Go Set a Watchman in 50 books to read before you die

Jul 17, 2015 Erika B. (SOS BOOKS) rated it really liked it

Shelves: favorite-boy-award, mind-blown, adult-read, language

"For thus hath the Lord said unto me, Go set a watchman, let him declare what he seeth." -Isaiah 25:6

"Every man's island, Jean Louise, every man's watchman, is his conscience."

Well shoot friends. How on earth do I even begin to review this when I've just sat here on my couch for the past hour, hugging the book in a stupor of thought? (The cover feels really good by the way-just in case you were wondering.) Here is what I have to conclude. The story is flawed. I would expect that from a book tha "For thus hath the Lord said unto me, Go set a watchman, let him declare what he seeth." -Isaiah 25:6

"Every man's island, Jean Louise, every man's watchman, is his conscience."

Well shoot friends. How on earth do I even begin to review this when I've just sat here on my couch for the past hour, hugging the book in a stupor of thought? (The cover feels really good by the way-just in case you were wondering.) Here is what I have to conclude. The story is flawed. I would expect that from a book that was considered a draft that would evolve into something quintessential. At times it's all over the place, which is an editor's nightmare and dream to fix. In this book we are all Scout. Or at least I want to be her because she is super sassy and I love it. Scout who goes down South and becomes disillusioned by all of the ideals that she's barnacled on to. We read this novel and feel the same because what we've been raised on is the God-like Atticus Finch with his beautiful soul and his sense of right and wrong. Here's what I had to remind myself while Harper Lee knocked Atticus off the pedestal. In book terms...this would be her baby Atticus. Her primordial Atticus. We've been raised on the full grown God Atticus in To Kill a Mockingbird and I thank the stars above that Lee obviously saw what Atticus eventually became...which is what I kept telling myself while reading this. But to make this even more insane is this. While I and millions of others have loved Atticus and his ideas of equality for a good chunk of our lives, Go Set the Watchman (I believe) takes it one step further by making you, the reader, step up and question what you believe when the shiny heroes of the day become more human, and you yourself have to take a stance on which opinion you are going to buy. Hello commentary on America's society in 2015. It's all very Into the Woods..."Witches can be right, giants can be good. You decide what's right, you decide what's good." How very Mark Twain of you Miss Lee. I think the sentence that completely hit it home was, "She was extravagant with her pity, and complacent in her snug world." When is the time you have to turn around and fight for what you believe because you've finally set your own watchman? Do we know the difference between the time to act and the time to listen? So what my brain will have to do is remember that this is Harper Lee's baby which I can appreciate and makes me love the adult (TKAM) even more! This is the book/ghost of christmas future's vision and To Kill a Mockingbird is Christmas morning after all the characters have woken up! :)

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Jul 15, 2015 Kimgertz rated it really liked it

There is nothing like waiting almost five decades for a book's publication to whet the appetite. This much awaited "sequel" to To Kill a Mockingbird picks up with the Finches almost twenty years since Scout's childhood memories of Boo Radley and Tom Robinson's trial. Atticus has arthritis and is visibly declining before Scout's eyes and her beloved protector of an older brother, Jem, "dropped dead in his tracks" in his youth of unexplained circumstances. Once the reader recovers from these early There is nothing like waiting almost five decades for a book's publication to whet the appetite. This much awaited "sequel" to To Kill a Mockingbird picks up with the Finches almost twenty years since Scout's childhood memories of Boo Radley and Tom Robinson's trial. Atticus has arthritis and is visibly declining before Scout's eyes and her beloved protector of an older brother, Jem, "dropped dead in his tracks" in his youth of unexplained circumstances. Once the reader recovers from these early bombshells and is ready for some "good" news, Scout discovers that her moral compass (or watchman--a biblical allusion to Ezekial that is central to the text) has joined the Maycomb city council's efforts to fight the Supreme Court's recent Brown vs. Board of Education decision. It is this discovery that shakes Scout to her core, and sends her reeling into fury and depression as she realizes that the one person she thought she could trust was no better than all the open racists in Alabama. The confrontation between Scout and her father is painful to read from a 21st century perspective. Both Scout and her father show attitudes that most Americans would find deplorable in 2015, but that resonate with current events such as the Charleston church mass killing. While Atticus allows Scout free rein to her own "conscience," it is her Uncle Jack who helps Scout come to terms with her adult realization that her father is a product of his time and place. He helps her see a flawed man, who may have different political and racial opinions than her own, but a man who has lived his life with honor to the "spirit and letter" of the law he was entrusted to uphold. Jack's advice that "Every man's island, Jean Louise, every man's watchman, is his conscience" and that achieving an individual conscience requires "separation pain" from the idols of our youth is one of the most memorable conversations in this novel. Without To Kill a Mockingbird, this novel would not be a classic--it lacks the Southern gothic descriptive magic of its prequel, and the memorable supporting characters of Jem, Dill and Boo Radley, but I am grateful for its publication, as we gain a more nuanced understanding of the Finches and see that Scout has applied the lessons of her once idealized childhood to her complex adult life, and is the true watchman, or heroine of the family. ...more

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Jul 16, 2015 Joanna rated it it was amazing

Scout is an idiot and so is the media. This book is amazing!

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Aug 15, 2015 Marianne rated it really liked it

The final 30 pages contain a brilliant discussion of racism based on geographic history

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Jul 24, 2015 Gary rated it really liked it

It was a quick read. It was good but "Mockingbird" is better. Harper Lee tells the story of Scout(Jean Louise) as an adult. Jean Louise, who lives in New York, comes home to visit her father and family; and she sees her father and the little town with her grown up eyes. ...more

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Jul 18, 2015 Jim Ogle rated it really liked it

I grew up in the South. I recognize the contradictions that exist in even the most heroic of people. I liked it because it felt true to those contradictions I had experienced with real people of the 60s.

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