BOOK REVIEW - “Go Set a Watchman” – by Harper Lee - 288 pages – Harper Collins - Reviewed by Jeb Ladouceur
Oh, oh! We’ve been had, folks … again! But first, by way of background: Harper Lee is known recently to have proclaimed in the following rather awkward statement:
“In the mid-1950s, I completed a novel called ‘Go Set a Watchman.’ It features the character known as Scout as an adult woman and I thought it a pretty decent effort. My editor, who was taken by the flashbacks to Scout’s childhood, persuaded me to write a novel from the point of view of the young Scout. I was a first-time writer, so I did as I was told. I hadn’t realized it [‘Watchman’] had survived, so was surprised and delighted when my dear friend and lawyer Tonja Carter discovered it. After much thought and hesitation I shared it with a handful of people I trust and was pleased to hear that they considered it worthy of publication. I am humbled and amazed that this will now be published after all these years.”
Indeed, Nelle Lee did exactly as she was told by her publisher, J.B. Lippincott, back in the ‘50s. In effect they said, “Be quiet and let us take care of this!” And dutifully, Lee did so … she shut up like a clam. Of course, that was nothing new for the reclusive woman. She’d been close-mouthed ever since the writing of ‘Mockingbird’ … almost as if she had something to hide.
But though Lippincott was dealing with a relatively self-effacing and impressionable new novelist whom they could push around at will, the city slickers (now Harper Collins Publishing) were in for a real awakening with the advent of the new millennium. Our permissive, racially-charged age brought the arrival on the scene of one Tanja Carter, a late-blooming, headstrong Alabama lawyer who replaced Nelle Lee’s hundred-year-old sister as the family attorney. It was this Tanja who allegedly ‘found’ the ‘Watchman’ manuscript hidden away in a bank vault (or safe deposit box, the accounts vary).
But the mystery surrounding the discovery, sequence, and authorship of the ‘Mockingbird’ sequel is probably better left for exploration in other forums (stay tuned). Even in its simplest form, that whole knotty business … dare we say, ‘shady’ business? … requires more careful attention than we can give it in this brief space.
‘Go Set a Watchman’ takes place during the mid-1950s and includes many of the characters from ‘To Kill a Mockingbird’ … albeit some twenty years later. Grown-up Scout (she now prefers to call herself Jean Louise) has returned to Maycomb, Alabama from New York City and is visiting her father, Atticus. Back in fictional Maycomb, she must wrestle with issues both personal and sociological as she tries to make sense of her formerly-sainted daddy’s strange new attitude toward what she considers an enlightened culture. Her own feelings about the small town of her birth … the place where she emerged from childhood … have become ambivalent. In short, Scout Finch’s tabula rasa, her once-innocent ‘blank slate,’ has been inscribed with big city Liberalism.
The former, saccharine-sweet Atticus Finch (as portrayed by Gregory Peck) would have been thrilled by Jean Louise’s epiphany, though the one-dimensional actor never could have successfully played the current Atticus of ‘Watchman.’
I suppose it is possible that, unlike ‘Mockingbird,’ this sequel/prequel, (whatever) actually could have been written by Nelle Harper Lee. For that matter, it could have been penned by any half-way literate product of ‘progressive’ America … where even the likes of Atticus Finch must be termed evil incarnate if suggesting, as he does in ‘Go Set a Watchman,’ that he wants Alabama “…to be left alone to keep house without advice from the NAACP.” And he describes that organization as a bunch of paid lawyers “…standing around like buzzards.” Oh, my!
So yes, there’ll be a film … I’d be surprised if ‘Watchman’ hasn’t already been optioned, the contract signed (under lawyer Tanja Carter’s hovering supervision, naturally), and the roles cast. But barring a substantial screenplay re-write, we can forget more Academy Award honors for Harper Lee. Even if this new, sacrilegious Atticus were played by a miraculously resurrected and ‘corrupted’ Gregory Peck, today’s Hollywood would never reward him with an Oscar.
In sum: despite howls of protest from Black activists, you can confidently look for ‘Watchman’ at the top of the New York Times charts, but don’t expect any National Book Award. As for another Pulitzer … that’s now out of the question too.
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Award-winning writer, Jeb Ladouceur is the author of ten novels, and his theater and book reviews appear in several major L.I. publications. Ladouceur’s newest thriller THE QUANTUM SYNDROME is patterned on the Atlanta child murders of the 80s and is set on Eastern Long Island. His next novel is titled “THE SEQUEL.” It will explore the odd relationship between Harper Lee and Truman Capote. The Website is www.Jebsbooks.com.