"When you saw her every day, you could forget that Nelle's novel was something so many people had in common...not just having read it but having been taken by it. That kind of influence, of connection, is hard to grasp. How do you measure the reach of a book that goes beyond staggering sales figures and Top Ten Favorite Books of all Time lists to something more profound, to the connection of readers to the story, of readers to one another, of one generation to the next?"
Marja Mills
The Mockingbird Next Door
There was never a question I would purchase it. There was never a doubt I would read it. My copy of Go Set a Watchman arrived wrapped in a brown paper package days after I left to help my daughter. It was two and a half weeks before I would return, and three before I would unwrap it and begin reading.
Controversy has followed Harper Lee since the publication of To Kill a Mockingbird. Many have long believed her dear friend, Truman Capote, either authored or heavily edited "Mockingbird". Lee most likely contributed to these rumors by staying away from the public eye and never having another book published.
Now, fifty-five years later another Harper Lee controversy. Go Set a Watchman has been under the microscope from the day HarperCollins announced it would publish a newly found manuscript penned by none other than the reclusive Harper Lee.
Did Lee write this new find?
Did she authorize its publication?
Are these the reasons we want to dislike this book?
Or, maybe we heard Atticus Finch is not the man we have admired for so many decades.
No matter, there was never a doubt I would read this book from the beginning word..."Since" to the very last..."head". I did not love it. The story is okay. The writing is somewhat elementary, though we were warned this would be an unedited publication. I couldn't embrace any of the characters.
After all the chatter about Atticus having a dark side, I awaited his fall from grace with each turn of the page. For me, it didn't happen. The Atticus in To Kill a Mockingbird is a good man, a good father. Yes, the Atticus Finch of Go Set a Watchman is fallible. He is a man of his time and environment, and yet is able to set aside these prejudices to step up for what is right. Who is most admirable? The man who has no demons, or the man who, in spite of his beliefs, is able to put them behind and step up for what is just?
The above is a post I began in late July just after reading, Go Set a Watchman.
One morning just before school began I met a good friend for coffee to catch-up with life. After talking about our latest travels and families, our discussion, as always, turned to books. We exchanged our respective book group lists for the new reading year, and discussed our latest book finds. We had both reread To Kill a Mockingbird, and just finished Go Set a Watchman. She shared her unswayable opinion of the newest release, and suggested I read The Mockingbird Next Door by Marja Mills.
A few weeks ago I found the time to read The Mockingbird Next Door, and found it throughly enjoyable. Opening this book we are given intimate access to an author who has spent her life staying out of the public eye. There is so much more within the pages of this book than just a biography of a reclusive writer. I leave you with Elizabeth Berg's beautifully written review with hopes it might entice you to read this delightful book.
“You might come to The Mockingbird Next Door to find out why Harper Lee never wrote another novel. But you’ll stay with it for its lush evocation of the South, and for the insight into what made this reclusive author the person she became. In these pages, you’ll see the book-crowded house where Harper Lee lives with her sister, Alice. You’ll go along on outings, sit in living rooms and at restaurant tables with the Lees, read faxes they and the author send back and forth, and appreciate the small and not-so-small revelations they offer: life when they were growing up with their father, who was the model for Atticus Finch; how reading sustains a person for a lifetime, how deeply embedded values don’t change just because the times do, why it’s a good idea to regularly count the ducks you feed. I suppose we all thrill to the notion of learning personal things about a deeply private but world-famous person. What we don’t necessarily expect to see is how gently, respectfully and, above all, naturally it can be done. While I appreciated getting to see and hear the ‘real’ Harper Lee, I enjoyed as well the chance to meet Marja Mills, the woman who did what no one before her had because of her guileless trustworthiness, kindness, and care."
Happy Reading!
