Review: Go Set a Watchman

Go Set a Watchman by Harper Lee
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Is it an abandoned first draft of To Kill a Mockingbird, or Harper Lee's long-desired sequel? Or is it a secret spirited away from a dim, elderly woman without protectors? There is much controversy on the publication of this novel. More controversy is made by readers seeing a beloved Atticus Finch because apparently he was co-opted by his own creator and transmogrified into a racist fiend. Reading some of those reviews, I wonder if some are more remembering the Gregory Peck silver screen depiction in a screenplay that amplified Atticus over the story of the children. Indeed, this was Scout's story, in narration and recollection, as is this work. Young Scout was misinformed, hard-headed, and self-assured in her precocious judgement. The adult Jean Louise has those aspects of her character and demands simple truths from old men confronted with a changing world as they seek to slow what they see as radical change afoot. The work is still about racism in America, like its sister volume, and still about Jean Louse. Since this adult Scout also splits her time with Maycomb and NYC it makes me feel the author's experience living in those two worlds. Crowded by internal monologues and rows with her father and uncle, there is less scope and plot here whch makes it feel like a lesser work, but still a very good read.

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