Thursday, July 16, 2015

Reviewing the Reviews of Go Set a Watchman

Will ‘Go Set a Watchman’ Spoil ‘Mockingbird’?

Reviewing the Reviews of Harper Lee's Newsmaking Book

July 14, 2015  By Jane Ciabattari - Literary Hub



The July 14 publication of Harper Lee’s Go Set a Watchman is, indisputably, news. The reclusive author, now 89, was never expected to follow up on her Pulitzer Prize-winning classic To Kill a Mockingbird, first published in July 1960.

But is Go Set a Watchman a good book? How will its publication affect Harper Lee’s literary legacy? And how are book critics shaping the early discussion?

Given the publisher’s tightly controlled rollout—the first-chapter excerpt tease (with Reese Witherspoon audio) published on Friday in the Wall Street Journal, the Guardian, and Australia’s Sydney Morning Herald, the updated PBS American Masters documentary, the archival feature stories and interviews—it’s easy to track the evolution of critical consensus in slow motion. Here’s a snapshot of the news-making reviews in advance of the official publication date.
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