The top shelf holds books I can't bear to give away; they are few and precious now. The other day, I headed right for that shelf on a hunch. Yep. There was my copy of "To Kill a Mockingbird," by Harper Lee.

I re-read "Mockingbird" a few years ago. I wanted to find out if it was as perfect a work of literature as I remembered it to be.

You know the answer.

So I've been watching the recent excitement around "Go Set A Watchman" with a strange sense of sadness.

The news of a recently discovered unpublished novel by Lee has sent euphoric ripples across the literary landscape. "Watchman" was written before the Pulitzer Prize-winning "To Kill a Mockingbird."

It was shelved at the suggestion of Lee's editor at the time, who encouraged her to, instead, start with Scout as a child, navigating the cruel racial divide in the deep South.

In "Watchman," an adult Scout returns home to fictitious Maycomb, Ala., from New York to visit her father, Atticus.

"She is forced to grapple with issues both personal and political as she tries to understand her father's attitude toward society, and her own feelings about the place where she spent her childhood," according to a news release.

The story was discovered last fall by Lee's lawyer, attached to the original manuscript of "To Kill a Mockingbird," which was published in 1960. The news has been called "as big as it gets for new fiction."

There has been a backlash regarding the new book, but not the kind I expected. Concern is growing about whether Lee, now 88 and profoundly hard of hearing, was cogent of her decision to allow publication of this first piece of fiction.

Lee, and people close to her, dismissed those concerns. From accounts I've read, she has every right to be offended by the implication that she needs protecting.

Wayne Flynt, a historian and longtime friend of Lee's, visited her in her assisted-living center in Monroeville, Ala., the day before the big announcement. He said she was more than capable of saying yes.

"This narrative of senility, exploitation of this helpless little old lady, is just hogwash," Flynt said in an interview with the Associated Press.

"It's just complete bunk."

Plus, I hope that it finally ends the stubborn controversy over whether Lee really wrote "To Kill a Mockingbird."

Flynt added that Lee was delighted to hear that "To Kill a Mockingbird" remains on the bestseller list 55 years after its original publication.

He also could have reminded her that it has been translated into more than 40 languages, sold more than 30 million copies worldwide and inspired what so few books of this caliber can accomplish:

A magnificent movie, which honored the novel's essence and gave us Gregory Peck, whose portrayal of steady, quietly heroic Atticus Finch earned him the title of "Greatest Film Hero of All Time," by the American Film Institute in 2003.

And certainly greatest Dad hero.

So here I sit, sorry to be a killjoy, but I won't be reading "Watchman."

There's just no way it can be better than what Lee has already given us.

There's no way any prose can do to my heart what Lee did with her beautifully sparse language as Judge Taylor polled the jury and Jem's hands "were white from gripping the balcony rail," and Atticus took his lonely walk down the middle aisle toward the south exit, and Scout found herself in a sea of supporters. "Miss Jean Louise, stand up. Your father's passin'."

I guess I don't need a prequel/sequel to help me grapple with issues personal and political around issues as fraught, important and still timely as race.

When I do, I'll read "To Kill a Mockingbird" again.

gail.rosenblum@startribune.com

612-673-7350 • Twitter: @grosenblum