‘Go Set a Watchman’ by Harper Lee was our book of choice for April. Most group members had read ‘To Kill a Mockingbird’, Lee’s 1961 Pulitzer Prize winning classic and, despite the fact that ‘Go Set a Watchman’ wasn’t published until 2015, it was the first of the two books to be written. Originally promoted as a sequel, it is now accepted as a first draft of ‘To Kill a Mockingbird’.
In the book we meet the same characters twenty years later in the 1950s when racial tensions are brewing in the South and the civil rights movement is gaining strength. Jean Louise (‘Scout’), now 26, returns from New York to her hometown of Maycomb, Alabama, for her annual visit to her father, Atticus Finch, a lawyer and former state legislator. She is reunited with her childhood sweetheart, Hank, who works for Atticus and her Aunt Alexandra who has moved in with her father to keep house.
It’s not long before Jean Louise feels out of place among the bigotry of the Maycomb County residents and, when she finds a pamphlet titled ‘The Black Plague’ among her father’s papers, she is shocked. She follows him to a Citizens’ Council meeting, also attended by Hank, where Atticus introduces a man who delivers a racist speech. Jean Louise is conflicted between the love she has for Atticus and his stance on segregation, and conveys her feelings of disillusionment to her Uncle Jack. The explanation he gives is that Atticus has not suddenly become a racist but is trying to slow down federal government intervention in state politics. On challenging her father, Jean Louise is told that the blacks of the South are not ready for full civil rights. Hank’s beliefs echo those of Atticus’s and to Jean Louise he is a hypocrite. However, although she is faced with disturbing truths about her beloved father, she learns to separate the two opposing facets and accepts him as a flawed, fallible human being.
This controversial novel, published when 89 year old Lee may have felt under pressure to do so, was not as popular among group members as ‘To Kill a Mockingbird’. However, Lee’s writing, which is punctuated with humour and anecdotes, was praised by most of us and, although the storyline lacked fluency at times, it asked challenging questions that perhaps its more famous counterpart omitted.
Louise Elsome
‘Bookworms’ Group Coordinator