Go Set a Watchman: A Novel

'Go Set a Watchman' is, I believe a necessary work to follow up 'To Kill a Mockingbird'. The most striking element of it, Atticus Finch's segregationist views, are a necessary complexity that goes a long way towards addressing the nature of racism in America. Mockingbird is, in addition to being a nearly perfect novel, highly polarized. Atticus was a saint, the victim was flawless and obviously innocent, and the villains are so immured and obsessed with their racist ideology that even a young woman who was attacked is willing to lie just to accuse a black man. It was a necessary work to attack the prevailing views at the time, but it was not as complex as reality. In the real world victims of social injustice are rarely perfect, they are rarely saints. We must learn to be OK with this. This is an especially important lesson today - as many in this country want to justify Police related deaths of unarmed men because the victims had their own character flaws or had made mistakes in their past. We must resist the sanctification of victims just as rigorously as we resist their demonization - because such untenable hyperbole fatally weakens our arguments and our attempts to forge social justice for all. Likewise, a man can heroically stand up like Atticus did for 'law and order' and protect an innocent man from a lynching (whether by mob or Judge) while still holding patriarchal or patronizing views that we find sadly regressive. Not everyone who holds regressive views is a frothing-at-the-mouth Klansman. This is not the nature of racism and we must accept this to better combat it. We must understand that these things are not contradictory, and not let people use them as weapons to undermine 'the good men do'. Atticus is still a hero for what he did in Mockingbird, perhaps even more-so in light of what we understand are his beliefs - because he held to his faith in justice and innocence in spite of them. 5 out of 5 stars, Harper Lee has now cemented her case as the most important progressive author of the 20th Century.

Growth. Heartbreak. Soul crushing. Nostalgic. These are just a few words to describe the complexities that are this book. Many of the surprising facts that where said about this book online where ill informed or one sided. SPOILERS AHEAD: I am disappointed for 2 reasons, 1. Boo Radley was never mentioned. 2. I wanted her to end up with Hank, even if she had to slowly work to help him be a man she could truely love.

This wasn't the escapades with true lessons we saw in To Kill a Mockingbird. This was tough, a bitter pill to swallow but so is racism. If you are looking to be spoon fed this is not the book for you. This book MAKES you think and think outside your box. Sixty-five years after this story takes place... we have the same issues. This is a story with it's own soul.