[pendragginp]

Well. Briefly - it's definitely written by Harper Lee. There are passages where her voice is clear.

It's also obviously an early effort. It's trying to get somewhere but the effort is not always cohesive, and is at times downright clunky.

I don't want to say anything too specific and spoil it for people who haven't read it yet.

I will say that it is no Mockingbird, not in immediacy or feel or lyricism. The only places where those things are present are in flashback scenes, where I did feel as if these are the same characters as in Mockingbird.

Frankly, if it hadn't been by Harper Lee, if it was just a book I picked up in a store or a library and started to read to decide if I wanted it, I would have put it back.

As it is, just because it is by Harper Lee, I'm glad to have been able to read it.

I would say that this is not Scout, in this book, except in some flashback scenes. It's completely Nelle Harper Lee, translated to the page.

But after all that's what so many first novels are.

And given that, I'm glad for another reason to have been able to read it; because it's so clearly this person at this age and at that time. And given how little we've ever actually known of her, I have liked that.