For some reason, I have gone all this time without ever having read To Kill a Mockingbird. When my book club selected Go Set A Watchman, I felt that it was high time to correct that oversight. Reading both books back-to-back (and each for the first time) provided me with a great opportunity to directly compare one book against the other.
Now that I have read them both, I can say this with confidence: Watchman is definitely not a "sequel" to Mockingbird. Instead, it is what the critics have claimed it to be all along: a failed first draft. With some serious rewrites and a change in the timeline, the jumbled mess of Watchman was able to turn into a true American classic.
I believe that the only appeal that Watchman provided for me was nostalgia. I identified with the characters only because I knew them so well from Mockingbird. Had I not read Mockingbird first, I wouldn't have cared two hoots about Jem, Calpurnia, or even Atticus himself. In fact, I would have known very little about them at all. The Jean Louise of Watchman was not the endearing Scout of Mockingbird, and I disliked her profusely.
If you are interested in the educational experience of watching an average first draft turn into a masterful final product, then by all means read this book. If you prefer to keep your memories and impressions of Mockingbird untainted by this inferior work, then by all means skip it. There is really very little to miss.
Now that I have read them both, I can say this with confidence: Watchman is definitely not a "sequel" to Mockingbird. Instead, it is what the critics have claimed it to be all along: a failed first draft. With some serious rewrites and a change in the timeline, the jumbled mess of Watchman was able to turn into a true American classic.
I believe that the only appeal that Watchman provided for me was nostalgia. I identified with the characters only because I knew them so well from Mockingbird. Had I not read Mockingbird first, I wouldn't have cared two hoots about Jem, Calpurnia, or even Atticus himself. In fact, I would have known very little about them at all. The Jean Louise of Watchman was not the endearing Scout of Mockingbird, and I disliked her profusely.
If you are interested in the educational experience of watching an average first draft turn into a masterful final product, then by all means read this book. If you prefer to keep your memories and impressions of Mockingbird untainted by this inferior work, then by all means skip it. There is really very little to miss.
