First chapter of new Harper Lee novel is previewed

Since Atlanta, she had looked out the dining-car window with a delight nearly physical.

Penetrating the tight embargo on Harper Lee’s much-anticipated To Kill a Mockingbird follow-up, The New York Times secured a copy of Go Set a Watchman and leaked key plot points in a review by Michiko Kakutani.

It picks up the story of Jean Louise “Scout” Finch, the young girl who narrates her adventures in a small Alabama town in Mockingbird. “And that’s just chapter one!”

Kim Johnson, 33, of Shelby Township, says “To Kill a Mockingbird” is by far one of her favorite books. “At its heart, it is the coming-of-age story of a young woman who struggles to reconcile the saintly figure of her beloved father with her own more enlightened views”.

Not that he’d raise a word about it willingly. Jean Louise (whom I still think of as Scout) is delighted to see Hank but suspects the relationship might flounder outside Maycomb County. For she’s nearly – but not quite – in love with Henry, a state which she recognizes would lead to an unhappy marriage and extramarital affairs. Not a huge amount happens but the character of Scout seems to have grown as you might expect which is great. (She did help her friend Truman Capote, the model for Dill in “Mockingbird“, with research for his crime narrative “In Cold Blood.”) While Lee was not a J.D.

I should say that the release of this book is controversial.

“While the novel shares literary DNA with Ms Lee’s famous debut – the same wry humor, biting banter and finely drawn characters flicker throughout – this is clearly a different story”, writes Alexandra Alter in the New York Times. Considered to be lost text, the author’s lawyer discovered the manuscript in 2014.

“I’m re-reading [Mockingbird] now in anticipation of the new book”, said Kris Kleindienst, co-owner of Left Bank Books.

Lee, 89, is famously private, rarely gives interviews and will not be doing any publicity for the book’s release.

Susan Sandon, managing director of the Cornerstone division of Penguin Random House in the United Kingdom who bought rights to Watchman for Britain and Australia, visited Lee on two occasions, most recently last week to deliver finished copies of the book. Lee’s one novel has remained beyond compare, and the author has never had the uneasy experience of trying to live up to the expectations of millions of devoted fans of To Kill a Mockingbird.

(Here, though, a spoiler alert! – in case spoilers even exist in a first chapter.).

Besides the gut-punch revelation about her older brother, Jem, we also learn about a romantic interest for Jean Louise and health problems faced by their aging father, Atticus.

That’s right: Lee pulls a Virginia Woolf and dispatches him in the space of a single offhand phrase.

The local Barnes & Noble is also preparing to sell the book to scores of readers.

For most readers I encounter, Lee’s first book is an all-time favorite.