book review: "go set a watchman"
“go set a watchman” isn’t a page-turner in the traditional sense. i didn’t feel an overwhelming sense of emotion like i have with some of my favorite books. it isn’t a modern book, and it isn’t a book about the past written in a modern time. it’s a snapshot of time that makes you sit back when finished and say “huh.”
the writing is beautiful; it’s a meandering drawl of a book, like a well-educated southern gentleman taking his time wandering around his words, crafting his sentences so as to lull a person into trusting him, scattering in a selection words you don’t hear in everyday conversation, just to keep you on your toes.
**** below COULD be construed as spoilers, but a lot of it has been in the press anyway***
the haters can complain all they want. “to kill a mockingbird” set a precedent, although this book IS the precedent. because of TKAM, readers have held up atticus finch as an advocate for equal rights. the pedestal was wrongly signed; atticus is an advocate for justice. and here’s the problem with putting atticus finch on a pedestal: he is on the pedestal because scout has put him there, and we read “to kill a mockingbird” from her perspective. this book merely makes that a little bit clearer to the reader. if that makes us a little uncomfortable, then i think ms. montgomery has done her job. (and she did it well.)