First of all, if you need background on the controversy, here is a link to an opinion piece published in The New York Times this summer. Click here for the publisher's write-up of the book (keep in mind they are trying to sell the book). Perhaps most interestingly, here is an article about a bookstore that offered refunds to customers who felt duped after purchasing and reading the book. Talk about scandal!
I really wanted to enjoy, like, perhaps just appreciate this book. Harper Lee herself is such an enigma, having never published another book again after To Kill A Mockingbird. I'm trying to view it as a first draft written by a young, idealistic author many years ago, but I'm having a hard time getting past some of her most basic errors, such as switching point-of-view between first- and third- person multiple times in the story. Lee will be referring to Jean Louise by name (the main character) and then all of a sudden, she's in first person, using "I" and "me". It also took a long, long time to get into the main conflict of the story. I believe I was over a third of the way through the novel before conflict actually started happening.
One part I did find interesting related closely to our Honors English narratives, and the requirement to demonstrate inter-textuality by including a poem or research. Lee did just that:
"An absurd verse vibrated in Jean Louise's memory. Where had she read it?
By right Divine, my dear Augusta,
We've had another awful buster;
Ten thousand Frenchmen sent below.
Praise God from Whom all blessings
flow.
She wondered where Hester had pick up her information" (Lee 62 %).
I'm going to work on finishing it, and I'll post my final thoughts at a later date. Have any of you read it? If so, what are your thoughts? Or do you plan on reading it? I'd love to know!
