Book Review: Go Set a Watchman by Harper Lee
When I first stumbled upon what is hailed as “Harper Lee’s long lost unpublished novel” in the library while on my recent trip to the UK I didn’t think twice before picking alongside a fresh new copy of To Kill a Mockingbird then heading to the cash register. I spent my eid/summer/birthday holiday lounging around, relaxing, and reading both books back to back. I thought it was the only proper way to read what was originally the book to be published before Lee’s editors asked her to elaborate more on Scout’s memories and hence To Kill a Mockingbird was born and published and the original not.
To be frank I never thought To Kill a Mockingbird was legendary. I’m not saying its not good or important, but I somehow felt a bit removed from the nine-years old child telling the story. The good thing about Go Set a Watchman is that I totally related to the grown-up Jean Louise who is visiting Maycomb back from NYC and feeling that she had nothing in common with her peers, nothing to talk about and no shared interest especially in the superficial matters. I totally understood how two people can live in a society but one is allowed to get away with being eccentric just because he is of the right sector while others who daren’t deviate from the social presets and expectations yet are constantly criticised still and should they dare to choose something else they become pariahs in an instant, they belong to the wrong sector after all. I read about grown up Scout’s society and I realized that discrimination and prejudice are almost the same everywhere, any time. That I can weave the similarities between any two societies and end up with two matching patches that can be hanged on the wall of human history.
My liking of the book ends there.
Now I’ve finished it, I realise why a lot of readers had their concerns and thought the newly discovered novel, the only other novel written Harper Lee, is a money-making sham. The novel I read was clearly never meant to be To Kill a Mockingbird’s sequel. A first draft perhaps, yes, but it hardly has enough material to stand alone as a novel in it’s own right let alone to serve as anything for To Kill a Mockingbird. It wouldn’t even do as an accompanying book. The things that’s been done, to Jem, to Calpunira, to Dill, and most importantly to Atticus! I hated the Atticus thing the most, those of you who read it would understand without spoiling it for anyone else who deserves to read it and make up their mind. Why? Why ruin Atticus in that way? I don’t understand and I refuse to accept it as a literature destiny for Mr. Atticus Finch.
I’ve decided that whatever happened in the book I’ve read, it was never meant to happen after all. This book needs work, and had it been intended as a sequel, or a prequel, or whatever it is in relation to To Kill a Mockingbird, then why was it forgotten in a deposit box for 50+ years or so? Why is it published now? I do not have the answer, perhaps no one will, but if you decide to read it for yourself I advice you to keep in mind that you are reading something more of a draft, think of it as reading something from the history of how To Kill a Mockingbird came to be, especially when I’ve read a few paragraphs that were identical to ones in To Kill a Mockingbird.
Would you read Go Set a Watchman? Have you read it already? What do you think?
