Go Set a WatchmanGo Set a Watchman by Harper Lee
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

It's rare that I finish a book in a single day. I did it with this book. A writer who has written only two books is rare and that too half a century apart is even so! Harper Lee gives us an unexpected but very deserving sequel to her 'To kill a mockingbird' with Jean Louise of 26 years old as protagonist. Many things have changed in these years, some characters are gone, others are added to the narrative but the soul of this book is the same. You get the same feeling you had when you read 'To kill..'. The only necessary difference is you get to see this Maycomb county directly from an adult perspective as opposed to the case of 'To kill..' in which one had to interpret a child's observations. I loved this book; especially the climactic intellectual intercourse between Scout, Atticus Finch and Dr. Finch. Reading it in one sitting helped of course to stay with the characters. One can't help but get mesmerised by the dialogs and philosophies in this book.
"Every man's an island, Jean Louise, every man's a watchman, is his conscience."
"Our gods are remote from us, Jean Louise. They must never descend to human level."

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