I recently did something that so many of my peers are swearing they will never do. I picked up a copy of Harper Lee’s new book, and I actually read it. I read Go Set a Watchman, even though several of my friends and the Internet warned me not to.
Let me preface my brief reviewing by saying that To Kill a Mockingbird means much less to me than it does to a lot of other people. While most people read Lee’s famous novel in middle school or early high school are part of their curriculum, I read the book during my free time at the end of my senior year of high school. By that time, I already had very high expectations of literature and had already formed pretty strong opinions on the era I was supposed to be reading about.
That being said, I liked To Kill a Mockingbird but it did not knock my socks off. I went into Go Set a Watchman with pretty low expectations. I had seen the Internet explode with accusations of elder abuse and awful story lines and the Klan.
When I closed the cover after reading the last few pages in a bus San Francisco International terminal, I was in a very different frame of mind then many others who had already read what was probably the most anticipated book of the year.
I liked the majority of Go Set a Watchman. I actually loved Hank Clinton, even if Scout couldn’t bring herself to. I loved getting to see these iconic characters are all grown, and I loved getting to know more about Dr. Finch.
You know who I didn’t like in the book? Scout. These supposedly beloved protagonist irked me more than anything. It has been 20 years since the end of Mockingbird, and Scout is still the cantankerous little girl she always has been. I hated reading about Scout driving around town and complaining about everything that crossed her path. I was much happier when we were outside of Scout’s head and able to hear the voices of reason in the story, Dr. Finch and Atticus.
If you are convinced that Atticus could do no wrong and that the idea of him being a racist is the most outrageous thing ever, please take a second to think about the time period this book is set in. Think about the location of the novel. If you’re surprised that a man of 72 living in Alabama would have strong opinions on race and the society he lives in, you are uneducated on the time period.
When I closed Go Set a Watchman, I still felt that Atticus Finch was the hero. Atticus stood strong, even when his own daughter called him everything but a milk cow. Atticus is a warrior of justice, but that may not always come in the package you are expecting.
If you want to make your own judgments on Harper Lee and Atticus Finch, then I recommend you pick up Go Set a Watchman and read it for yourself. Form your own opinions after the fact, and don’t let your ideas about any book be dictated by the vigilantes on the Internet
