Dear Harper--

Go Set a Watchman by Harper Lee
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Dear Harper--

I anticipated the release of your book almost more than any other book that I have read. In fact, I preordered it just to ensure that it appeared on my doorstep the very day it came out. The only other book I have preordered is Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, and everyone knows how much I love Harry Potter. Go Set a Watchman makes me both happy and sad. I'm so grateful for the chance to have walked the streets of Maycomb again with Scout, but I am disappointed by how unfinished this book is. With what little detail we know about your writing, it's been said you wrote this book before the heralded To Kill a Mockingbird, and despite how unfinished and unrefined it is, the concepts are powerful and the issues worth debating. I just wish your publishers had wanted to release this book when you were younger and more interested in telling the story. I truly hope that you were not taken advantage of in your advancing years just so they could make a splash and sell a few more books.

All that said, you are still one of the greatest writers I have ever read. Your chapter about how Scout feels about her dad is so incredible that I have thought of it every day since I read it. That chapter may have been tucked in the middle of the book with little to no plot advancement, but the words resonated with my soul and I knew, yet again, why To Kill a Mockingbird touched so many hearts. Your writing profoundly affected our American identity, not to mention your writing's affect on the literary world. I can't thank you enough.

Sincerely,
A Girl Who Still Loves Atticus


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