Book Review: Go Set A Watchman

Isaiah 21:6: "For thus hath the Lord said unto me, Go, set a watchman, let him declare what he seeth."

With the passing of Harper Lee last week, it's a thoughtful time to ponder her work, and what was her latest published book, Go Set a Watchman. For those unfamiliar, the author of the beloved To Kill a Mockingbird didn't start out of the gate as a revered writer. In fact, she put aside the draft of the Southern Gothic classic in 1957 and published instead To Kill a Mockingbird in 1960 to great acclaim. A gifted storyteller, she wrote "in words of no more than two syllables" about the power of family, race and class in the deep South, and the supposed blindness of justice under American law. 

Both works stick with the central aphorism of when in doubt, do the right thing. Again, we find ourselves in 1950's South Alabama, with the very familiar Scout, now a grown-up Jean Louise, Calpurnia, Jem, and of course: Atticus. 

These are not the characters we already know and love just because they have the same names and places. Atticus is shown not as the paragon of virtue we recall him to be, but as a calculating lawyer, a citizen's council-attending racist, yet still thoughtful and wise. The Scout of Mockingbird is an important light to have in the reading minds of girls everywhere: a plucky tomboy who begins to understand the weight of responsibility. The hurt the older Jean Louise of Watchman suffers is greater, and felt deeply. Her character, wiser. Instead of watching life swirl around her, she herself stands up for injustice. 

Lee describes the frills and venom of "A Coffee" that Jean Louise's aunt holds in her honor with an inspired piece of onomatopoeia and amused observation. For those who think gossip a modern profession, let Ms. Lee enlighten you: Southern women have been at gossip so long and so well that it is to have perfected the art. The ladies of Maycomb show themselves to be a master class in prim and proper acrimony.

As taken, Watchman not as a sequel, but a draft, there are holes in the plot that the more successful book fills in better. The end drags on. She also violates one of Annie Dillard's precepts: never quote dialogue you can summarize. Ms. Lee apparently suffered the plight of writers everywhere: where do you leave off?

To wit: To Kill a Mockingbird is justly venerated, as a book for the ages, speaking to themes of equal treatment under the law, and the responsibilities of our freedom. Go Set a Watchman explores in more depth and angst the hidden motivations of flawed but honorable citizens of America, and what unquestioned traditions mean to us even these sixty years later.