Comments on: The Real Danger of Harper Lee’s New Novel http://booksbywomen.org/the-real-danger-of-harper-lees-new-novel/ Fri, 24 Jul 2015 13:28:24 +0000 hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=6.5.3 By: Amy http://booksbywomen.org/the-real-danger-of-harper-lees-new-novel/#comment-46563 Fri, 24 Jul 2015 13:28:24 +0000 http://booksbywomen.org/?p=13756#comment-46563 In reply to Mary Ellen Latela.

Yes. It’s true that many demanded another book from Harper Lee and now are unsatisfied – probably unfair. The chronology of this book – that it was written BEFORE TKAM – makes this inquiry even more interesting …

]]> By: Mary Ellen Latela http://booksbywomen.org/the-real-danger-of-harper-lees-new-novel/#comment-46561 Fri, 24 Jul 2015 02:02:35 +0000 http://booksbywomen.org/?p=13756#comment-46561 Don’t you think it’s unfair that so many people who read To Kill a Mockingbird are taking this new book so personally? Recently, Toni Morrison, author par-excellence – was taken to task by some who personal expectations she did not meet – they wanted the old format, they wanted something, which they expected.
A writer is supposed to write what she needs to write. This crowd reaction makes me think about the lions and the Romans.

]]> By: Amy http://booksbywomen.org/the-real-danger-of-harper-lees-new-novel/#comment-46554 Tue, 21 Jul 2015 12:41:06 +0000 http://booksbywomen.org/?p=13756#comment-46554 I hope you’re right about Ms. Lee enjoying the fruits of her labor – great points. Yes, a beautiful story teller – I too wish we could have seen more from her.

]]> By: Michelle Styles http://booksbywomen.org/the-real-danger-of-harper-lees-new-novel/#comment-46551 Mon, 20 Jul 2015 13:54:46 +0000 http://booksbywomen.org/?p=13756#comment-46551 Actually Harper Lee is in a position to profit from her book. She is in a care home. She signed away the copyright to To Kill a Mockingbird back in the sixties. Her lawyer and her sister were able to get a finite settlement based on *she didn’t know what she was signing*.
Care homes are expensive. They basically drink money. My mother in law is in one in the UK. I have friends in the US who had to take their parents home because the money had run out… Remember her sister had had to go into another care home. I assume the family house was sold etc but care home drink money, particularly if they are quality.
Harper Lee has been there since 2007. So I would imagine that money might have been a bit tight. Given that her sister and father were dead and couldn’t be hurt by the contents and the money would help finance her old age, I could imagine her saying yes and being really pleased. Nobody except for Lee and her lawyer know the state of her finances.
Having reread To Kill a Mockingbird after reading Go Set A Watchman (my copy was one of those missing a few lines but I got the gist), there is nothing in To Kill a Mockingbird that prevents Atticus from being a racist twenty years on. In some ways, given the time and the place, I would be surprised if he wasn’t. Some of portraits of Maycomb intelligentsia are far more viscous in Go Set a Watchman than in To Kill a Mockingbird…
The fact remains that Atticus raised his daughter to be better than himself which was quite an achievement.
The saddest thing about Harper Lee is what might have been. She is a brilliant story teller but felt compelled to stop telling her stories.

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