{"id":16481,"date":"2015-07-14T08:00:15","date_gmt":"2015-07-14T12:00:15","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.publishersweekly.com\/blogs\/shelftalker\/?p=16481"},"modified":"2015-07-14T08:00:15","modified_gmt":"2015-07-14T12:00:15","slug":"the-heartbreak-of-watchman","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.publishersweekly.com\/blogs\/shelftalker\/?p=16481","title":{"rendered":"The Heartbreak of ‘Watchman’"},"content":{"rendered":"

Today is the day many in the book world have been waiting for: the release of Harper Lee’s Go Set a Watchman. <\/i>The book has been long-awaited since it was announced with much discussion about whether or not Harper Lee was of sound mind to actually approve the release. These rumors were quickly quashed by her legal team, but folks are still scratching their heads a little at the release of what is a draft of the beloved To Kill a Mockingbird.<\/em> Obviously, it’s great fun to have another book by Harper Lee to read, but was it the right thing to do? I guess that doesn’t really matter now. The book is here and opinions are flying.
\n\"watchman\"<\/a>
\nMany customers came in yesterday, after reading Michiko Kakutani’s review<\/a> in the New York Times<\/em>, where she revealed that Atticus Finch became a racist at the end of his life, and were shocked and angry that\u00a0Watchman\u00a0<\/em>has destroyed a long-loved literary friend. Some people muttered about naming their sons Atticus and shook their heads. Others have vowed not to read it because they don’t want their image of Atticus forever ruined.\u00a0
\n<\/em>
\nPeople were stopping me at the dog park, the coffee shop, and even the supermarket to discuss what they’ve heard about the book. Every single person I spoke to was mad and disheartened. Some were just flat-out crushed. While no one has read the book yet, save for reviewers, people had strong opinions and they were all negative. I spent my entire time at the market having a heated talk with John, who followed me from aisle to aisle practically despairing. He was incensed that Atticus, one of his childhood heroes, had become so tainted. He put it succinctly, “My faith is shaken in people that this can happen.”
\nOne thing that is becoming clear to me is that\u00a0To Kill a Mockingbird\u00a0<\/em> means so much to readers that feelings are running deep to the point of almost being visceral. For many adults\u00a0Mockingbird<\/em>\u00a0is sacred and now with the leaked spoilers about the book, people do not know how to feel. One thing is clear: this book will generate a lot of discussion this summer as more and more people read it.
\nSo, dear readers, what are your thoughts on what you’ve heard (or maybe even now read) about\u00a0Go Set a\u00a0<\/em>Watchman?<\/i><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The spoilers of ‘Go Set a Watchman’ have readers reeling.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-16481","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.publishersweekly.com\/blogs\/shelftalker\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16481","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.publishersweekly.com\/blogs\/shelftalker\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.publishersweekly.com\/blogs\/shelftalker\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.publishersweekly.com\/blogs\/shelftalker\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.publishersweekly.com\/blogs\/shelftalker\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=16481"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.publishersweekly.com\/blogs\/shelftalker\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16481\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.publishersweekly.com\/blogs\/shelftalker\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=16481"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.publishersweekly.com\/blogs\/shelftalker\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=16481"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.publishersweekly.com\/blogs\/shelftalker\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=16481"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}