Jenny Reviews: Go Set a Watchman by Harper Lee

The Vitals

Go Set a Watchman by Harper Lee
Release Date: 14 July 2015
Page Count: 278
Genre: Historical Fiction/Literary Fiction
Target Audience: Adult
Series: No
Source and Format: Borrowed; Hardback
Goodreads | Amazon

Summary (From Goodreads)
Maycomb, Alabama. Twenty-six-year-old Jean Louise Finch--"Scout"--returns home from New York City to visit her aging father, Atticus. Set against the backdrop of the civil rights tensions and political turmoil that were transforming the South, Jean Louise's homecoming turns bittersweet when she learns disturbing truths about her close-knit family, the town and the people dearest to her. Memories from her childhood flood back, and her values and assumptions are thrown into doubt. Featuring many of the iconic characters from To Kill a Mockingbird, Go Set a Watchman perfectly captures a young woman, and a world, in a painful yet necessary transition out of the illusions of the past--a journey that can be guided only by one's conscience.

Notes on Go Set a Watchman:

I have not been so moved by a book in a long time. It has taken me a couple of days to process the complex simpleness of this book. (Yes, you read that right. I will come to back to it in just a minute.) I re-read To Kill a Mockingbird  before I read Watchman and I am so glad I did. I do not think you can fully understand it without first re-reading Mockingbird, most especially if the last time you read it was in high school. You will hate Watchman if you do not have an adult's grasp of Mockingbird. You might hate it anyway, but do not let it be because you do not have the full picture.

So, the complex simpleness. This is a simple book. Scout, beloved narrator of Mockingbird, returns home for a visit. This is, essentially, what the whole book is about. She has a beau, one Henry Clinton, who is Atticus made over, more or less. Perfect for the little girl who idolizes her daddy. She is trying to decide if she wants to love him enough to marry him. Atticus is getting older but is still practicing law; Alexandra has moved in permanently; Jem has passed away; Uncle Jack now lives in town. Maycomb is, more or less, exactly as she left it. This continuity is something Scout depends on even as she is exasperated by it at times. 

Intertwined with this permanence is the infallibility of Atticus. Scout has long held her dad as her own conscious, making moral decisions based upon the question "What would Atticus do?" I believe this is also a sin of which every reader of Mockingbird is guilty. He is, as Miss Maudie says, "the same man in the street as in privacy of his own home". He is a wonderful person, but he is also a flawed person. This is a painful lesson. It is never fun to discover that idols have feet of clay. Scout's awakening is, to be sure, more painful than it has to be. She does not listen well. She is impetuous and quick to accuse. She is, in short, every one of us in our 20's. We are coming to understand that the world looks different from how we thought it would, or should, that there are more shades of gray than we are comfortable with. 

This is where the complexity comes in. The issue of race in the South was (and still is) as complex an issue as can be found. It touched on every aspect of life and was not something that could be solved by the government. Please do not think I am saying that change did not need to occur, because that is the opposite of what I am saying. My point is that it was an issue that so permeated society that change needed to come from more than just the political sphere. Actions have consequences. Just because an action is positive does not mean that it cannot also have negative consequences. One must not shy away from looking forward to all the consequences and trying to take into account other changes that one change can necessitate. This is what Atticus was doing and what he was trying to get Scout to do as well. Do I agree with his position? Not at all. Does he raise valid concerns that need to be addressed? Yes, he most certainly does. We should not be afraid of conversations like this. Our generation resorts to social media as a place to put forth our opinions, rather than sitting and having a face-to-face conversation and actually listening to what someone else has to say. 

I am still wrestling over how prophetic this book is. Harper Lee wrote it in the mid-1950's. The issues that Scout and Atticus and Henry Clinton and Uncle Jack were dealing with are still very much what we are dealing with today. I can understand why Lee only wrote two books; what more could she have to say? Her insight into human nature is humbling. I was so upset when I realized how Atticus felt about things. I loved every word Scout threw at him. I was also cut to the quick by that last conversation with Uncle Jack, when I realized how much of Scout is in me... especially when I was talking about how I did not like her that much in the previous blog post. What good are Scout's convictions, which I agree with, if she cannot listen to another's view without becoming angry, without feeling as if a disagreement about a position was a personal attack? What good are her convictions if she has not thought through them, if she only has them because she thinks that is what Atticus's are, not because they are her own? What good are your convictions if you are only concerned about being right?

Memorable Quotes
“Every man’s island, Jean Louise, every man’s watchman, is his conscience. There is no such thing as a collective conscious.”

“Remember this also: it’s always easy to look back and see what we were, yesterday, ten years ago. It is hard to see what we are. If you can master that trick, you’ll get along.”

“The time your friends need you is when they’re wrong, Jean Louise. They don’t need you when they’re right—”