I thought it mediocre. The editor who said it was unpublishable was right. We can't supress our knowledge of
TKaM when reading it, so the characters aren't as flat as they would be if we read it in a void.
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Originally Posted by Hamlet53
Of more interest is what GSM reveals about Jean Louise [Scout] Finch's racial views as an adult when one reads through to the very last page. I was reminded of the old Jesuit saying: "Give me a child until he (she) is seven and I will give you the man (woman)."
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Absolutely. Jean Louise congratulates herself on not being racist, and yet to the more enlightened reader, there's little difference between her views and Atticus's. Indeed, they explicitly agree on that bad old Supreme Court sticking its nose into Alabama's bidness.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Sydney's Mom
I will say, I found the ending, with the physicality, could have most improved with editing, IMHO.
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I thought the dialogue at the beginning was artificial, but preferred it to Jean Louise's histrionics at the end. Jack and Atticus let her run at the mouth for paragraphs at a time, like no conversation I've ever heard.
I'm afraid that my enduring impression will be that
GSaW only serves to attest to the level of editorial input required to transfer
Mockingbird into a great book. A book stands on its own merits, so
Mockingbird is unaffected, but Harper Lee's reputation is somewhat tarnished for me. She was right not to publish it for all these years and I can't help thinking that if she were in her right mind, she would have remained protective of her legacy.