[wmeredith]

I'd be interested to hear more about the creative dynamic between this new book and To Kill a Mocking Bird. It says she put this new one aside 60 years ago to write TKaMB, but it features the characters later in their lives. I wonder if she was sketching out backstory to flesh out the characters and that was more compelling, so she pivoted and wrote To Kill a Mocking Bird instead?

[nzealand]

"In the mid-1950s, I completed a novel called 'Go Set a Watchman,'" the 88-year-old Lee said in a statement issued by Harper. "It features the character known as Scout as an adult woman, and I thought it a pretty decent effort. My editor, who was taken by the flashbacks to Scout's childhood, persuaded me to write a novel (what became 'To Kill a Mockingbird') from the point of view of the young Scout.

"I was a first-time writer, so I did as I was told. I hadn't realized it (the original book) had survived, so was surprised and delighted when my dear friend and lawyer Tonja Carter discovered it. After much thought and hesitation, I shared it with a handful of people I trust and was pleased to hear that they considered it worthy of publication. I am humbled and amazed that this will now be published after all these years."

[swamp40]

It sounds to me like her editor thought the flashbacks to Scout's childhood were the best part of the unfinished book - so as you said, she pivoted to the good stuff.

[mercer]

While I expected it to annoy me, for some reason in this particular situation I love the fact that we're using very current terminology in the context of a 'classic' from the 60s. Perhaps because it 'anchors' the term and makes it seem more like a useful word to describe a phenomenon that has always existed, rather than annoying, very-specific jargon.

[spike021]

Maybe at the time they would be referred to as 'memories'.

[celticninja]

He meant pivot. It has become a bit of a buzzword and perhaps people think that it has only just come into practice, however it was always around it just hadn't been reduced to a single word.

[spike021]

Oh I see.

[seanalltogether]

I'm also curious to know if this second book pulls as heavily from her life experiences as mockingbird did. Mockingbird is such a poignant book because of how well it captures a certain period in american history. If the second one does as well, it could be just as important of a novel.