The big buzz this week is the soon-to-be-published sequel to Harper Lee's To Kill a Mockingbird, the classic novel about young Scout and her family, including beloved father and lawyer Atticus Finch, caught up in the trial of a black man accused of raping a white woman in Depression-era Alabama. The sequel from Lee, titled Go Set a Watchman, will be published in July. I admit to both eager curiosity and some misgivings about the new work. The reclusive Lee, who has not published since the Pulitzer Prize-winning To Kill a Mockingbird, actually wrote the "Watchman" manuscript before "Mockingbird." Lee's editor read her first "Watchman" effort, about an adult Scout paying a visit to her father Atticus in 1950s Alabama, and was more engaged by the childhood flashbacks. The editor encouraged the fledgling author to create a story around the Depression-era characters instead. Lee took the advice and, after many revisions, produced her acclaimed "Mockingbird" novel. The "Watchman" manuscript was apparently lost and forgotten, only to be unearthed recently by the aged Lee's friend and lawyer. Those who love "Mockingbird" have long yearned for more from Lee, yet I fear a letdown. First of all, Go Set a Watchman supposedly will be published as the original manuscript, basically the unedited voice of an inexperienced writer. I worry that there's a reason editor and author forgot about it. More fundamentally, To Kill a Mockingbird is a coming-of-age masterpiece. Consider other coming-of-age tales that have become literary classics: Great Expectations by Charles Dickens, Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte, The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain, or Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger. Do you really want sequels, say the life of Huckleberry at age 35? I loved young Scout when I said good-bye to her. I don't want to be disappointed by the grown-up Scout. For more on Lee's new book, read http://www.nytimes.com/2015/02/04/books/harper-lee-author-of-to-kill-a-mockingbird-is-to-publish-a-new-novel.html?_r=0
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