Because Harper Lee’s “other” book, To Kill A Mockingbird has been read and loved by so many people over the last half century, the release of her Go Set A Watchman has received the hype and fever of a Harry Potter book release. In a way, that’s appropriate. One of the themes in J. K. Rowling’s series is how a person’s perception of people and events changes as they receive more information. Go Set a Watchman challenges everyone who thinks they know everything about To Kill a Mockingbird. If you don’t like surprises, shut this page down now. There are Spoilers Dead Ahead. Watchman is the story of young adult reevaluating her past. Jean Louise is Southern by birth but a New Yorker now by choice. Like others who start adult life in a new location, she finds visiting home a bit difficult. Still, she looks forward to spending time with Atticus, the father she’s worshiped all of her life. Then Jean Louise hears the political opinions of her adored father and falls into shock. Atticus sees southern black people as a group without the sophistication and education necessary to handle the privileges of citizenship responsibly. He fears their full…
I visited Monroeville, once. In the summer of 1990, I, my husband and a friend were driving home from the beach when one of us spied the interstate exit that leads to the home of Harper Lee. My friend had (finally) read To Kill a Mockingbird, she was still overwhelmed by the power of the story and she wanted to see Miss Lee’s home town. My husband knows how much I care about the book and he thought it would be a treat, so he steered us onto the highway. Once we hit the center of town, the two of them started plying me with questions so they could pick out landmarks from the novel. How far was the Finch house from the school? Was the Radley house on the same or opposite side of the street? My husband suggested (I think he was joking) that, with a bit of research, we’d be able to locate Miss Lee’s new address and he would take us to her door. I began to feel very uncomfortable. Not only do I get tongue tied around famous authors, (I displayed something like Tourette’s syndrome in front of Dr. Seuss) I couldn’t get past the…