Lee’s ‘Go Set a Watchman’ falls flat as sequel to classic novel

When the sequel to Harper Lee’s “To Kill a Mockingbird” first came out in 2015, it was one of the most pre-ordered books of all time.
The “publishing event of the decade” is what some referred to the new book as and Lee saw a resurgence of popularity as “Go Set a Watchman” was released. However, the actual book fell a little flat.
“To Kill a Mockingbird” was so successful when it first came out in 1960 because it delved into race relations like nothing ever really had before.
Some called it “an eye-opener for many Northerners” about segregation in the South.
It would have been a miracle for Lee to come back almost 60 years later and garner the same popularity and success from a sequel.
“Go Set a Watchman” is the story of a college-aged Jean Louise Finch (known as Scout in “To Kill a Mockingbird”), going home and finally understanding just how mistaken she has been about her father, Atticus, and her boyfriend, Henry Clinton.
She finds that they are not exactly the moral champions that she thought they were and because they are associated with the KKK, she finds their racist attitudes are something that she simply cannot come to terms with.
The novel is focused on the introspective Finch, recalling times when life made sense to her and every thing was easier.
With her brother Jem now dead following a sudden heart attack at age 28 and her trusted maid Calpurnia gone, living with her family, Jean Louise is left
wondering how things ended up the sour way they did.
“Go Set a Watchman” is a novel with the potential to be great, but just that: potential. The novel reads slowly and this may be because it was written in the third person.
While there may be problems with “Go Set a Watchman,” it does paint a more accurate picture of race relations and segregation.
The picture Lee paints in the second installment is raw and does not give off a sympathetic feel towards white attitudes in the South during the civil rights movement.
Overall, the highly anticipated second book of the “To Kill a Mockingbird” series is a little lack luster, but also more truthful.
Readers who want to keep the same nostalgic ideals they gained from “To Kill a Mockingbird” should avoid the sequel.
However, those who want to be challenged, should take the leap and read it, if only to satisfy curiosity and read the words of a literary great.