A new work, and a pleasure, revelation and genuine literary eventGo Set a Watchman shakes the settled view of both an author and her novelThis publication intensifies the regret that Harper Lee published so little. -- Mark Lawson * Guardian *
Go Set a Watchman is the more radical, ambitious and politicised of the two novels Lee has now publishedIt has contemporary relevance where Mockingbird is safely sealed off as a piece of American historyIt does not undermine Mockingbird but it makes a reassessment of that story absolutely necessaryIt is a book of enormous literary interestBeguiling and distinctive, and reminiscent of MockingbirdGo Set a Watchman cant be dismissed as literary scraps from Lees imagination. It has too much integrity for that. -- Arifa Akbar * Independent *
More edgy and thought provoking [than To Kill a Mockingbird] It has a power to it beyond being a mere historical curio or more lit crit material for Harper Lee studies Eccentric characters are brightly drawn. There is Lees trademark warmth, some droll lines and the sense of place and time is strong[It has] a surprisingly provocative message dont airily dismiss the prejudices of others, try to understand them. -- Robbie Millen * The Times *
The flashes of lyrical genius and ability to evoke the intensity of childhood play that come to fruition in To Kill a Mockingbird are in evidenceIts nowhere near the novel Mockingbird is. It is much better than thatWhat Watchman tells us, and tells us rather powerfully, is that racism is not confined to people who are so clearly not like usWatchman is for grown-ups. It asks serious questions about what racism is. And it comes at a time when American desperately needs a grown-up conversation about race. -- Erica Wagner * New Statesman *
Im happy to report that most of the caveats and conspiracy theories surrounding Go Set a Watchman melt away as you read the opening chapters and reacquaint yourself with that beguiling Harper Lee narrative style warm, sardonic, amused by male folly and social pretension, wryly funny, a sassy Southern voice, Mark Twain with a dash of Katharine Hepburn. -- John Walsh * Sunday Times *
