Carol's Comments September 2015

Carol’s Comments September 2015

Hello Everyone! Welcome to another issue of Carol’s Comments. Just like every avid reader in America, I eagerly awaited the publication of Go Set a Watchman, the recently discovered first novel by Harper Lee. Although I’ve seen the 1962 film adaptation of To Kill a Mockingbird starring Oscar winner Gregory Peck many times, I confess that I’ve never read Harper Lee’s Pulitzer Prize winning book – not even when the St Joseph County Public Library chose it for the first One Book, One Michiana event in 2010. So after watching the movie again one Saturday evening on Turner Classic Movies, I decided to read To Kill a Mockingbird for the first time before Go Set a Watchman “debuted” on July 14^th.

Set in Depression era Alabama, Lee’s marvelous coming of age novel focuses on young Scout (Jean Louise) Finch who acts as the story’s principal narrator. Scout, a feisty, headstrong tomboy vividly recalls childhood adventures with her older brother Jem and her friend Dill Harris, modeled on her real life friend Truman Capote. The children’s main preoccupation for three years revolves around finding a way to make neighborhood recluse Arthur “Boo” Radley come out of the mysterious Radley home.

More importantly, Scout’s central and most revered person in her life is her father Atticus Finch, the town’s well respected lawyer. When Atticus defends Tom Robinson, a black man unjustly accused of raping a white woman, the townspeople ridicule him. However, he believes he must defend him due to legal principle that all people deserve justice despite their race.

Unfortunately, the racially biased jury unjustly convicts Robinson of raping Mayella Ewell without any credible evidence. Because of this bigotry, Atticus cannot even appeal the verdict because this undeserved sentence leads to a tragic outcome for his client. By witnessing their father’s struggles during Tom Robinson’s rape trial, Scout and Jem learn firsthand about the gravity of prejudice.

The children’s fascination with Boo Radley and the trial’s ramifications eventually converge when Boo saves the Finch children from Bob Ewell’s revenge on Halloween night. Through this heroic act Scout meets her secret friend for the first time.

Filled with memorable characters along with serious themes about social injustice, racism and empathy, To Kill a Mockingbird still remains the most important and controversial book in modern American literature.

After finishing Harper Lee’s classic novel, I took a leisurely literary journey to Louisiana and re-read my favorite coming of age novel from the 1990s, Divine Secrets of the Ya-Ya Sisterhood by Rebecca Wells. 

The novel begins in 1993 when Siddalee (Sidda) Walker, a successful theater director becomes estranged from her vivacious and extremely unconventional mother Vivi Abbott Walker after a New York Times interview article calls her mother a “tap dancing  child abuser” Very hurt and perplexed by her mother’s rejection, Sidda retreats to a remote cabin outside Seattle to reassess and reflect on her complicated relationship with her mother as well as her upcoming marriage to her fiancé, Connor McGill. 

After many futile attempts to contact her mother, Vivi finally sends Sidda her treasured scrapbook, The Divine Secrets of the Ya-Ya Sisterhood. Vivi hopes the memorabilia, letters and keepsakes found in this album will help her daughter understand how her mother’s secrets, sorrows and personal relationships during her childhood and adolescence profoundly shaped her.

Alternating between the present (1993) and flashbacks from the 1930s through the 1960s, the novel consists of pivotal episodes from Vivi’s past. For instance, in 1937 when Vivi was eleven, she and her three girlfriends created the Ya-Ya Sisterhood which would form an unique and lasting bond between them. Together the four friends would share many fun adventures together such as attending the 1939 premiere of Gone With the Wind in Atlanta and participating in a Shirley Temple lookalike contest in 1932.

By reviewing these items in her mother’s scrapbook, Sidda begins to realize how past events in her mother’s life had a significant impact on their complex and tumultuous relationship. Both Sidda and the reader learn that nostalgia can blur traumatic events from the past. 

Published in 1992, Rebecca Wells’ first novel Little Altars Everywhere also featured the Walker family, I suggest reading this book after Divine Secrets of the Ya-Ya Sisterhood because  Little Altars Everywhere is a companion rather than a prequel to the second novel.

The book consists of two parts. The first section includes Sidda Walker’s and her family’s recollections about living in the 1960s. These vignettes told from different viewpoints describe funny as well as more somber memories.  For example, one of the more comical ones describes Vivi Walker’s stint as a very unconventional Girl Scout troop leader.

The novel’s second half dramatically shifts in tone. Set in the 1990s, Sidda Walker and her siblings recall incidents in their childhood as they actually happened.  Every testimonial focuses on the emotional, physical and sexual abuse each child endured from their mentally unbalanced, alcoholic mother. Little Altars Everywhere gives the reader a realistic and deeply disturbing look at family dysfunction.

When July 14^th finally arrived, I was extremely excited that Go Set a Watchman was now available. I had put a hold on the book at the library back in May so I’d be one of the first patrons to read it. When I received an email the next day informing me that a brand new copy was ready for pickup, I rushed over to the River Park Branch to check it out. When I started Harper Lee’s “new” novel, I believed I could evaluate it more objectively because I had no preconceived notions or youthful sentimentality toward To Kill a Mockingbird or its iconic characters because I just recently read the 1960 classic for the first time.

Set in 1952, Jean Louise (Scout) Finch now 26 returns home to visit her ailing father Atticus Finch, In the first 100 pages, Go Set a Watchman is a rather ordinary story mainly centering on Jean Louise’s indecisiveness about marrying her childhood friend Henry Clinton. 

Fortunately, the novel does include several whimsical sketches that flashback to Jean Louise’s childhood and teenage years. Here are my favorites: Shortly after a 12 year old Jean Louise starts her period, a boy French kisses her. She’s convinced she’s pregnant. Then at her first high school dance, a teenage Scout wears falsies to make her figure look more alluring. When these enhancements start wandering on the dance floor, her date Henry Clinton quickly saves her from embarrassment. These funny episodes give the reader a glimpse of what To Kill a Mockingbird would later become.

Then exactly on page 100, the plot completely changes when Jean Louise discovers the racist pamphlet The Black Plague on her father’s table. After learning from her Aunt Alexandra that her father has also joined the Maycomb County Citizens Council, she hurries to the courthouse where a meeting has convened. 

Totally disillusioned by these startling revelations, she feels utterly betrayed by the father she always adored and tried to emulate. Jean Louise believes she can never forgive him for his views on segregation and racism.

After her Uncle Jack explains how Atticus’ unknown secrets in his past as well as the Southern culture surrounding him have shaped his character, only then can Jean Louise  accept that her father is still a decent and honorable man regardless of  his flaws. Finally her uncle gives his niece some very wise advice: “Every man’s island, Jean Louise, every man’s watchman is his conscience.”

Despite its literary inconsistencies and rather rambling writing style, the thought provoking Go Set a Watchman is To Kill a Mockingbird’s essential companion.

To learn about Harper Lee’s remarkable life, I highly recommend Charles J Shields’ well researched 2006 biography Mockingbird: a Portrait of Harper Lee. The most fascinating chapters explore Lee’s life as a struggling writer in New York during the 1950s specifically her editor’s thoughtful guidance with the 2 ½ year transformation of her first manuscript Go Set a Watchman into To Kill a Mockingbird.

The books reviewed in this blog can be found at most local public libraries. My readers in St Joseph County, Indiana can visit the St Joseph County Public Library’s web site at libraryforlife.org for more information. Thanks for reading! See you all next time.