'Go Set a Watchman' - Harper Lee

The release of Go Set a Watchman has caused one hell of a stir in the literary world. The controversy surrounding its release is  never ending and hard to accept. A second novel by Harper Lee, after the success of To Kill a Mockingbird, has been hotly anticipated for decades, but slowly people started to believe that Lee's first novel would stand alone. The announcement in February of this year that a second manuscript had been found, one written before To Kill a Mockingbird, caused a tidal wave of excitement globally. Fans of Harper Lee, including myself, were marvelling at how this manuscript had finally been discovered and we could again enjoy the immense talent of a woman not afraid to talk politics and morals.

However, people began to question how the discovery came about. It is said to be the novel Lee first sent to publishers, but was rejected with demands for changes to be made. From this rejection came To Kill a Mockingbird, a novel narrated by a six year old girl, Scout, living in Maycomb, Alabama in the 1930s. She tells the story of her father, Atticus Finch, a lawyer defending Tom Robinson, a black man who has been falsely accused of raping Mayella Ewell, a young white girl. Despite evidence to the contrary, Robinson is convicted of the rape by twelve white men who fail to see past the colour of his skin. Atticus still reveals the truth, of how Mayella's father, Bob, found out that she had made sexual advances towards Robinson and beat her out of anger and disgrace. Furious at their father for revealing this truth, Bob attacks Scout and her older brother Jem, only for them to be saved by a town recluse Boo Radley, who has been attempting to befriend Scout throughout the novel.

To Kill a Mockingbird changed Lee's life, though arguably not for the better. Born Nelle Harper Lee in 1926, she grew up in Monroeville, Alabama, a place that bears a strong resemblance to the Maycomb she writes about. Atticus Finch is believed to be based on her own father, lawyer Amasa Coleman Lee, and the surname Fitch is her mother Frances' maiden name, though there is no character directly based on her mother in the book. Lee attempted to follow in her father's footsteps, like her sister Miss Alice, and attended law school. However, before completing the course, she went to live in New York where she was given an incredible opportunity by friends Michael and Joy Brown. They funded her whilst she achieved her dream of writing a novel. To Kill a Mockingbird was published in 1960 with huge success, going on to win a Pulitzer Prize in 1961. There were claims years later by fellow author and supposed friend Truman Capote that he was the real author of Mockingbird, but the discovery of the latest manuscript seems to put these claims to rest.

The success of To Kill a Mockingbird was an incredible achievement for Lee, but it also led her into the public eye, something that she was not entirely comfortable with. It has been suggested that fame is what prevented Lee from writing another novel after Mockingbird, in case it changed the way that she wrote or the truth that she spoke. She turned into a recluse, refusing to give interviews, instead leaving statements to her sister and lawyer, Miss Alice. This is where the mystery over the manuscript begins to set it. Following the death of Miss Alice last year at the age of 103, Tonja Carter took over as Lee's lawyer. Carter is the one who claims to have discovered the manuscript and sent it for publication, saying that Harper Lee had given her approval. There are some, however, who doubt this. At the age of 89, Lee is partially blind as well as partially deaf, and according to a few of those in Monroeville, not of sound mind. A recent article in The Sunday Times Magazine by Tanya Gold reports that Lee is thought by the town to be "the puppet of an interloper called Tonja Carter". To add to the controversy, it is alleged that the manuscript was actually discovered three years ago, before the death of Miss Alice, who would probably have never allowed the manuscript to be published.

Despite the conflict over its release, Go Set a Watchman was released on the 14th July. The question is no longer about its discovery, but wondering whether it will live up to the hype of Lee's first success. The day of its release saw hundreds of people queuing up at bookshops throughout the night across the globe, with 7,000 copies alone being delivered for sale at the local bookshops in Lee's hometown. The media began printing its reviews of the much anticipated book, the novel Lee herself calls the "parent' of Mockingbird, and the critics have not been kind. If I am being honest, they have been most unfair. Go Set a Watchman is the novel that was never meant to be released. Harper Lee's editor managed to help Harper Lee transform this original reject into the masterpiece To Kill a Mockingbird, with the original becoming nothing but a draft. However, the critics are treating Go Set a Watchman as a brand new work by Lee, and are crushing it with two-star reviews and tales of disappointment. I wholeheartedly disagree.

Go Set a Watchman is set after Mockingbird, when Jean Louise is twenty-six-years-old and is no longer known by her childhood, and infamous, name Scout, and her brother Jem has died from a heart attack. Now living in New York City, she returns to Maycomb to visit her father, Atticus and her oldest childhood friend and potential suitor Henry. However, rather than her standard visit home, she finds herself forced to grow up as she discovers her father  and Henry are part of a Citizen's Council with the intent of keeping negroes unequal and inferior. Her world comes crashing down as her father, the man she held in such high regard as being as close to perfect as a man could be suddenly becomes human, and her eyes are opened to the real world. Jean Louise has always been colour blind to a person's race, believing in inequality for all, something she believed Atticus had taught her. She finds herself failing to understand her father's reasons, and questioning whether Henry is really the man for her.

The critics are claiming Harper Lee has destroyed the Atticus Finch we first met in To Kill a Mockingbird, but I argue the opposite. He is no bigot; he is a reasonable man who understands the world far better than his daughter, and he has his reasons for being involved in such a council. It is an incredibly insightful novel, and confirms Lee as an Alabama woman ahead of her time. It includes anecdotes from Jean Louise's childhood, reminding the reader why they loved her, and it is easy to see why Lee's editor chose to use Scout's voice for To Kill a Mockingbird. The story and the dialogue remain to be strong and I found it an incredible easy book to read, if not at times an emotional one. Go Set a Watchman is the reality behind To Kill a Mockingbird, the honesty Harper Lee first wanted to express about Alabama but was denied the chance. It is the truth, and sometimes the truth hurts.