Go Set a Sales Record

Scott Hardie | September 25, 2015
Did anyone here read Go Set a Watchman, Harper Lee's new book published under controversial circumstances? What do you make of the book, and how much do you believe the claims that Lee approved of its publication?

Scott Hardie | October 11, 2015
I didn't read the book, but I was very disappointed that it was published, especially under such shady circumstances that sound like elder abuse. The Onion pretty well summed it up. My disappointment spreads around pretty well: To the publisher for releasing a book that the author very famously never wanted released, to the lawyer for apparently manipulating an elderly woman into betraying her own legacy, to Harper Lee herself for giving in to bad advice in her final years, and to every last reader who bought the book despite the controversy and horrid reviews. I appreciate that literature doesn't belong to the authors, that it belongs to all of us and we can make what we want out of it, but that doesn't mean that I'm not sad that such a violation of an author's long-time and very famous wishes about her unpublished work were violated. I guess one lesson from this is clear: Beloved authors, if you never want your early drafts to see the light of day, burn them.

Erik Bates | October 12, 2015
[hidden by request]

Scott Hardie | October 18, 2015
All of that controversy just made me want to go back and read the original again. One book is a landmark in American literature, a well-written story that sees through the zeitgeist of its times to deeper truths. The other book is an embarrassing footnote to the first. I know which I'd prefer to read again and which I'm fine with never reading.

Steve West | October 18, 2015
I recently read Mockingbird with my daughter as a school assignment. I think I'll just forego the sequel as to not put the original in any bad light.