âTo Kill a Mockingbirdâ Sequel Contains Graphic Violence, Adult Situations, Publisher Warns
Harper Lee, author of the classicÂ novel âTo Kill a Mockingbird,â will release her firstÂ book in more than fifty years this July, when âGo Set a Watchman,â a sequel to âMockingbird,â will be released on July 14th. But controversy regarding the bookâs suspicious publication might soon be overshadowed by news regarding the content of the novel itself, which has been described by the bookâs publisher as âabsolutely, positively not intended for younger audiences or children.â On Thursday, Leeâs publisher, HarperCollins,Â released more information regarding the new book,Â saying they hope to âcurb some peoplesâ expectationsâ and âwarn parents that this story isnât intended for children, by any means.âÂ With the warning, HarperCollins laid out the storyâs plot,Â hoping it might explain how and why the novel is intended for a mature audience. âThisÂ novel is absolutely, positively not intended for younger audiences or children,â says HarperCollins Public Relations Director Jennifer McDonnell. âThe first book, `To Kill a Mockingbird,â dealt with many adult subjects, including racism, rape, and legal corruption. But this story goes so many steps above and beyond all that. This is a grown-up story, from a grown-up perspective, and we want to warn parents and teachers that this story isnât intended for children.â The first act of âGo Set a Watchmanâ shows Scout Finch twenty years after the events of âMockingbird.â Finch, a female lawyer in a male-dominated Manhattan, struggles with alcoholism and drug addiction as she fails repeatedly to land a client, partly due to her being a woman, but also due to her addiction to heroin. Her lover, a reclusive writer who reminds Finch of Boo Radley, is abusive, and forces Finch to engage in multiple sexual acts with an African-AmericanÂ heroin dealer, after which Finch murders her lover and the drug dealerÂ with a knife and a gun, respectively. In the second act, Finch leaves Manhattan on a train,Â escaping the police to her home town of Maycomb, Alabama, where she stays with her aging father, Atticus Finch. While in Maycomb, Scout Finch recollects the events of âMockingbirdâ and meets a dying Boo Radley, with whom she has a questionable sexual affair prior to his death. The publisher refused to share any more details regarding the story, but McDonnell says âthe violence and adult situations in the book are all extremely graphic in nature. Harper Leeâs descriptive penmanship is unrivaled in this story, but it leaves `Go Set a Watchmanâ as a tale far too graphic and mature for publication in the 1950âs or 1960âs. Some might even say itâs overwhelmingly too mature for contemporary publication. Some of the scenes involving sex would make a `Fifty Shades of Greyâ fan blush.â