Book Review, 1115 ALBJ, 76 The Alabama Lawyer 392 (2013)
| Author | By Harper Lee |
| Position | Vol. 76 6 Pg. 392 |
By Harper Lee
Reviewed by Gregory C. Buffalow
In the short run, the news and controversy surrounding Harper Lee's first novel, Go Set a Watchman (whether publication was authorized, whether it was a first draft that should not have been published),[1] are more interesting than the book itself. The best parts of the book are the retro dust jacket and the flashback scenes featuring the main characters as children, Scout [Jean Louise Finch), Jem, her brother, and Dill, the Truman Capote-inspired character who spent his summers next door. A fair portion of the dialogue is tedious, notably the small talk between Scout and her would-be fiance, Henry Clinton, and an unlikely argument between Scout and her father, Atticus Finch, concerning states' rights, the Tenth Amendment and the prevailing views in fictional Maycomb County, Alabama in the 1950s.
Who am I to judge, though? Here it should be remembered that Watchman is a first draft2 that evolved into a masterpiece, To Kill a Mockingbird, with the benefit of a good editor who encouraged a re-write set 20 years earlier and told from the perspective of Scout as a child,3 leaving Atticus Finch's shining armor untarnished. While early spoiler reviews of Watchman at the time of first publication revealed an Atticus much different than the Mockingbird version, who had been a Klansman4 and was the presiding member of the Maycomb White Citizen's Council in Watchman, these facts may not necessarily be taken at face value. In Watchman there are also are suggestions (although obviously debatable as excuses) that Atticus had joined merely as a matter of political expediency, and to get better acquainted with his enemies. Atticus's brother, Dr. Jack Finch, attempts to reassure Scout, "You're making a big mistake if you think your daddy's dedicated to keeping the Negroes in their places," Watchman, p. 10B.
Atticus as Klansman could be based on Hugo Black, Alabama native and longstanding, liberal member of the U.S. Supreme Court, who survived the discovery, after he had been confirmed as associate justice, that he had once been an Alabama Klan member. Black managed to save his judgeship and a void impeachment in a radio address to the nation explaining his regret, stating that as an ambitious young lawyer and politician he had been a "jiner," i.e., one who...
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