Waterstones Go Set a Watchman

Author: atticusfinch1048

Rating: 5

Review: Having seen all the media hype about this book over the last few months and then the early reviews when we are told that Atticus is a racist all I can say is poppycock to them. Read the book give it a chance and you will find an amazing read and remember it is from this book that gave birth to To Kill A Mockingbird and the characters we know and love. While condemning Atticus and this book many literary critics have forgotten the context and era that To Set A Watchman was written in, and that this book reflects that time. Let us not forget that it was only in 1955 that Rosa Parks refused to give up her seat on a bus for a white person this novel written not long after reflects the fear of the white southern American. Scout who had moved to New York and had been immersed in the modern thinking that segregation was and is wrong, again one has to remember that in the 50s and 60s a black person was literally a second class citizen, slavery had been abolished but they were still not free. I was also surprised that the criticism had not picked up on the biblical reference of the title which is Isaiah 21:6 which later in the book Dr Finch, Scout’s uncle, reminds us that our own conscience is our own watchman for our minds, and our thoughts. Something that this novel screams challenging our consciousness about racism and reminds us that no person is an island especially in Alabama in the 1950s. We see that Scout, now 26, is returning home to Maycomb for a holiday, to visit Atticus who is now riddled with arthritis and being cared for by his sister Alexandra. It is on this return that Scout knows more often call Jean Louise rather than her nickname, notices the changes in the country and the fear of change from the residents. Even Atticus’ house is new as he no longer lives where she was brought up with Jem, now dead (sorry for the spoiler). Hank is her boyfriend who works for the ailing Atticus as a lawyer, and Atticus has been his mentor in every way possible since childhood. On returning home she notices that her father and Hank seem to be deeply entrenched in the racist white supremacy thought and this comes as a deep shock to her. It is only later in the book when challenged that she realises that she does not know her father as an adult but had been observing him as child, as a hero. Part of this story is about knocking Atticus from the pedestal that Scout has built for her father and in a way for the reader also, and making you see that he is a reflection of the age and times around him. Harper Lee’s reflection is in this book is Scout and this is how she must have felt when she returned home from New York to Alabama, feeling of horror at how out of touch people are, and how hypocritical. We are all hypocrites in different ways and our attitudes too race is one of the oldest forms of our prejudice against our fellow man. There are also some wonderful touches throughout the book that will continue to make you smile that Scout the woman still has not changed fundamentally from Scout the child in challenging conventions. This may seem like a difficult sequel to read, but one should remember really it is the prequel, written before and it is from this book the legend that is Atticus Finch was born. It is also this book that knocks him and us off our pedestals and challenges us to open our eyes and see that we all have flaws some we will detest. I would say to any reader get over what a lot of the literary critics have written about Atticus, read it with fresh eyes, give the book a chance and it is an amazing read. You do not have to agree with what you consider racist just remember the era this book is portraying and mirroring and look to you own conscience. In the book Scout is challenged as a bigot by Dr Finch, if we believe the critics and condemn without reading Go Set A Watchman are we too bigots? Only the reader can decide and I would encourage you to read and make your own mind up and your conscience is the watchman to your mind.

Author: Emma

Rating: 3

Review: Go Set a Watchman is essentially the first draft of To Kill a Mockingbird and on this basis, is a fascinating insight into the writing and editing process. However, as a story, it is rather lacking. There is no particular plot, other than a 26 year old Scout (now known as Jean Louise) returning from New York to Maycomb to visit Atticus, who is now 72 and has severe arthritis but still practicing law. There are disturbances in the South generally between the black and white residents including Maycomb; this makes Scout get on her politically correct high horse and lurch around the town being outraged and self-righteous in the way that only teenagers and young adults can. The writing is full of overwrought descriptions of self-examination. Here's an example: "Had she insight... she may have discovered that all her life she had been with a visual defect which had gone unnoticed and neglected by herself and those closest to her: she was born color blind." How's that for melodramatic and supercilious?! I won't spoil the story by explaining the shocking revelations, however I can say it is mainly a coming of age story in which a young woman, having left home and broadened her horizons, comes home and finds it small minded and insular. She also realises her family are flawed human beings, not all-powerful gods. There are long intricate descriptions of American laws and amendments, and acronyms (never explained in full) for various political factions which kept falling out with each other in the 1950s, most of which went over my head, being from the UK, and this all happening before I was born. This element of the story is quite repetitive and dull which weakens any impact it is supposed to have. We find out new things about Atticus and others, which I found only partially believable, and I certainly didn't believe that this would have been totally new to Scout, or so shocking. The most moving scene is when she visits Calpurnia; this is much more in keeping with To Kill a Mockingbird and was the part of the book which touched me the most. If you read it as a sequel, it does make sense (apart from one key fact which was changed for mockingbird) but is just a bit, well... dull and shouty at the same time. As a book in its own right, it didn't make much of an impression, and certainly didn't really move me. I was glad to fiinish it, to get away from Scout's teenage screeching, to be honest. When read as the original material from which Lee's editor (or publisher) picked out certain strands and asked her to re-write it, bringing these strands to the fore, and from the point of view of a 6 year old Scout, you can then see how hard Lee worked to produce Mockingbird and how she developed enormously as a writer between the two books. Such a shame she didn't write any more. The point she is trying to make comes across so much more powerfully in Mockingbird because she has softened the characters, softened the stridency with which she tells it and given it warmth, depth and heart. The light touch in Mockingbird is prescisely why it is so powerful.