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Harper Lee to publish Mockingbird 'sequel'

bbc.com

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Re: Harper Lee to publish Mockingbird 'sequel'

#3
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?

Re: Harper Lee to publish Mockingbird 'sequel'

#4
On the basis of regression to the mean (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Regression_toward_the_mean), or what we might call the "J.K. Rowling effect," it would be far too much to hope that the sequel will match the original. Nonetheless, this has got to set some sort of record for the gap between a novel and its sequel.

Interestingly, there is a list of gaps between film sequels (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_the_longest_gaps_betwee...), and the longest gap is over 63 years, but there is no such list for books!

Re: Harper Lee to publish Mockingbird 'sequel'

#5

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?

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.

Re: Harper Lee to publish Mockingbird 'sequel'

#7
post #4

On the basis of regression to the mean ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Regression_toward_the_mean ), or what we might call the "J.K. Rowling effect," it would be far too much to hope that the sequel will match the original. Nonetheless, this has got to set some sort of record for the gap between a novel and its sequel. Interestingly, there is a list of gaps between film sequels ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_t…

Isaac Asimov took a 30ish year break between the original Foundation trilogy and the sequels/prequels. And I thought that was a long break!
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