- April 24, 2024
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For those who haven't seen this novel in the national news yet, “Go Set a Watchman” has just been published by Harper Lee. It's just the second novel by the author of "To Kill a Mockingbird," and when I got my copy of the book in the mail and started reading it, I admit I’m feeling sort of giddy because of the literary event that the book has become.
I’m not all that focused on the legality or the ethics of the book’s publication; I’m staying blissfully ignorant of all that, but you can Google it for all the details. Instead, I’m enjoying the rare day when many people in our country are sitting around reading the same book. When else does this happen? Thanks to Pierre Tristam for arranging for it to happen here in Flagler County, as well. Check out FlaglerLive.com for nine other readers who were invited to blog about the book, one chapter per day.
I feel so conscious of the act of reading as a result of all this hype. I’m thinking about the magic of creating an imaginary world and all the techniques that Lee is using to pull it off. I’m also feeling like I’m getting reacquainted with people I already know. Because of “To Kill a Mockingbird,” just about every American knows who Atticus Finch is, and now that I am meeting him again, it’s bringing him to life even more. There is no need to introduce him, only to catch up, like we’re bumping into each other at a family reunion.
I see chapter 1 as a character study of Jean Louise, formerly known as Scout. The first chapter is tightly executed, for the most part, with every detail seeming to work toward revealing aspects of her character.
Jean Louise is a loving daughter; she recognizes that it’s “no longer fair” to expect her father to come to meet her at the train station at 72 years old.
She is also a sexual entity now that she’s an adult. She’s no longer overalled and boyish; now she’s a grown woman who sleeps only in pajama tops and tells her friend that she’ll have an affair with him but not marry him.
We then get a few pages of the history of Maycomb, which I find to be less tightly executed, but probably necessary for the development of the themes of race and history and place.
But then we have several pages of a fun conversation between Jean Louise and Hank, who greets her with a kiss on the mouth, proposes marriage, and then they agree that she’s hateful and settle into being just friends. Still, we can’t fully believe her when she says she will “pursue the stony path of spinsterhood.”
“Mockingbird” was built on a neat little package of Truth, and that is that you can’t know a man until you walk around in his moccasins. It’s the kind of novel that seems to have been written to be read in my high school classroom, feeding my teacher’s obsession with a Clearly Stated Theme. But Lee’s simplicity is refreshing in a world of winking irony and Deconstruction.
In “Watchman,” too, Lee is brave enough to use the story to impart some wisdom about human nature. One place we see that in chapter 1 is toward the end of Jean Louise’s reunion with Henry, when she attempts to assess her love for him. Is she in love with him a little? No, she thinks, that’s impossible. “Either you are or you aren’t. Love’s the only thing in this world that is unequivocal.”
I like reading a novel with some ambition, a novel that has something to say. I’m glad this author has been resurrected in 2015, at a time when we can use her trademark “themes.” Harper Lee is not too cool for Truth.
Check back tomorrow for thoughts on chapter 2!
