Harper Lee to publish second book (1 Viewer)

[Sandman]

Second Harper Lee Novel to Be Published in July - ABC News

It is about Scout as an adult. It was actually written first, but her publisher liked the flashbacks of Scout as a kid in the book. They told Lee to write that back story instead. You have to give the publisher credit for pointing her in the right direction. If they would have published this book instead of telling her to write the other one, we may never have seen To Kill A Mockingbird.

 

[guidomerkinsrules]

are mockingbirds still that much of a problem?

 

[billinms]

To Kill a Mockingbird is on of my all time favorites. Still pick it up and read every few years.

 

[BigSlick]

I'm listening to the Audible version of To Kill A Mockingbird (with Sissy Spacek narrating). It's excellent; I can't wait to get stuck in traffic on the way to/from work.

 

[Sandman]

are mockingbirds still that much of a problem?

Scout has moved on and is killing people now. She will be the one on trial, and her father will be the prosecuting attorney. His honor requires that he seek the death penalty against his daughter.

 

[THENZA]

Scout has moved on and is killing people now. She will be the one on trial, and her father will be the prosecuting attorney. His honor requires that he seek the death penalty against his daughter.

To Kill a Mockingbird 2: Scout's Revenge

This time it's personal.

Seriously though, one of the best books I've ever read. Can't wait till my daughter is a little bit older and we can start discussing books that are a little more advanced.

(It's AWESOME that she is a reader, but I can't bring myself to pick up Hunger Games or Divergent)

 

[superchuck500]

From the Atlantic's review of To Kill a Mockingbird, August 1960:

The book's setting is a small town in Alabama, and the action behind Scout's tale is her father's determination, as a lawyer, liberal, and honest man, to defend a Negro accused of raping a white girl. What happens is, naturally, never seen directly by the narrator. The surface of the story is an Alcottish filigree of games, mischief, squabbles with an older brother, troubles at school, and the like. None of it is painful, for Scout and Jem are happy children, brought up with angelic cleverness by their father and his old Negro housekeeper. Nothing fazes them much or long. Even the new first-grade teacher, a devotee of the "Dewey decimal system" who is outraged to discover that Scout can already read and write, proves endurable in the long run.

A variety of adults, mostly eccentric in Scout's judgment, and a continual bubble of incident make To Kill A Mockingbird pleasant, undemanding reading.

Classic Review - To Kill A Mockingbird

 

[Sun Wukong]

Scout has moved on and is killing people now. She will be the one on trial, and her father will be the prosecuting attorney. His honor requires that he seek the death penalty against his daughter.

It also turns out that Boo Radley's killing of Bob Ewell wasn't in defense of Jem and Scout, but was actually just the first in a long line of brutal murders. By the events of this novel he is known as the Maycomb Mauler and is believed to have killed as many as 900 people. Atticus tries several times to shoot him with his trusty rifle, but he takes on the legacy of the one thing "One Shot Finch" couldn't hit. Everyone lives in terror that he will come to their house at night.

 

[Sandman]

To Kill a Mockingbird 2: Scout's Revenge

This time it's personal.

Seriously though, one of the best books I've ever read. Can't wait till my daughter is a little bit older and we can start discussing books that are a little more advanced.

(It's AWESOME that she is a reader, but I can't bring myself to pick up Hunger Games or Divergent)

I made a deal with my daughter when she was younger, she reads To Kill a Mockingbird, and I would read Twilight. Sometimes you just have to bite the bullet and take one for the team in order to get them to read the good stuff. My daughter now readily admits that I got the raw end of that deal. My daughter still is a huge reader. If they like to read, they will eventually gravitate to the good books.

I never read Divergent, but the Hunger Games wasn't bad at all. It got a little weird at the end and hard to follow, but it was a far cry better than the Twilight trash.

 

[purvis_guy]

I work in Monroeville, AL the hometown of Lee(and Truman Capote) and the model for Macomb. They have a "Mockingbird" festival once a year and the play is performed every night of the festival by locals in the town square.

 

[billinms]

It's been rumored that Capote actually wrote it and let her publish it as a gift.

 

[Sun Wukong]

It's been rumored that Capote actually wrote it and let her publish it as a gift.

There's various versions of that story. Some say that he was so involved that he, at the very least, should have a co-author credit. Others say it was more in a guiding type/"here are some notes" type role but that the bulk of the work was hers. Those that ascribe to the "Capote actually wrote it!" theory point out to the lack of other published work from Lee. Of course, I've always held that if your first book is "To Kill a Mockingbird," you may as well just hang it up because you're not going to top it.

There is private correspondence from Capote to others saying that Lee was working on a book, and there are a lot of notes between Lee and her editor that seem to refute the idea that he was the author. Capote's father was one of the big proponents of that claim, but in the end there's not a ton to support it. All we really know is that Lee and Capote were close friends and it would be reasonable to assume he, at the very least, gave her some feedback along the way. Whether it was more or less, who can really say.