Harper Lee (1926–2016)

We may never know the true story behind this book's publication -- when it was actually "discovered", whether Harper Lee knew about and/or had the capacity to condone its release, or whether her sister had been working to keep this work under wraps. What we do know is that in the early 60's an incredibly talented writer named Harper Lee wanted to write a book about race. At some point in that journey she submitted a version titled "Go Set a Watchman" to an astute editor who sent it back to her, and in time (and with many re-writes and edits) the world was gifted with "To Kill a Mockingbird."

While I've read TKAM several times, I chose not to re-read it prior to reading GSAW, which allowed me the perspective to read GSAW like a stand alone book, with characters who just happened to share the same names as those in TKAM.

I won't rehash the plot and character points in GSAW -- others have done it much more eloquently than I can. I'll simply say that if Lee's objective was to write a book about race, she triumphed with TKAM as her legacy. While race and racism are large factors in GSAW, the book is really about that moment when a person first acknowledges his/her parents' fallibility (and their own values):

"As you grew up, when you were grown, totally unknown to yourself, you confused your father with God. You never saw him as a man with a man’s heart, and a man’s failings – I’ll grant you it may have been hard to see, he make so few mistakes, but he makes 'em like all of us. You were an emotional cripple, leaning on him, getting all the answers from him, assuming that your answers would always be his answers." Pg. 265

While the book was choppy in places, and and some plot points contradicted others (a result of this being a draft without having gone through an editing process) I still enjoyed the book and consider it a testament to Lee's remarkable talent at how well written the book was, even without the benefit of professional editing. 4 stars.… (more)

I'm sure you can all tell two things about this book immediately:
1. It was one of the most anticipated books (at least in America), like, ever.
2. It is now super super controversial.
And I'm not even going to get into the whole question of whether or not ancient Harper Lee is still capable of consenting to having her over-a-half-century-old first draft of To Kill A Mockingbird published. But I really appreciated this as a sequel to TKAM. Not because it made me happy, but it made me think, and it adds far more depth to TKAM.
There is one issue, which is peripheral to the plot of GSAW but pretty central to TKAM. This book references Tom Robinson's rape trial, but in this version the outcome was different. I understand why the case ended up being decided the way it was in TKAM. It built Atticus's lesson of what courage is: “I wanted you to see what real courage is, instead of getting the idea that courage is a man with a gun in his hand. It’s when you know you’re licked before you begin but you begin anyway and you see it through no matter what." Atticus's lesson only makes sense if he doesn't win the case and knows he probably won't. But it is a tad awkward-feeling to read that Tom was acquitted.
I think this book is best understood and appreciated when you can think of some parts in their context as a first draft and some as a sequel. Clearly, the different decision in the rape trial is a symptom of the revisions that what we now know as GSAW went through before becoming our beloved TKAM.
But, once upon a time, in the 1950s, a young woman named Harper Lee set out to write a novel about another young woman named Jean Louise Finch finding out that her father wasn't the hero she idolized. Through a number of flashbacks, she established Scout's unconditional admiration for Atticus, the perfect lawyer and perfect father who can do anything. What other dad will NOT approach you about your somewhat creepy behavior because your kind-of-boyfriend reported it in a situation to which lawyer-client confidentiality applies? We'd all love a dad like that.
And that's what we were given.
The editor loved all those lovable scenes more than the heavy adult discussions, and so young Harper Lee rewrote the book to be about this hilarious little girl Scout and her amazing dad. And we were children with Scout, and we fell in love.
How many articles on "X ways Atticus Finch was perfect" (pre-2015) can you find with a quick Google search? Okay, I haven't checked, but probably like a thousand, if you're only counting the ones in English. For half a century, multiple generations have been permitted to idolize Atticus just like Scout did. And Uncle Jack might deny that there is such a thing as a collective consciousness, but together we all forgot that we were looking through the eyes of a child.
All along, the entire point was that Atticus WASN'T perfect. He did very good things for really crappy reasons which had some correct reasoning behind them and some that was a result of growing up in a country surrounded by truly institutionalized racism. And the whole point of the book was that Scout was finally growing up. Dr. Finch even said it to her- she needed to separate her conscience from her father's and become her own person. And to do that, she had to take Atticus off the pedestal she'd put him on for the 26 previous years of her life.
Now, maybe a book review oughtn't be a critique of the book's readers, but here I go.
I think that the people who hate the publishers of this book for letting Atticus be so different from the man in TKAM, and the people who hate Scout for in some sense accepting Atticus, haven't grown up. Crazy little Scout has finally passed you in maturity. When she was a little girl, she saw her father as the culmination of all things pure and noble. When she grew up, she still saw her father as essentially a god. Ageless and unchanging in his truth and goodness. But eventually she was faced with undeniable proof that he was a human being just like her, a man with contradictions and mistakes and, hey, who's to say that Scout wasn't the wrong one in some of their areas of disagreement? But he was wrong sometimes. Maybe a lot of the time. Maybe in his whole world view. And he always had been. When the 26-year-old child Scout saw this she couldn't bear it. Believe me, my heart was wrapped up on Atticus's perfection too, and the mere concept of him being in any way "bad" hurt me too.
But then Scout and I got a long talking-to from Uncle Jack. Boy, that man rarely makes any sense. We understood so little of what he was getting at, and were won over to mostly none of it. But he still helped us. Somewhere in his long long loooonngg, my goodness, SO LONG, talks, we were able to accept Atticus's fallibility and welcome him to the human race. And we did not agree with him. I feel that in any other era this lesson would be taken for granted, but today it must be stated explicitly- acceptance and agreement are far from the same thing. We now ACCEPT that Atticus is kind of pretty white supremacist. When we were children we saw his perfectly equal treatment of all people and said "There walks a good man who is not ever racist." And we agreed with the lack of racism. But all along, not being exercised, but being believed, was the supremacy. Atticus thought of himself and other white people as better than black people. He treated everyone the same. Both were true, but only one was seen. And the only thing he taught us was to wait in line behind the black people who were there first. We did it because he taught us too. We thought he taught us to because he, like us, was colorblind, when to him it was just manners. It made him feel good. When we discovered the true reasons behind everything he ever taught us, we felt completely lost. Our foundation was gone.
Yet we've long been able to tolerate people like the man who delivered the racist rant in the courtroom- again, not approve of his beliefs, but not have our world shaken by the fact that he exists. Scout never came to agree with Atticus that, really, giving black people equal rights would tear their world apart. She still thought (recognized?) that the Negroes of Maycomb County, the South, the United States, deserved far more than they were being given. But she could accept that Atticus disagreed with her the same way she could accept any random racist Maycomber disagreeing with her- it's his opinion, to which he's entitled, even if it's wrong. He's human like me and I'm wrong sometimes too. I'll probably argue with him if it comes up and I'm at that time in a position to do so, but in the meantime, the world still turns with wrong people in it.
This is a coming-of-age story. Finally, the little girl in a grown woman's body has matured to the point where she can disagree with her dear old dad.

OK so that's what I have to say in GSAW's relationship to TKAM and what is required of you in order to appreciate this book. Well, nothing, really. It kind of slaps you in the face and forces you to grow up. It's hard. It's really hard.

But I also loved this book, maybe as much as TKAM. It was so much the same Scout, just older. I think the first time I laughed out loud was about 3 pages in, when her train bed folded in on her and she needed to be rescued when she didn't have pajama pants on. I loved the awkwardness of puberty, of the first French kiss and its many months of repercussions. I loved the first dance and the items that were present at the beginning but not the end. (I'm so grateful now that I was never invited to prom or a dance early in high school and that I've never had access to fake boobs. NOT WORTH IT.) I loved the revival meeting. A lot of changes certainly happened between GSAW and TKAM, but Scout is Scout. Clever, ignorant, hilarious, human Scout.
I also liked the part where Henry told Jean Louise off about how she could get away with anything she did and no one disliked her any more than they did before she committed whatever newest misdeed. Without saying so, he pointed out that privilege is a lot sneakier than it seems like it should be. Anyone can tell you that in Maycomb county, "the whites" as a a group were privileged, and "the Negroes" as a group were not. But this alone couldn't define what that privilege meant. If you're privileged, blame bounces away from you as an individual and onto circumstances you can't control (in Jean Louise's case, the supposed eccentricities of her family). Responsibility for wrongdoing divides and dispels. If you're part of a not-privileged group, each individual takes on all the blame for the whole group, and the whole group takes on blame for an individual's evil actions- responsibility multiplies to land on every member of that group. This attitude, held by individuals, is what can end up leading to differences in laws.
(unfortunately i need to stop reviewing now. congrats for getting this far. i'll finish later.)… (more)

This is not a sequel of To Kill a Mockingbird. It's a very early draft of that novel. Fortunately, Lee rewrote it completely and changed the characters and events (for example, the outcome of Tom Robinson's trial is different), creating one wonderful and unforgettable novel. You can read that version with the title To Kill a Mockingbird.

Publishing Go Set a Watchman is just a money-making stunt by the people who control Lee's estate. It is nowhere near as well-written as TKAM and doesn't have the same powerful characters. It's only of interest for those who want to study Lee's creative process. If you are just a regular fan of TKAM, do yourself a favor and skip this one.… (more)

I usually prefer to enjoy my reading material rather than having to parse it's deeper meaning, so I can sometimes be rather reluctant to read books that are critically acclaimed and/or considered classics, since they are often difficult to understand. I'd heard so many wonderful things about To Kill a Mockingbird that I finally decided to take a chance on it when it was chosen as a book club read for the GoodReads Readers Against Prejudice and Racism group of which I am a part. I was very pleasantly surprised at what an easy read it was, while at the same time conveying a deep and layered message, not only about prejudice but also about standing up for what's right, that I know will stay with me, probably for the rest of my life. Another astonishing thing about the book to me was the number of lighthearted if not downright funny moments it contained. This is something I never would have expected from a book that tackled such a serious and controversial issue for its time. In my opinion, Harper Lee is an amazing writer, and I was absolutely stunned to discover that To Kill a Mockingbird was the only novel she ever wrote. However, I suppose there's nowhere else to go once you've won the highest honor in the writing world, a Pulitzer Prize, and she certainly made her one shot count in a huge way.

Young Scout Finch is the first-person narrator of the story. She is only about six or seven when it opens, but more than two years pass by as Ms. Lee builds up to the penultimate events of the book, by which time Scout is nine years old. She is a tomboy who's as smart as a whip and a precocious reader. When her first grade teacher told her she had to stop reading because her daddy was teaching her all wrong and first-graders weren't supposed to read, I had to laugh. It was ludicrously funny but also a sad commentary on our educational system. I just loved Scout's enthusiasm for reading. She joked that her brother, Jem, said she was born reading and she couldn't remember a time when she couldn't read. In this way, Scout very much reminded me of myself. I thought it was fascinating how Scout, in her child's mind, thinks of her father as old, decrepit, and thoroughly boring. She doesn't think he has any real skills or has accomplished anything. It was an absolute joy to watch Scout's opinion of Atticus gradually grow and change as she matures and begins to see him in an entirely new light through, not only the big trial, but all the little things he does.

I loved Scout's relationship with her brother. She and Jem fight like siblings often do, but at the same time they were very close. I like how Jem is a little gentleman, always looking out for Scout. It was wonderful how closely he actually watches their father, and subtly emulates him. When their summertime friend and neighbor, Dill, gets in on the action, these three can get into lots of amusing mischief. Seeing the world through these kids eyes was a positively delightful experience. Dill is quite good at creating wild yarns. I just knew he was destined to be a writer someday;-) (for anyone who doesn't know Dill is patterned on Harper Lee's childhood friend and neighbor, Truman Capote). The lessons that the kids learn are deeply touching. Whether it's how they go from being scared of their reclusive neighbor Boo Radley to beginning to understand why he stays away from people; or learning from Mrs. Dubose, the cranky old lady who likes to hurl insults at them, that things aren't always as they seem; or the tough lessons they learned about injustice through Tom Robinson's trial, they are on a constant journey of discovery, both of the world around them and themselves that often brought tears to my eyes.

If I were Scout, I'd think that I had the best dad in the world, but since I'm much, much closer to Atticus's age than Scout's, I'd have to say that he has become my latest literary crush. He is just quite simply an amazing man. Some people think that he's a questionable father who lets his kids run wild, because he doesn't spank them and they have a tendency to speak their mind. To the contrary, I believe he was a man who led by quiet example, and showed his kids how to be good citizens by teaching them to think critically for themselves. I love how Atticus just naturally speaks with “bigger” words and doesn't dumb it down for his children, but instead allows them to ask for clarification if they don't understand something, always answering their questions with complete honesty. That's how I tend to be, and I think kids can learn more that way. Atticus is a very wise man who sees many facets to the world around him. He is a kind, loving, gentle soul who always seems to see the good in people. He's a true gentleman, a brilliant attorney, an honorable and humble man who fights for what's right no matter what. If more men were like Atticus Finch, the world, without a doubt, would be a much better place.

To Kill a Mockingbird is another of those books which sadly, over fifty years after its release, is still found at the top of the ALA's most banned/challenged books list. It does contain some profanities, mostly mild, but a couple of more moderate ones including taking the Lord's name in vain twice. There is also a number of instances where the derogatory “n” word is used for African Americans, but given the time and setting of the book, it never seemed overdone or out of place to me. There is also the mature subject matter of a black man being wrongly accused of raping a white girl, but since it is all told through the eyes of a nine year-old child, everything has a certain air of innocence to it, with nothing ever really being spelled out explicitly. In spite of this potentially objectionable content, I still feel that the book is fully appropriate for high school level students. In my opinion, the positive role model that Atticus presents and the positive messages contained within the book's pages, far outweigh any possible detractors. I personally think it would be an absolute travesty to ban a book as thought-provoking as this one, and in fact, would encourage everyone, teens and up, to read it at least once.

I'm so glad I finally picked up To Kill a Mockingbird. The courtroom scenes were extremely well-written and appear to reflect Ms. Lee's personal experience with the law. Some parts of the story were a little slow at times, but never boring and always worth the wait for something more exciting to happen. Every character and every little side story added flavor, color and depth to this wonderful tale. The message it conveys is a timeless one. It is one of the most, if not the most, affecting book I've ever read centering around the themes of prejudice and racism. To Kill a Mockingbird has without a doubt earned a spot on my keeper shelf and has become a new all-time favorite book for me.… (more)