July 15, 2015

  • Go Set a Watchman

    I'm probably the slowest reader you ever met.  That's partly because I like to reread and savor interesting sentences.   And I never got into speed-reading anyway.

    I say this to emphasize my recommendation that you read (and savor) Harper Lee's controversial newly released novel, "Go Set a Watchman."  I could not put the book down, and finished it in less than two days.  A normally fast reading time for me, for a book that size, is two weeks.  Or two months.  But don't think that it's a long book.  It's practically a novelette.  Like I said.  I'm probably the slowest reader you ever met.

    WARNING:  It is complex.  Complexity is not a bad thing, though some people think it is.  Complexity just means:  hard to understand without great effort.  I remember there was this lady I was dating, who decided she wanted to terminate our relationship.  And her revelatory words were:  "You're very complex."  She meant it as an insult, and I was too naive to take it that way.  I AM complex.  Enough of that.

    I hasten to point out:  everything I've read from commentators and reviewers is WRONG.  I think, because the novel is too complex for them to understand.  But I'm done talking about complexity.

    My assumption is:  everyone knows about the classic first novel, "To Kill a Mockingbird," which was made into a magnificent movie starring Gregory Peck as the 55-year-old small-town southern lawyer, Atticus Finch.  A larger-than-life lawyer hero, beloved by all.

    **************

    What may NOT be general knowledge is:

    Harper Lee wrote "Go Set a Watchman" first.   It happened to be so full of interesting flashbacks that the publisher to whom it was submitted asked Ms. Lee to write the prequel that became "To Kill a Mockingbird."  Just last year "Watchman" was discovered, and now it's in print.  And the nutty reviewers are just as disillusioned as Atticus's daughter Scout, who is appalled that, 17 years later, the father she's always looked up to is an out-and-out racist.

    Very well.  Prepare to be shocked.  The reviewers were shocked.  I was shocked.  And you will be, too.  Maybe you'll hate the book, but I sure didn't.  Just the opposite.

     

    **************************

    I did find one decent review so far, written by Lawrence Hill at www.theglobeandmail.com

    Here is how he explains the new publication's title:

     

    The book takes its title from Isaiah 21:6: “For thus hath the Lord said unto me, Go, set a watchman, let him declare what he seeth.” In this line, the prophet Isaiah is predicting the fall of Babylon. Just as Babylon will fall in the Bible, perhaps Maycomb County – a place where black people live in poverty and are condemned to second-class citizenship and to jail for crimes they do not commit – will one day fall, too.

Comments (4)

  • I like your review and am waiting for the book to make it to the public library. I may have to wait a long time...

  • @murisopsis: I think the book will be available faster than you think. (I speak as a volunteer at my local library.)

    My take on the meaning of the title is different from Lawrence Hill's in his review that I quoted. To me, it means to look at a situation through another's eyes, because your own interpretation is likely to differ. (Of course, Hill appears to have researched the context -- fall of Babylon -- so he's more likely to be right.) But "let him declare what he seeth" calls to MY mind my recollection of Robert Burns's line in "To a Louse":

    The greatest gift the giftie gie us:
    To see ourselves as others see us

    As I said, that's how I remember it. WikiQuote.Org gives us:

    Scottish dialect: "O wad some Power the giftie gie us To see oursels as ithers see us!"
    English: Oh would some power the gift give us, To see ourselves as others see us

  • Wasn't aware that the book is out already. Well, I have been under the tornado effect of no power, no where to go to do any kind of shopping. SO, now I shall get the book. Thanks for the review. I had watched about this on national news. In fact, had just finished watching when the storm hit.

  • Thanks for your take. As a HUGE fan (from childhood) of TKaM, I was excited about this book. But, then read some bad reviews and have been kinda' scared to read it.
    I wonder if Harper Lee REALLY wanted it published after all this time.
    HUGS!!! :-)

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