I would have loved to have asked her why her second book, the recent Go Set a Watchman, saw the noble characters in her first book turned into rabid racists. After the stellar job in defending a black man, what led Lee to change Atticus Finch into a KKK type racist in his later years?
The rumor in the literary world is that "Go Set a Watchman" was actually a first novel wisely put on the shelf by her very astute editor who convinced her to write a novel centered on the young Scout. The young Scout was a compelling character who could observe and relate the idyllic South of her childhood and also relate the ugliness of racism and bigotry through innocent eyes. And like a lot of children her father Atticus was a heroic figure in her eyes and became a hero to a lot of us through her. We might have constructed a nobility in Atticus that wasn't really there in the novel. We might have transferred our own youthful noble thoughts into Atticus.
Quite a few scholars have pointed out that there were hints of Southern bigotry inherent even in Atticus. His defense of Tom really was more functional than empathetic, we don't learn anything about Tom that allows us to walk a mile in a Black man's shoes. Lee didn't give us a portrait of Atticus as a noble opponent of Jim Crow or even close to radical in his approach to Justice.
When I read "Go Set a Watchman" it was a sad and depressing experience. And the story behind the releasing of the book might be one of maddening greed. Harper Lee had decided decades ago never to publish this novel. She didn't like it, didn't need the money so why was it published?
HarperCollins claimed Ms. Lee’s lawyer, Tonja Carter, had “discovered the manuscript in a secure place where Ms. Lee keeps her archives.” Accompanying that was a supposed statement by Lee, “I hadn’t realized it had survived, so was surprised and delighted when my dear friend and lawyer Tonja Carter discovered it. After much thought and hesitation I shared it with a handful of people I trust and was pleased to hear that they considered it worthy of publication. I am humbled and amazed that this will now be published after all these years.” So what is now realized to be a first, rejected draft of "To Kill a Mockingbird" that she detested, becomes, after strokes and failing health, a favored project for an 89 year old Harper Lee. Sounds very suspicious to me. Sounds like the coarsest manipulation of an aging author in somebody else's pursuit of profit. Profit for everyone involved except Harper Lee. Hopefully it will be quickly forgotten and not live on to kill future generation's dreams of nobility that "To Kill a Mockingbird" inspired in us.
