Harper Lee’s latest book sets off a debate

‘Go Set a Watchman’ sparks a row, from readers’ dismay to a book store’s decision to refund money to its customers.

Harper Lee's new book 'Go Set a Watchman'.

The pre-release anticipation of Harper Lee’s Go Set a Watchman has given way to a strange feeling after its launch on July 14, 2015. The loyal readers of To Kill a Mockingbird were stunned into disbelief — much like Jean Louise Finch — at the ‘racist’ slur on ‘he-can-do-no-wrong’ hero of the book, Atticus Finch.

For the uninitiated, ... Mockingbird is a classic written by Harper Lee 50 years ago, set in the South of the 1930s where race and class division were predominant. Told from the eyes of two children, Jean Louise Finch and Jem Finch, the story unfolds with their widowed father, a civil rights activist and lawyer Atticus Finch, gently guiding them to be the conscience of society.

Now

Go Set a Watchman , set in the 1950s has a grown up Jean Finch returning to her hometown and discovering the ‘disturbing truth’ of her family.

Even as a debate is on whether

Go Set... is the first draft submitted by Harper Lee to the publishers, who then apparently suggested she write Jean Finch’s childhood story first (which resulted in ...Mockingbird ), there’s a book store owner in Michigan, USA, Peter Mekin who won brownie points by deciding to refund the money to his customers who, he thinks, were misled into believing Go set... is a ‘summer reading’, but in truth is an ‘academic insight’.

The book was published by Harper Collins in the US and William Heinemann in the UK.

Peter Mekin’s Brilliant Books’ website has this to say: “We are not offering refunds based on the quality of the (Harper Lee) book or its content. We are offering refunds to those who bought the book based on marketing that led them to believe it was something other than what it actually was.”

Terming Brilliant Book’s action a “dangerous precedent”, The Guardian said, “Imagine if this set the pattern for all our cultural disappointments.”

Also differing from the view that Go Set a Watchman , is a ‘first draft that was originally, and rightfully, rejected’, The Guardian insists it is ‘an entirely different novel. Though in need of some polishing, it is a completed work of fiction.’

Its tag of ‘Academic curiosity’ notwithstanding, Go Set a Watchman tells the tale of a young woman who successfully delves not just into her conscience, but of the reader, albeit the hard way. Worth a read.