re-written and edited.  Still this Atticus is a valuable character for a couple of reasons.  First, it shows that white people who may have been considered equitable when Jim Crow was firmly in place became reactionary once the Civil Rights Movement started, and found ways to justify it to themselves.  Second, it seems like each book has the Atticus that the readers of its time need.  In the 1960s, the Atticus who was a model of a white person advocating for equality and justice.  In the "colorblind"  2000s, we have white people who admire Atticus Finch but with no self-awareness will say things like "I'm not racist but..." or "all lives matter."  A major plot point is that Atticus thinks Jean Louise needs to stop looking up to him for the answers and make up her own mind and that's probably a good lesson for the reader as well.The novel starts with Jean Louise (aka Scout) Finch returning to visit Maycomb, Alabama from New York.  There are some humorous bits as the unrepentant tomboy Jean Louise ponders just how much she doesn't fit in to the community she fled.  There are also interesting and humorous flashbacks to her younger days (which an editor considered the best parts of the book, thus inspiring Lee to rewrite the book from the perspective of Scout as a child).Then Jean Louise discovers that Atticus and her fiance Hank are attending the local Citizens Council meeting and she is shocked and disillusioned. Frankly, at this point the novel goes south as Jean Louise engages in unnatural conversations with several characters each a didactic representation of a Segregationist or States Rights point of view, while Jean Louise represents the Northern Liberal perspective (and frankly, Jean Louise is very weak as a proponent of equality and integration, although she may have seemed more radical in the 1950s).This book is good for a couple of things.  For one, it helps understand the writing process, giving a peak at an early draft of a great novel.  Second, it's a snapshot of opinions of white Southerners on racial issues in the late 1950s.  Sadly, what it is not is a good or well-written novel.Favorite Passages:She was a person who, when confronted with an easy way out, always took the hard way.It had never fully occurred to Jean Louise that she was a girl: her life had been one of reckless, pummeling activity; fighting, football, climbing, keeping up with Jem, and besting anyone her own age in any contest requiring physical prowess. When she was calm enough to listen, she considered that a cruel practical joke had been played upon her: she must now go into a world of femininity, a world she despised, could not comprehend nor defend herself against, a world that did not want her.There was a time, long ago, when the only peaceful moments of her existence were those from the time she opened her eyes in the morning until she attained full consciousness, a matter of seconds until when finally roused she entered the day’s wakeful nightmareYou are fascinated with yourself. You will say anything that occurs to you, but what I can’t understand are the things that do occur to you. I should like to take your head apart, put a fact in it, and watch it go its way through the runnels of your brain until it comes out of your mouth. We were both born here, we went to the same schools, we were taught the same things. I wonder what you saw and heard.Blind, that’s what I am. I never opened my eyes. I never thought to look into people’s hearts, I looked only in their faces. Stone blind . . . Mr. Stone. Mr. Stone set a watchman in church yesterday. He should have provided me with one. I need a watchman to lead me around and declare what he seeth every hour on the hour. I need a watchman to tell me this is what a man says but this is what he means, to draw a line down the middle and say here is this justice and there is that justice and make me understand the difference. I need a watchman to go forth and proclaim to them all that twenty-six years is too long to play a joke on anybody, no matter how funny it is.I’ll come down to you. I believed in you. I looked up to you, Atticus, like I never looked up to anybody in my life and never will again. If you had only given me some hint, if you had only broken your word with me a couple of times, if you had been bad-tempered or impatient with me—if you had been a lesser man, maybe I could have taken what I saw you doing. If once or twice you’d let me catch you doing something vile, then I would have understood yesterday. Then I’d have said that’s just His Way, that’s My Old Man, because I’d have been prepared for it somewhere along the line.
    • 5/5
      To realize that this novel was originally written in the mid-1950s, seems surreal. As the publisher reports, "Go Set a Watchman" was the novel Harper Lee first submitted to her publishers before "To Kill a Mockingbird." It is difficult to imagine the impact that the novel would have had at that time but seems even more meaningful now - particularly to wonder what Jean Louise would say now to all of the headlines of racial tensions, murder statistics, and particularly the shooting statistics by law enforcement and/or the headlines that erupt with "Black Lives Matter" and "All Lives Matter."

    • 2/5
      I have not yet read To kill a mockingbird so I am not sure how disappointed I should be after reading Go set a watchman. Was it really written after To kill a mockingbird? it is good; it is interesting but there is nothing that grabbed my attention. I just kept feeling there was a void; there was something that was missing and that was the story that is recounted in To kill a mockingbird. The characters in Go set a watchman are wooden, they just represent viewpoints.
    • 3/5
      I really wish I had known that this was written in the 1950’s and set aside for 60 years. I was cringing while reading thinking of all those kids/adults out there whose parents had named them after Atticus. I couldn’t understand the direction of the characters viewed as post To Kill a Mockingbird. However, the book as insight into TKaM is very interesting.
    • 4/5
      An excellent, illuminating book. Part "coming of age," part "you can never go home again," and part psychoanalysis of Southern white identity, Harper Lee turns To Kill a Mockingbird into a brilliant prequel, and both shatters and cherishes the daddy-daughter relationship.
    • 4/5
      I enjoyed this book but I liked To Kill A Mockingbird better. Lee wrote "Go Set a Watchman" in the third person, and it seems to distract from the book in my opinion. The novel is still worth a read though as it is set 20 years later than TKAM and it is interesting to hear from the same characters and how their outlooks have changed. I would recommend reading this novel as it's a thought-provoking and entertaining read.
    • 3/5
      Go Set the Watchman by Harper Lee
      304 pages

      ★★★

      ***warning: may contain some spoilers.***

      I only read To Kill a Mockingbird a few years ago but it quickly became a favorite for me. Like many others, when I heard that this “sequel” was coming out I was excited yet apprehensive and I feel like I was right to have such feelings after reading this book.

      Let me start off by saying this book really isn’t bad. I enjoyed the dialog and I think this book really does depict a more realistic view of the south for the time. And yes, Atticus is racist which seems to irk a lot of readers but I personally did not find my feelings changed for him. I still adored his character. He was calm, collected, and had his own reasoning that melded with the times. If anything, I found Jean Louise character harder to swallow but I couldn’t tell you exactly why, she just sort of rubbed me the wrong way for whatever reason.

      This book is said to be a first draft of what Mockingbird was supposed to be and I can see that. The flashback scenes are visible in what would eventually become Mockingbird. In the end, my trouble with this novel came from nothing more than my love for To Kill a Mockingbird. From the beginning, I feel like the Watchman never stood a chance against Mockingbird. If I had somehow been able to detach these books, Watchman certainly would have come off better to me but it was tainted by the beloved first novel written by Harper Lee.
    • 3/5
      Still thinking my way through this one, so I'll add a star rating and (hopefully) my own review later. Most of the reviews I've read have been rather sensationalist (Atticus is a racist! Controversy! Money-grabbing lawyer! etc.) But, I really enjoy a more personal review written by Ursula Le Guin, which definitely affected how I'm understanding the book. Particularly this:"I like to think of the book it might have been, had the editor had the vision to see what this incredibly daring first-novelist was trying to do and encouraged and aided her to do it more convincingly. But no doubt the editor was, commercially speaking, altogether right. That book would have found some admirers, but never would it have become a best-seller and a “classic.” It wouldn’t have pandered to self-reassuring images of White generosity risking all to save a grateful Black man.""Before Watchman was published, I was skeptical and unhappy — all the publicity made it sound like nothing but a clever lawyer and a greedy publisher in cahoots to exploit an old woman. Now, having read the book, I glimpse a different tragedy. Lee was a young writer on a roll, with several novels in mind to write after this one. She wrote none of them. Silence, lifelong. I wonder if the reason she never wrote again was because she knew her terrifyingly successful novel was untrue. In taking the easy way, in letting wishful thinking corrupt honest perception, she lost the self-credibility she, an honest woman, needed in order to write". -Ursula Le Guin
    • 5/5
      There have been several reviews of this book already. Most of them advise the reader to forget "To Kill a Mockingbird" to enjoy this book. Personally I don't think it is necessary to put that book aside to enjoy this book. Here's what I think the reader needs to know, without giving spoilers to take away from the experience.

      1. Remember that Abraham Lincoln lead the civil war. He was still a racist. He believed slavery needed to be eradicated, that doesn't mean he felt the races were equal. There is a lot of room between the far right and the far left of this particular spectrum.

      2. This book was written during a time when Civil Rights were just beginning to be addressed. Lee was actually forward thinking.

      3. How many of us did not think our parents were perfect as children, and only realized they were human in our teens. We protect our children from the things in our society we are not proud of, for that matter, we protect them from the parts of us we are not proud of too.

      4. This book was written before "To Kill a Mockingbird" so there are a couple of inconsistencies between this text and that. Lee had not expected this one to be published as it had been rebuffed at the time. She had no reason to be concerned about those inconsistencies.

      With these facts in mind I would write the review I would have written if I just stumbled upon this book and had never read To Kill A Mockingbird.

      This is a fantastic story of a young woman having to come to terms with the faults and foibles of a previous generation, and society. Jean Louise struggles against her beliefs as a child in her family and her community and what she sees now returning to her home town.

      It is easy to connect to her struggle because we have all struggled against our perception of reality and the reality that someone else sees. The hardest struggle of all is realizing that that reality and truth are not black and white (no pun intended). If you have 5 witnesses to an accident, you will get 5 versions of "what really happened." Reality has to do with perspective. Perspective is seen through the lens of culture, religion, personal belief, and experience. This is the struggle of Jean Louise Finch (Scout) in this book.

      I have seen other reviewers deny the ability to connect to the characters of this book and declare them unlikable. I have to disagree. I think we have all experienced at some point what it is like to have our perceptions shift, and frankly it stinks to go through it. I think it was brave of Lee to write this experience in a time when her point of view might have been controversial.

      With that I proceed to the would I recommend and to whom? I would most definitely recommend this book. It is engaging as an adult. It would not be engaging to a child as To Kill A Mockingbird was. I read To Kill a Mockingbird to both of my children when they were about 11 years old. My son is now grown and could relate to this story. It's only been 5 years since he realized I was only human. My daughter I don't think is ready. She's only 13. She knows I'm human, but she hasn't yet realized that I may have faults she cannot overlook.

      I hope that helps you in your choice on if you want to read this book.
    • 4/5
      Jean Louise comes home to Maycomb, Alabama, after years in New York City. She finds life the same and yet changed. Her "boyfriend" and presumed fiance, Hank, is trying to be the model citizen, including aping her father Atticus. Her beloved brother Jem is dead. Her best friend Dill has moved away. Her nanny and surrogate mother, Calpernia, is distant. Even her biggest rock, Atticus, is not the man she thought he was. Jean Louise can't help her new-found Yankee sensibilities but they put her at odds with almost everything she ever believed. In sum, the book provides a tidy sermon: each person must follow the dictates of their own conscience. This book would be nothing without To Kill a Mockingbird and yet shouldn't be judged by it. On its own merits, it is a compelling coming-of-age story, not afraid to tackles issues of race and law.
    • 3/5
      It's hard to view this as simply a novel, what with all the strong opinions swirling around its publication. Quite frankly, by the time I read To Kill a Mockingbird, the movie had so ingrained itself in my mind (from multiple viewings) that it was like watching it again in text. Meaning, I was not in the best position to judge that as a novel, either. However, I really enjoyed reading this--as rough as it was in patches--as it continues the story of Scout into adulthood and the inevitable loss of innocence that growing up entails. It seems much more realistic to its time. It feels like a book that is more relevant to this present time. I appreciate the moral/ethical conundrums and the revelation that the context of our society can lead even good people to support bad systems. I, for one, am glad it was published.
    • 1/5
      Sure, Go Set a Watchman is as artless as To Kill a Mockingbird is artful, but how can one resist? And while it comes close to being so, it would have to be a pretty miserable book that would deter a reader from returning to spend time with Jem, Scout, Atticus, and Calpurnia. The novel is preachy, verbose, and uneven, however one does get a glimpse of the voice that Lippincott felt was great within it.It is the backstory that elevates this otherwise mediocore reading experience. To consider, while reading it, that it was an early draft of To Kill a Mockingbird is to marvel both at how radically Harper Lee reshaped it, and how much effort this must have involved. Then there is the fact that HarperCollins positioned Go Set a Watchman as a companion to To Kill a Mockingbird, a great disserviçe to Harper Lee. There is also the question of whether she knowingly consented to its publication. Having invested years in transforming this rough work into something sublime, it is hard to believe that an author so careful of her legacy would have wanted it made public.
    • 3/5
      I'm still not sure how I feel about this book. On the plus side: Scout has turned into the kind of feisty, I'm-not-much-interested-in-being-a-lady adult that I had hoped. There are some passages (tellingly descriptions of childhood incidents) so descriptive and funny they made me laugh out loud. But since Watchman was written first and heavily edited into To Kill a Mockingbird, should this book have been published? I'm sure its depiction of Atticus will upset a lot of Mockingbird lovers, especially since the book can be viewed as a sequel instead of the first-draft it actually was. Keep these things in mind and you may just enjoy catching up with some old friends, as I did.
    • 3/5
      I liked this much more than I thought I would. There were surely uneven places in the narrative but it is a book I will probably read again because there is a lot happening. I did not want to read it because I believe Harper Lee was hoodwinked into agreeing to its publication. I did not reread To Kill a Mockingbird so to see this with fresh eyes.