Go Set a Watchman (To Kill a Mockingbird #2) by Harper Lee.

A harsh but necessary tale about returning to your home town and realizing that the people you idolized in childhood are in fact, flawed. It was a well rounded, if somewhat depressing wrap up to Lee’s series set in Maycomb County.

5 Stars

Pros: Jean Louise or “Scout” is a spitfire, free thinking, spirited young woman who any woman with a mind and opinion of her own can relate to/The returning characters that are so well known in To Kill A Mockingbird, Atticus, Aunt Alexandra, Calpurnia are there as well as a few new characters such as Henry Clinton and Dr. Finch, Scout’s Uncle, who is a voice of reason during a troubling, difficult time for her

Cons: The harsh truth of the fact that the South during the Civil Rights movement/segregation was not a nice place to be, it’s not necessarily a con but more a depressing fact of American History/The sudden and untimely death of Jem, it felt like Lee had no room for the character so she just threw him off and away

Full Review
Jean Louise, or Scout as we know her, is now a full grown woman, 26 years old and living on her own in New York City. But every few years, she travels back home, to Maycomb County, Alabama to visit her aging Father, Aunt and beau, Henry Clinton, a child hood friend who grew up across the street. We see her as an independent, intelligent, free thinking, well rounded woman and the transition from her rough and tumble tom boy days to a somewhat brash and impulsive young woman was smooth and sensible to me. Jean Louise is most definitely her own person and will not be cowed down or intimidated by anyone, that was true of her in childhood and it is most definitely true of her in adulthood.

As she returns home for her visit, things are normal at first. She is forced to sit through Church, to attend a “Coffee” that her Aunt is holding for her, wherein she must mingle with the Women of Maycomb, some of whom she grew up with and others she barely even knows. But she sits there, polite, and listens to them chatter and cluck along as women in a small town tend to do. There is gossip, as always and Jean Louise finds herself bored almost to tears. But she is also struggling with something else, something that is far more sinister and troubling than the local beauty shop talk around town.

She has come to find out that her Father and her boyfriend, Henry, are part of a town council, that for all intent and purpose, has been founded to solely hold fast the idea of segregation and to not allow the African American population to grow and flourish as the NAACP and the Civil Rights movement becomes stronger and stronger. The fact that her Father can sit on such a prejudiced, venom spitting, hate filled council fills Scout with horror, making her physically ill. This is the man who defended a black man in a rape cage when Scout was young, which is the main plot of To Kill a Mockingbird. This is the man who stood up for Tom Collins, when no one else would believe him. This is the man who seemed right, fair, gentle and kind. And to know that her Father is seated on such a council is more than Scout can bear.

She struggles with the idea, asking advice from her Uncle, who has always been forthright and straightforward with her. And though he tries to be gentle in his explanation, it doesn’t take. Scout soon confronts Atticus, tearing him down and telling him everything she needs to in order to let him understand how sickened she is by the fact that he sits on that council and doesn’t feel any shame from it. It isn’t until her Uncle comes to her again and finally manages to talk some sense into her and explain the facts to her, that Scout begins to understand. It’s not something she’s comfortable with, but she understands now.

At its heart, Go Set a Watchman is all about returning your home town and your childhood and realizing that those whom you idolized as children, those who you thought were infallible, perfect, could never do any wrong, are in fact, flawed. Atticus, her Father, to Scout, was God. His word was gospel, his moral and ethical code unmatched. He was her idol. And now to return and find him supporting something as horrible and hurtful as segregation, Scout is floored. And understandably so. But that is all a part of growing up. We do eventually come to the realization, as adults, that our parents, or other mentors, are in fact, human and therefore, imperfect. We all have our faults, we all have our prejudices and our shortcomings, but to Scout, who is so accepting and “born color blind” she has a very hard time accepting the fact that her Father would ever stand for something like segregation. It goes against everything she ever thought of him and it’s a bitter pill to swallow, realizing that your parents are not perfect. But it’s one we all must take as we grow.

I thought this book was a well rounded and honest, gut wrenching, realistic look at growing up and confronting your own childhood and naivete. Accepting and realizing the fact that your idols in childhood are in fact, not perfect, is one of the hardest things to come to terms with in adulthood. But Lee handles it with the same free spirited, open minded, toughness that makes the reader love Scout so much in her first novel. We see a woman, independent and well aware of where she stands, and she will not back down or bend to the will of those who support something that she thinks is wrong. She is indeed a grown woman and is a breath of fresh air in an otherwise suffocating Southern small town.

This was a great read and, I thought, a well thought out, well written, deep, personal and honest wrap up of the story of Jean Louise “Scout” Finch and the small town of Maycomb Alabama. I would recommend this book to anyone who has read To Kill a Mockingbird and also to anyone who enjoys a strong, empowered, free thinking female protagonist because Jean Louise “Scout” Finch is every modern, strong, independent woman’s icon.