When I attended high school in the United States, specifically in Chico High School in Chico, California, little did I know how much of an eye opener this experience would end up for me — being so memorable and challenging?
The first book I was asked to review by my English teacher then was “To Kill a Mockingbird”, by Harper Lee. I did not know back then the significance of the novel but it was an eye opener.
I am recalling all of this as I see the hoopla surrounding the release of a “new” book by Lee (only her second one and coming after 40 years of the release of her only book). “Go Set a Watchman” is the title of the book, which immediately became a phenomenon and an instant bestseller.
Watchman mania, of course, is an offshoot of To Kill a Mockingbird mania, which has been going on for 55 years and shows no sign of slowing.
The book has sold more than 40 million copies. It outsold The Catcher in the Rye and The Great Gatsby and earns Lee about $3.2 million in royalties every year.
But Mockingbird doesn't just sell well. It's adored. The story of a young child's realization that in the South a man could be convicted of a crime not because he's guilty but because he's black, despite a clear-eyed conviction of how wrong that is, is as affecting now as in 1960, when it was first published.
The new book covers the race issue and it was quite a shock to the fans of the first book as it depicts the saintly character and hero of the first book — the equal rights champion lawyer Atticus Finch — as a pure bigot and racist.
The race issue is still relevant and prevalent in the US political and social discourse.
With the first African-American president in office, with racial tensions between police and the African-American communities at an all-time high and with hate crimes massive shootings re-occurring at an alarming pace, the book is very much relevant again.
Atticus Finch and Harper Lee has done it again by delivering a powerful and emotive book. The book is much weaker in comparison with the first one but it is very much relevant nevertheless.
