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book review, books, go set a watchman, harper lee, novel, racism, reading, to kill a mockingbird, watchman
A confession first. When I took up the first book of Harper Lee (To kill a mockingbird, published 1960), it was mostly because of the fact that it was her ‘only’ book for almost five decades. I wanted to know how can somebody attain so much with just a single piece of literature. She won a Pulitzer and Freedom medal for it. I always wondered why she didn’t write anything after it. I thought may be it was the insecurity and fear of not being able to top her own work. Between, it has been dubbed something of a must read and rightly so. I read it and it consumed me. The shear simplicity and bravery of Lee’s protagonist, Scout, a girl of around 10, captured my heart. The book talked about the much tabbooed subject of race in United States. The book touched upon the difficult subject with such beauty that one cannot simply stop reading it.
After fifty five years, she somehow decided to prescribe another dose of her writing. And out came ‘Go set a watchman’. And not without controversies but those are none of our business. You can always read those juicy conspiracy theories on internet!
The book watchman is, as some claim, an early draft of mockingbird. But publishers have published it as a sequel to the first one. The story is set twenty years ahead of the end of previous novel. Most characters are same in both of the books. Scout (Jean Louis Finch) is twenty six now and lives independently in the cosmopolitan world of New York. Her upbringing, as the readers of first novel would know, has had a great impact on her. She has grown up to be a rebel, a free thinker and equal rights supporter. She has unequivocal faith in her father, Atticus, the lawyer. He is her idol, almost god like.
The world comes crushing down on her during her two week long visit to her hometown of Maycomb. How she loses everything that she had held dear from her childhood and how she comes to term with it, is pretty much the theme of the book. This redefines her relationship with her father and Maycomb as a whole.
The book is filled with flashbacks that at times don’t make much sense. The story and the writing style are not as gripping as they were in Mockingbird. But there is something that I liked about the book. The book is actually, in a way, just a lesson for all ‘coming off age’ people. Coming off age in more of a philosophical term, I mean. Its about getting the real meaning of life and understanding the dilemma to question your idol or not! Its devastating for Scout to find her views contradictory to her father’s (her idol, her god). All her life, she had looked upto him and now she finds herself on the opposite end of his beliefs. She feels sick and suicidal.
I feel connected to the book in a way, mostly because I am, as most of the early twentys are, in the same phase as Scout. Most of our lives, we have looked upto our parents or may be someone else has been too close to our heart. We have considered their advices as sort of commandaments. We have tried to follow them in their footsteps. But things become difficult when we start to, may be live outside their circle or may be read more or understand more. Minor differences, like different tastes in music, starts to crop up more often. Sooner than later, we have different political opinions or may be different outlook to tackling racism.
Thats the time when Lee gently but strongly forces the point of not idolising personalities. She puts forth the fact that we, because of our unique thinking minds, can never agree on each and every matter of the world. You learn from your parents the most, but you cannot simply mimic them. Because, in mimicry, there is no growth. We are not amoebae to just multiply without reason. Take what you feel right and redefine yourself.
Thats all I can gather from the book. I don’t think I would want to read it again. The first book was a masterpiece. This, not so much.
Happy reading…