Go Set a Watchman

It's next week's Book at Bedtime on radio 4 at 10.45. If you can't stay awake its will be downloadable from BBC iPlayer radio. I'll give it a whirl!

I've received my pre-ordered copy (half-price) from The Guardian and am almost scared to start it!

Last week I went to see 'To Kill A Mockingbird' at The Barbican - it was a wonderful production, very close to the film version rather than the book.

I'm not usually one for child actors as they tend to be a bit 'stage school' but the three youngsters were magnificent, particularly Dill (Truman Capote).

I get mine from the library even though I was 55th on the list but I support the library service if I can as it can be expensive to buy books.

Ditto. If anyone has read this book and wants to recycle it, I would be glad of a copy too. Thanks. Will pay postage.

If anybody buys the book and doesn't want it I would be glad of it, I can't afford to buy it ,

Well, I enjoyed reading it, up to a point, but I think that if her reputation had rested on this one book, she would have been doomed to a life of obscurity. The editor or publisher who told her to tell the story from the child's point of view certainly knew her or his business.

I don't think 'enjoy' describes my reaction to the novel. Reading it from a 21st Century perspective is very different from the way one might have felt in the 1950s - or is it? From a socio-historical perspective it's 'interesting'. But I won't give away any spoilers.

Not sure I want to read it now as Mockingbird is voted my best book of all time. I don't want to be disillusioned even though I may be a coward and not up to the challenging subject. Maybe Harper-Lee realised after writing it that she needed a softer side to Atticus.

I feel like grandMattie. I'm not sure I want to read it. "Mockingbird, although infuriating and tragic, did promise the possibility of a change for the better. From what I've heard, that sense of hope is severely challenged in "Watchman".

But I'm thinking that perhaps it would be cowardly of me to avoid reading it just because it is challenging. Yasmin Alibhai-Brown's comment was something to the effect that this new book more accurately represents real life.

Like gma I too thoroughly enjoyed it, but it is thought provoking.

Not sure if i want to read "Go Set a Watchman"; I so loved Mockingbird. Alll the reviews have slated it, leave the racism... the critics said they understood why it had never been published. Never a good comment!

Well I have finished it and I am feeling quite sad. Promise, no spoilers, but this is not a comfortable and cosy read. It really shows how what you believed as a child is not necessarily so . I had to keep reminding myself that this novel was written before 'To Kill a Mockingbird' . Scout, who now has reverted to her name. Jean Louise, finds it very difficult to understand life in Maycombe, so different from where she now lives in New York, and that her Father, Atticus Finch, is not the person that she thought he was when she was a child and he was the centre of her universe. Read it if you are able, I thoroughly enjoyed it, a tear or two accompanied the last third of the book .

I've downloaded it to my Kindle today but I'm saving it for a train journey to London tomorrow.

And I don't know where the upper case 's' came from....

Read the sample on my kindle and will definitely be ordering it. I'm liking the sound and 'feel' of the narrative already. So yah boo to the nay Sayers!

Read the first couple of pages and WILL find time to get stuck in.

Like merlotgran I think I will have to re-read To Kill a Mockingbird before getting the latest book.

I agree, it all sounds a bit suspect!

Poor Harper Lee...

www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3159745/Harper-Lees-attorney-recalls-finding-Watchman-manuscript.html

As it says at the bottom of the article, probably a shaggy dog story!

I haven't heard any mention of a trilogy, merlot. Apparently the new book is actually the original version of To Kill a Mockingbird Harper Lee submitted. She was persuaded to change the angle by her editor.

I need to read Mocking Bird again first. Read it twice already and still can't remember much about it. #phillistine

I think I'll read To Kill A Mockingbird again before starting Go Set A Watchman.

They now think there may have been a trilogy. Nice little earner for somebody?

My copy of Go Set a Watchman has just arrived!!
Really want to start it now , BUT I've not done much house work lately....but .......whatever, housework can wait!!!
Could all gransnetters post their comments and thoughts on this much hyped book, it would be interesting to read what every body thinks about it! BUT .....NO SPOILERS, thanks!

I pre-ordered it so expecting the hardback copy today. All this hype over Atticus's racism is sending it straight into the no 1 slot, I imagine.