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chrismarnone 's review for:
Go Set a Watchman
by Harper Lee
There was so much that could have gone right with Go Set a Watchman and so much that went wrong. The book starts strong and quickly establishes Jean Louise as a feminist. She won't bend or break to the antebellum South and the way they think "ladies" should behave. However, the book quickly goes off the rails with a lack of editing and a misaligned view of racism.
The editing issues give me headaches such as not correcting how To Kill a Mockingbird actually ends or the Mr. Tuffet/Miss Muffet placeholder names never getting corrected. These issues fall short of Go Set a Watchman's primary problem: it makes racism all about a white girl.
As has been widely publicized, Jean Louise discovers her father is a racist and has always been one. From that point on, the book is all about how she feels about this discovery. She has lost her moral center and is distraught. While that's understandable, the book spend no time focusing on the people truly affected by the widespread racism of the South: black people. They are an afterthought. This is an egregious error. With To Kill a Mockingbird, while the story is from Scout's perspective, we are shown the direct effects of racism on its victims.
In the book's closing, Lee goes off into odd philosophical discussions about Jean Louise's awakening of her own conscience, separate from her father's. She goes and picks him up from work, apparently agreeing to disagree with her father's unconscionable views of race. This is vile.
Do yourself a favor. Reread and enjoy To Kill a Mockingbird. Skip this unedited travesty.
The editing issues give me headaches such as not correcting how To Kill a Mockingbird actually ends or the Mr. Tuffet/Miss Muffet placeholder names never getting corrected. These issues fall short of Go Set a Watchman's primary problem: it makes racism all about a white girl.
As has been widely publicized, Jean Louise discovers her father is a racist and has always been one. From that point on, the book is all about how she feels about this discovery. She has lost her moral center and is distraught. While that's understandable, the book spend no time focusing on the people truly affected by the widespread racism of the South: black people. They are an afterthought. This is an egregious error. With To Kill a Mockingbird, while the story is from Scout's perspective, we are shown the direct effects of racism on its victims.
In the book's closing, Lee goes off into odd philosophical discussions about Jean Louise's awakening of her own conscience, separate from her father's. She goes and picks him up from work, apparently agreeing to disagree with her father's unconscionable views of race. This is vile.
Do yourself a favor. Reread and enjoy To Kill a Mockingbird. Skip this unedited travesty.