Tru & Nelle

Tru & Nelle by G. Neri, 328 pages

“In their small town of Monroeville, Alabama, in 1930, misfits Tru and Nelle strike up a friendship and find a mystery to solve when someone breaks into the drugstore and steals some candy and a fancy brooch.” This was a simplistic story that I’m not sure would appeal to kids as much as I wish it would.  The parallels between this book about Harper Lee and Truman Capote as children and Lee’s “To Kill A Mockingbird” were fascinating to me but this book is aimed at kids who are mostly too young to have read Lee’s book yet.  I liked it and if a kid liked historically realistic books I would probably give this to them but I’m not sure if it has much general appeal.

Go Set A Watchman, Harper Lee

Go Set A Watchman, Harper Lee 278 pages

    I put this on hold a long while ago, and was thrilled to get a chance to read something else by Harper Lee- the author of mine and many other folks' childhood. I have read and re-read To Kill A Mockingbird many times, and gotten something from it each time as I have grown older. In graduate school, the first semester was dedicated to making many (failed) monotypes, woodcuts, and drawings about Scout and Tom Robinson, and sculptures about Boo Radley. 

    I want to say that I am probably one of the few people that isn't completely disappointed with Go Set A Watchman.  I went into reading this without the expectation of greatness, knowing that this would be a different experience. It was different, and this isn't the same kind of book that To Kill a Mockingbird was, which I am kind of happy about.  This book was more complex, more of its time, without any tidy resolutions. The rhetoric towards the end of the book I had to skim through because I found it to be upsetting, yet I found the characters to be more believable, and sad.  I feel that the release of this book is fitting for the times we live in- the character of Atticus Finch being knocked down from his ivory tower is relevant, and necessary. If you look around the Internet, people are so upset by this- and angry that this character could be painted as a racist. I don't understand why this is such a surprise, though. The prose style is still quite good, and the stronger points of the book are when Jean- Louise flashes back to points in her upbringing. A worthy read.