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Go Set a Watchman

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Go Set a Watchman

By: Harper Lee
Narrated by: Reese Witherspoon
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About this listen

 Go Set a Watchman is set during the mid-1950s and features many of the characters from To Kill a Mockingbird some twenty years later. Scout (Jean Louise Finch) has returned to Maycomb from New York to visit her father Atticus. She is forced to grapple with issues both personal and political as she tries to understand both her father’s attitude toward society, and her own feelings about the place where she was born and spent her childhood. An instant classic. Coming of Age Family Life Fiction Genre Fiction Historical Fiction Literary Fiction United States World Literature Classics

Critic Reviews

A new work, and a pleasure, revelation and genuine literary event…Go Set a Watchman shakes the settled view of both an author and her novel…This publication intensifies the regret that Harper Lee published so little. (Mark Lawson)
Go Set a Watchman is the more radical, ambitious and politicised of the two novels Lee has now published…It has contemporary relevance where Mockingbird is safely sealed off as a piece of American history…It does not undermine Mockingbird but it makes a reassessment of that story absolutely necessary…It is a book of enormous literary interest…Beguiling and distinctive, and reminiscent of Mockingbird…Go Set a Watchman can’t be dismissed as literary scraps from Lee’s’ imagination. It has too much integrity for that. (Arifa Akbar)
More edgy and thought provoking [than To Kill a Mockingbird] … It has a power to it beyond being a mere historical curio or more lit crit material for Harper Lee studies… Eccentric characters are brightly drawn. There is Lee’s trademark warmth, some droll lines and the sense of place and time is strong…[It has] a surprisingly provocative message — don’t airily dismiss the prejudices of others, try to understand them. (Robbie Millen)
The flashes of lyrical genius and ability to evoke the intensity of childhood play that come to fruition in To Kill a Mockingbird are in evidence…It’s nowhere near the novel Mockingbird is. It is much better than that…What Watchman tells us, and tells us rather powerfully, is that racism is not confined to people who are so clearly not like us…Watchman is for grown-ups. It asks serious questions about what racism is. And it comes at a time when American desperately needs a grown-up conversation about race. (Erica Wagner)
I’m happy to report that most of the caveats and conspiracy theories surrounding Go Set a Watchman melt away as you read the opening chapters and reacquaint yourself with that beguiling Harper Lee narrative style — warm, sardonic, amused by male folly and social pretension, wryly funny, a sassy Southern voice, Mark Twain with a dash of Katharine Hepburn. (John Walsh)
We have travelled into the past and returned to find that our present is not quite the same as we left it. Atticus Finch will never again be the white knight we once thought him. And yet the mockingbird still sings — no longer a song of innocence, but maybe one of experience; a song that combines sorrow, forgiveness — and, ultimately, a kind of hope. (Joanne Harris)
There are some flashes of genius…My favourite scene is at “a coffee”, where our rebellious Scout must make small talk with a bunch of married former acquaintances whom she deliberately hasn’t seen since school. Lee’s précis of their vapid conversation is hilarious, feminist and wickedly modern. (Katy Guest)
All stars
Most relevant
Definitely opt for the audible version of this book because while the story can get lost in its meandering, Reese makes the most of it and brings it to life. Thank you Reese

So-so story, but Reese Witherspoon made the best of it

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To Kill a Mockingbird is my #1 favourite book. Go set a watchman is a far cry from it.
There are moments when the reader gets a glimpse of Ms Lee’s brilliance, but for the most part it was absent.
I’d hoped for so much more.

Slightly heartbreaking

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Very enjoyable, especially with Reece reading. Relevant whether you’ve read To Kill A Mockingbird or not.

Continuity with To Kill A Mockingbird

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Well written sequel to a great book. Similar themes continue, characters are developed well. Very moving and introspective.

This story certainly makes me think

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Wonderful narration.
The story was lovely and eye opening. A great ending to a wonderful story 🥰

Great listen!

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Wonderfully read by southern Hollywood megastar actor Reese Witherspoon.
Brilliant story, so much to learn still.

Brilliant

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Nice conclusion and lessons about life in society from Mockingbird

I dot see colour either

Great lessons for those that see people

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A great coming of age story set in one the the most turbulent times in U.S.
history

An interesting sequel

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I didn't love it. I am still trying to decide exactly how I feel about it.
The only real emotional depth, in this story, relies on the reader having read To Kill a Mockingbird. To feel Scout's horror and loss, you have to have known what kind of a man Atticus was. Other than that you just have to take it as given. There's very little outlining or development of character.
The claim that to Kill a Mockingbird was written after this book does not feel right to me.
There are some great parts in this story, but it's not what it could have been. And it just makes me wonder what it could have been, it could have been magnificent, whenever it was written.

At best it's a good draft of a novel.

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This book is down to earth assessment of the politics of racism in today's world.

Better than to Kill a Mockingbird

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