Go Set a Watchman reads like a sequel to To Kill a Mockingbird, but it isn’t. Jean Louise Finch, known as Scout in childhood, lives and works in New York City. She returns to Maycomb, Alabama to visit Atticus, her aged father, who still practices law in the sleepy southern town.
Sounds like a sequel, right? The explanation is a bit complicated, and didn’t make sense when I first read it. Go Set a Watchman is the first draft of a novel that would be much revised, to become To Kill a Mockingbird. In the first draft, adult Jean Louise has numerous flashbacks to her childhood. The publisher apparently liked the flashbacks more than the main storyline and urged Harper Lee to include more childhood scenes, and eventually the entire novel became a long recollection of childhood, centering on a legal case and family crisis that is barely mentioned in the Watchman draft. The title was changed – and a masterpiece resulted.
But Go Set a Watchman, was never intended to be published.
And in my opinion, it never should have been. There is a myriad of complex, legal, moral, ethical, and artistic controversies surrounding the publication. The book made a bunch of money, but the author was dead barely six months after publication. If I had it to do over, I don’t think I’d buy it. But I did, and I read it, so the rest of this is just my commentary on the literary merits of the book.
First, it isn’t as terrible as some reviews make it. In fact, there were times when I found it quite enjoyable – mostly those childhood flashbacks. Yay! more stories about Scout and Jem. But, there is a terrible dilemma. That’s good, novels need a conflict. The old south is coming to terms with the Supreme Court decision in Brown vs the Board of Education, ending racial segregation in schools. Not everyone in Maycomb takes this federal interference in state’s rights very well. And when Atticus and others are slow, or even reluctant to champion the cause of racial equality, Jean Louise is disillusioned and outraged.
The narrative about the conflict is weak. It is introduced abruptly, developed unconvincingly, reaches a heartbreaking climax as Jean Louise curses her father and storms away to leave Maycomb forever. And then…all is resolved ridiculously fast in a few pages, and one shocking slap to Jean Louise’s face, by Uncle Jack. Dr. John Hale (Jack) Finch did not survive the final draft to appear in To Kill a Mockingbird. Too bad. I liked him.
My rating 3 out of 5 stars
This novel satisfies “a classic by a woman author”, in the Back to the Classics 2022 Challenge.
The title is taken from The Bible.
For thus hath the Lord said unto me,
Go, set a watchman, let him declare what he seeth. Isaiah 21:6
It is the text chosen by the preacher on Jean Louise’s first Sunday back in Maycomb. It isn’t momentous at the time. But later, while admonishing his niece, Uncle Jack says:
Every man’s island, Jean Louise, every man’s watchman, is his own conscience. There is no such thing as a collective conscious.
That, and a few other words of wisdom begin to turn the tide for Jean Louise, and she is soon reconciled to her father. (too easily, too quickly)
My favorite of Uncle Jacks aphorisms:
I’ll put it in my own words: the time your friends need you is when they’re wrong, Jean Louise. They don’t need you when they’re right.
Other Excerpts:
She did not stand alone, but what stood behind her, the most potent moral force in her life, was the love of her father.
She touched yesterday cautiously, then withdrew, I don’t dare think about it now, until it goes far enough away. (this one reminds me of another southern female from literature who liked to put unpleasant thoughts off for another day)
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