Bests & Worsts Reviews from Amazon

There's been a lot of controversy surrounding the publication of GO SET A WATCHMAN, which has been universally recognized as the first draft of what would eventually become Harper Lee's magnificent TO KILL A MOCKINGBIRD. WATCHMAN, written several years before MOCKINGBIRD, tells the story of 26-year-old Jean Louise Finch who returns to her childhood home of Maycomb, Alabama to visit her 72-year-old father, Atticus Finch. At first, the visit is bathed in the patina of memories and nostalgia - Jean Louise remembers the smells, the sounds, and the people she grew up with, and she resents the changes that have taken place (Atticus has left the house where Jean Louise was born and built himself a new place that doesn't quite feel the same). The first third of the novel is slow-paced and wistful, with Jean Louise flirting with childhood friend and maybe-fiancé, Hank Clinton, now her father's law partner. She spars with her Aunt Alexandra (who berates her for wearing "slacks" in town) and her Uncle Jack (whose conversation is steeped in metaphor and allusion). It isn't until she learns that Atticus and Hank are both part of the Maycomb County Citizen's Council, an organization bent on preventing racial integration, that the plot really begins. The Atticus we see here - a man determined to preserve the identity of a South torn asunder, first by emancipation and then by Supreme Court decisions - is not the Atticus Jean Louise remembers from her childhood. She thought of him as a God, and we who so loved both the book and movie versions of MOCKINGBIRD did, too. But WATCHMAN has a message that's far more complex than its more famous counterpart. Because Atticus is not a God. He's also not evil, even in his need to protect his world from the kind of change that cannot come easily. WATCHMAN isn't the uplifting, lovely novel that MOCKINGBIRD is. But in many ways, by being Jean Louise's story more than Atticus's, it's bigger and more important. From everything I've read, it's clear that Harper Lee never intended to publish WATCHMAN. She submitted it to publishers who suggested she rework it focusing on Jean Louise's childhood, and the result was MOCKINGBIRD. I can see why they gave Lee this advice - the childhood memories in WATCHMAN (and there are many) are among its most identifiable elements. We get to see Jean Louise again when she was Scout, and we get to see Jem and Dill in all their glory. There is a reference to the trial of Tom Robinson, which makes up the central conflict in MOCKINGBIRD. In WATCHMAN, however, Robinson is not named, he seems much younger (a boy), and his "rape" of a 14-year-old white girl is proven to have been consensual (yes, Atticus gets him off). Most of the rest of the stories and memories in WATCHMAN are new, covering Scout's school years (including high school, first dates, dances, and embarrassments). I loved her and Jem and Dill and young Hank (a character who does not show up in MOCKINGBIRD), and I would have read this for those sections alone. But this isn't a book about children. Instead, it's a book about change, and how difficult it is to get people to let go of their identities and move forward into the future, even if that future is necessary and right. The setting of WATCHMAN is the summer of 1954. The Supreme Court has just ruled (in Brown vs. the Board of Education) that "separate but equal" cannot stand - no longer would states be able to avoid racial integration by setting up separate schools for Negroes. Jean Louise believes in states' rights, so she isn't a fan of the Court's ruling (she believes it violates the 10th Amendment). But she does believe in racial equality and in integration, and she considers herself "color blind," things she believes she learned from her father. But when Atticus finally tells her what he believes - that neither Southern whites nor blacks are ready for forced integration, whether it be in the schools or the voting booth - it shakes her to her core. And the conversations she has with both Atticus and her Uncle Jack reveal a lot about how enlightened Southern white men thought in the 1950's. Parts of it are very hard to read, especially coming from the mouth of beloved Atticus Finch. But it's also a very honest portrayal of issues that are still front-and-center in American life and politics today. It's easy to say that the Atticus we meet in WATCHMAN isn't the same man as the kind, loving, God-like father in MOCKINGBIRD. Since seeing the 1962 movie, I've always heard Gregory Peck's voice when I've read Atticus's words - and that's exactly what I heard when I read WATCHMAN. This is Atticus, but a much older Atticus who is trying to protect the only world he's ever known. He has no hate in his heart for black people, and he truly does believe in equality (this is a man who waits in line behind black people in the grocery store even though the white store owner would happily serve him first). But he does call the Negro people "backward," and he compares them to children who are not ready to cast a vote or play a part in government. Atticus says to Jean Louise, "Do you want your children going to a school that's been dragged down to accommodate Negro children?" She is horrified, and she accuses him of denying that blacks are human. He calmly tells her that change can't be forced upon people until they're ready. It reminded me of a line from Lorraine Hansberry's 1959 play, "A Raisin in the Sun": Mr. Lindner, a white man trying to prevent a black family from moving into his white neighborhood, says, "You just can't force people to change their hearts." That's pretty much what Atticus is trying to tell Jean Louise. At the same time, Atticus recognizes in his daughter the very spirit and commitment that will ultimately bring the kind of change he knows must happen. She is a product of her upbringing - she was raised by a white man and a black woman (Calpurnia, who was Atticus's housekeeper since the death of his wife when Jean Louise was two). She is Atticus's daughter, in her beliefs, her humanity, and yes, in her color-blindness. And if she represents the changed world yet to come, Atticus represents a past which is so very hard to let go of. I did enjoy reading GO SET A WATCHMAN, and I do think it makes a nice companion piece to MOCKINGBIRD. The issues raised here are the kinds of things people should be thinking about and talking about. I'm very glad this novel was published. I highly recommend it to anyone willing to be challenged.