Skip to main content

Posts

Showing posts from August, 2015

race relations in the South with Harper Lee

I didn't hear very many positive things about Harper Lee's newly released novel, Go Set a Watchman  when my turn for our library's copy came around last week:  "It was supposed to be a rough draft."  "Nothing can compare to To Kill a Mockingbird." " Not everybody can enjoy this book." But still, I resolved to give it a fair chance and promptly checked it out. I have enjoyed reading other books by young Southern ladies, such as Carson McCullers.  The Heart is a Lonely Hunter  captivated my attention as a young-20-something.  I was moved by the author's sensitivity, the sense of loneliness and humanity, and the vivid description of empoverished life in the South, being a new transplant myself (I moved to North Carolina by way of South Africa then before that, Oklahoma, which is sometimes considered but definitely not, Southern). And of course, I read Harper Lee's To Kill a Mockingbird in high school English class.  We subsequently revi