A Hard Pill to Swallow...

It's inevitable that fans of To Kill a Mockingbird will be disappointed (and possible devastated) by its newly released predecessor, Go Set a Watchman. Like the character, Scout, many lovers of Harper Lee's Mockingbird set Scout's father, Atticus Finch upon a mythological pedestal from which he single-handedly fought racism in the small town of Maycomb, Alabama in the 1930s. Go Set a Watchman takes place two decades later as the town of Maycomb (and the United States as a whole) is embroiled in the struggles of the civil rights movement. I can't say I enjoyed reading this book, since my illusions of Atticus Finch's nobility were painfully shattered along with Scout's, but I have to admire the way Lee personified the struggle of our nation's conscience in the character of Jean Louise Finch. Jean Louise is forced to take a hard look at everything and everyone she has loved through eyes altered forever by her experiences in New York. Nothing much happens in this book; rather, it is a series of conversations made difficult to read for modern readers sensitive to today's politically correct language and rhetoric. If we, like Scout, are willing to face honestly the issues of race which, in light of recent events in Ferguson, Missouri and other U.S. cities reaching the boiling point, have merely been simmering beneath the surface, perhaps we can begin to have meaningful conversations that will lead to understanding and move us forward together. Reading this book is like taking medicine--distasteful, yet beneficial. To Kill a Mockingbird is much more tightly constructed and dramatic, with characters who are better fleshed out. If readers take up the challenge to read Watchman, they will not be treated to a nostalgic and inspirational tale; they will be forced to examine their own values, beliefs, and attitudes as they are allowed a rare glimpse into the evolution of a revered writer's process as she struggles with the desperately important message she wants to relay. I recommend this book for those who are ready to feel the sting it will inflict.