"The book to read is not the one which thinks for you, but the one which makes you think. No book in the world equals the Bible for that."
-Harper Lee
Brainy Quote
What do you think you'll do about Harper Lee's new novel, Go Set a Watchman? Are you planning to read it? This book will be made available this week, and it has been predicted that it will be one of the top five best-selling books upon its release. That alone may lure you to its pages, just so you can see what all of the hubbub is about. I'm guilty as charged, so as soon as the hype dies down a little bit, I plan to read it. I don't want to wait until it comes out in paperback, and the library will be too slow, so I guess I'll just have to bite the bullet on this one and actually buy it at a 50% discount with my member card at Barnes & Noble. I've heard through the media that this book is upsetting many people regarding the change that is seen in the character of Atticus Finch from his role in To Kill the Mockingbird. In this novel, Lee depicts Finch as a man of high morals, a man who cares about injustices committed upon African American people. But in the new book he supposedly shows that he isn't such an exemplary man of high character as seen in his involvement with the KKK. However,I can't really comment on this too much because the book hasn't come out yet, but I will say that Harper Lee has the right to describe her characters in any way that she sees fit. An important fact to remember is that Lee actually wrote Go Set a Watchman BEFORE she wrote To Kill a Mockingbird, even though it is just now being published. But irregardless of which book was published first, Lee has the right to show changes in her characters as she sees fit. As humans, we seem to prefer a character who is an epic hero, someone who saves others and is worthy to be admired, but characters can change. Changing a character's personality or other traits is actually a viable element of a good novel - it keeps us interested and we are driven to ask ourselves questions as to WHY the character changes. Also, remember that these two novels were not published in the order that they were written, and let's accept them as the fiction that they are. I believe that Harper Lee (now an elderly woman of 88 who is almost deaf and blind) wants us to read her books as she intended - as works of fiction that depict some of the struggles in the deep South.
Last night I completed a long novel entitled Epitaph: A Novel of the O.K. Coral by Mary Doria Russell. This book of 577 pages was another book that I borrowed from my parents in Kentucky. I almost gave up on reading it in the early days, because I just couldn't get into it. But I stuck with it and I plan to read the shorter book, Doc, which is also by Russell. I think I enjoyed it because I like to learn new things, it's as simple as that, and I knew very little about life in the Wild West during the late 1800s. I had heard of Tombstone, the O.K. Coral, Wyatt Earp, and Doc Holliday, but that's where my knowledge ended. Even though this book is a novel, I feel like I know more about what actually happened during that time. It may be hard for us to imagine life during this time when great hoards of people were moving to the west to try to get rich quickly. Their journeys were very dangerous, yet they willing to risk everything in order to get some of the gold.
Towns like Tombstone, Arizona began to spring up to the meet the needs of these people, but they were often very dangerous. Tombstone became known for its gunfights, gambling parlors, whore houses, and saloons. Everyone carried a gun until some laws were passed to restrict the carrying of guns by some people. So you could say it was a wild place, and even the "law" was sometimes corrupt. Just about anyone could be made a deputy for a time, irregardless of his past. In this novel you will meet Wyatt Earp, a man who was known by some to be an honest man, and he lived a very long life. You will also meet Doc Holliday, a dentist, gambler, and gunfighter who had TB and breathing issues for most of his life. You will meet other characters such as Johnny Behan, Josie Marcus, Ike Clanton, Ringo, and Frank Stilwell. The details about this time in history are somewhat obscured by legend, but Russell did a great deal of research before she told this story in her own way. So, if you want to read a good western, you will enjoy this book.
Here are the next ten books from my card catalog, books that I've read since 1984:
1. The Calling of Emily Evans by Janette Oke
2. A Gown of Spanish Lace by Janette Oke
3. John Calvin & Jacopo Sadolito: A Reformation Debate by John C. Olin
4. Surviving Myself by Jennifer O'Neill
5. Killing Lincoln by Bill O'Reilly & Martin Dugard (I enjoyed this one a lot!)
6. Gods of Noonday by Elaine Orr
7. Your Best Life Now by Joel Osteen
8. Bel Canto by Ann Patchett
9. Cry, the Beloved Country by Alan Paton
10. Along Came a Spider by James Patterson
I hope you are having a wonderful day. Let me know if you plan to read the new Harper Lee novel and what you think about all of the hype. Keep the conversations going....
-Melissa Hill
Book Blogger
www.onegoodbookblog.blogspot.com
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