Go Set a Watchman by Harper Lee
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Disclaimer: This review is more of a rant against all those who have been criticising this book so much! Please read this review if you hated the book! READ it especially, though, if you liked it!

Seriously, what is your problem? You did not like the book? Why?
- Because Jem's dead and there's no Dill, except for passing references?
- Because it was too political for you?
- Because Scout is now Jean-Louise?
- Because she has a fight with Atticus that eventually all of us have had with our parents at some point or the other?


Or is it because just like Scout, you too have married your expectations with Harper Lee's freedom to write whatever she chooses and to take her characters wherever she likes?

Or maybe, like Scout, your conscience is also linked with that of Atticus and once you saw that he ceased to be...how did some of you put it..."the paragon of justice"...at least for you, you just started screaming whatever came to your mouth like she did.

Maybe, then, you too need a slap on the face from an Uncle Jack.

Maybe, you, too, missed the point!

One, there is no dark side to Atticus in this book! (The previews got it so wrong!) If at all, there is only that side of him which developed with years of experience and because of what he had seen! Atticus isn't a racist or anti-democratic person. If at all, he is a Jeffersonian Democrat (a term you probably would have known if you had read about Jefferson at all or would have at least registered while reading the part where Attticus explains his thoughts!)

Democracy is a debatable form of government and those of us who hail from it can tell you from first hand experience that once it has been extended to all, especially to ones who neither understand it nor know of its implications, the whole country suffers. (I come from the largest one there is in the world and trust me, every second person on the street can tell you that just because you have a democratic set up, doesn't mean you deserved it or were ready for it!) That opinion alone does not make a person a racist or an immoral, undemocratic idiot! That is something almost every second or third person hailing from a democracy can back up...sometimes, you're given equal rights too soon. Maybe you've just overthrown dictatorship or stepped out of the shackles of slavery. Just because you've just attained freedom does not give you the right to automatically and immediately claim democracy. With freedom, first comes the acquaintance of as hitherto suppressed race with their rights and then their duties. Then and only then can people effectively adopt democracy for their own progress. This is what Atticus tries to say and this exactly what Scout, much like some of you, ignores, then screams and swears then carelessly goes on to pack her bags! There's absolutely no part of the book where Atticus claims the superiority of the whites over any other race! So if you can't read properly, stop jumping to conclusions and shut it!

Second, a lot of people talk about Scout being stupid, selfish and obnoxious. My question for them is: Have you never read 'To Kill a Mockingbird'?
Scout is popular only because she features in these books! Had she been a real person in your life, you'd have kicked her out the first opportunity (or the other way round) and either way, you would have been glad of it! Why I say so? Because I have, in my life, had the misfortune of meeting not one but two such people, who think their opinion is superior to everyone else's, who are a bigger pain to those who love them than they are to themselves, who constantly think that the world is just not good enough for them and who are quick to quarrel and are too rash too quickly!

So, if you have all that against Scout, let me remind you, that's exactly what she always was-rude, unfeeling and emotionally handicapped towards one and all! What's annoying about her is not why she is like this but the fact that she's like that still! That she neither grew up nor changed!

Simply put, To Kill a Mockingbird wasn't a lesser work of fiction because Scout was such a pain of a character and Go Set a Watchman isn't either! Scout is the protagonist, there's no doubt about that, but she has as much of an influence on the merits of these books as those two mockingbirds (one dead and one alive) on their cover pages! She's just a medium for storytelling, not the essence of the books!


Also, this book DOES NOT RUIN To Kill a Mockingbird ! If at all, it only adds to it! Why? Because it is a book about growing up, about making your own choices, about learning to come to terms with the flaws of people you once deified, idealised and accepting that they are just as human, just as prone to mistakes and just as entitled to differences of political, ideological and moral opinions as you are!

Bottom-line: To each his own ( because I am entitled to my own opinion, too)!I LOVED this book, loved every bit of it! It made me laugh, it reminded me why exactly I loved its prequel so much and it added to my own knowledge of human characters.

You, meanwhile,may still sit around and mope about how you could have spent your money and time better!

For me, it was worth its price and a helluva good read!

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