Go Set A Watchman by Harper Lee

Did you read it? I have seen many reviews on the positive and negative. One bookstore I read about is offering refunds on the book. People wailed about her not wanting the book published. Articles said she was ready to release it because she had safely secluded herself from the publicity this time around. I don't know. I don't have the answers. I just wanted to read it.

This is the first book Miss Lee had written decades ago. She was told by the publisher to write the backstory and that became the infamous To Kill A Mockingbird. In my mind, this book is like getting to read Harper's really well done draft of a novel. You can see her style evolving. She is not talking in the first person voice of Scout that we all were so enamored with. The book is darker, jaded a bit, but humble. I enjoyed it. It was as if a friend handed me a story she thought about telling. It brings you face to face with the heart things she faced and how Atticus failed her in a respect. I just love how she tells an honest story. It is full of bumps and pain and walking away. It's full of anger and learning to walk out grace. 

I will admit that it is very emotionally charged. At one point I had to set the book down and walk away. I think all of us book lovers feel like we let the Finch family into our family and loved them so. It hits you hard there in the middle, like a punch in the gut. I am not sure things were as bad as Scout seems to think in her story. We will never know. What I do know is that she was faced with a tragic emotional reckoning. She tells the story to show how she was wrong as well and confronts her own bigotry and sense of pride. It challenged me to walk things out with people I disagree with. 

I read it in one day as if it were my own life unfolding. 

Did you read it? What are your thoughts?