Go Set a Watchman

SPOILER ALERT.......SPOILER ALERT.....SPOILER ALERT

If you haven't read the book yet, don't read this review or my thoughts on it!!!!

Well after much fanfare and waiting, Harper Lee's long lost manuscript was published and distributed on July 14th.  There has been some controversy surrounding it because Harper Lee may or may not have given her blessing to publish it.  It's somewhat suspect that the manuscript surfaced after Ms. Lee's sister Alice passed away.  Alice was a lawyer, like their father, and tended to all of Ms. Lee's affairs, contracts and royalties from To Kill a Mockingbird.  Ms. Lee is about 88 and it's unclear if she is having memory problems.  

The manuscript was written in the 1950s, was apparently shopped around with no takers.  Then a few years later, TKAM was published and let's face it, that's a hard act to follow.  Your first novel wins the Pulitzer Price and everyone wants a piece of you, to discuss it over and over to the point where Ms. Lee refused to discuss 'the book', as she referred to it.  Then an incredible movie adaptation is made and again, another hard act to follow.  Has anyone noticed that it's probably one of the few old movies that has never been remade?  You just can't mess with perfection.  But I digress.

Go Set a Watchman takes place about 20-25 years after TKAM.  Same characters....Scout, Atticus, Uncle Jack, Aunt Alexandra.  Scout....or Jean Louise as she's known now that she's in her 20s....lives in New York City but goes to visit her family in Maycomb, Alabama.  Civil rights is in it's infancy, the NAACP is making it's presence known, race relations are very tense.  Jean Louise lives in the north and doesn't even notice people of other races anymore because she's surrounded by them.  You get colourblind in a big city like NYC.  Washington DC has made some new laws which affect the south and they don't like it one bit down there.  

Jean Louise takes up with her longtime friend and now suitor, Henry, or 'Hank', who is Atticus' protege and law partner.  Her brother Jem passed away from a heart attack...that tidbit of info was pretty devastating to learn.  But Jean Louise notices that things are different....very different...in her old hometown.  She goes to visit their former housekeeper, Calpurnia, and her visit draws stares from the other black people.  Cal won't look at her or talk to her, which of course upsets and confuses her. 

Cal's grandson has just been arrested for running over and killing a white man in town, and Atticus has taken the case, just like he took Tom Robinson's rape case when Jean Louise was a child, which as we know is one of the themes of TKAM.  A side note:  The facts of that case are a little bit different in GSAW, and I don't understand why that wasn't edited to match TKAM.  

Unfortunately, Jean Louise discovers a very racist brochure on her father's desk, which leads her downtown to sneak into a meeting of all of the men in Maycomb, including Atticus and Hank, where they are discussing 'the negro problem' and NAACP's meddling.  Horrified, she leaves the meeting, absolutely reeling from the realization that her sainted, beloved, fair father is as racist as the other men in town.  She was considering marrying Hank, possibly moving home to Maycomb, but now she can't stand the thought.  

At this point she goes to visit her Uncle Jack and this is where the book bogged down for me.  The dialog between the two of them was really tedious.  I found myself spacing out.  When she confronts Atticus and they argue, again I found it tedious.  He forced her to admit that she had many of the same opinions as the southerners because she IS a southerner.  

The book ends with no resolution to anything, in my opinion.  I thought it was a pretty dry read overall.  Certainly didn't measure up to TKAM, which is just a masterpiece.  The best parts where when Jean Louise was reminiscing about her childhood and teen years.  I was disappointed considering the build up and excitement I had to read this.  I can see why Ms. Lee couldn't find a publisher for it at the time because it would have been considered somewhat incendiary for the time. TKAM was published in 1961 but takes place in the 1930s.  GSAW was written in the mid 50s and takes place in the mid 50s, by an Alabaman woman living in NYC, just like Jean Louise.  

Finally, the title of the book continues to evade my understanding.  It's apparently a bible quote, "For thus the Lord said to me:  Go, set a watchman, let him announce what he sees." Maybe if the comma was returned between 'Go' and 'Set' it would make more sense?  Is Jean Louise the watchman announcing what she sees in Maycomb?  I don't get it.  At least with TKAM, it was clear.  Both Boo Radley and Tom Robinson were the mockingbirds, and it was a sin to kill a mockingbird.  

It's worth a read if you are a fan of TKAM.  Maybe other people will find it an excellent read....based on the comments on the book's Facebook page, I'm clearly in the minority....sadly, I did not. 

Little Stories from the Prairie

Like most women of a certain age *ahem*, I grew up both reading the Little House books by Laura Ingalls Wilder, and watching the TV show.  Being the same age as Melissa Gilbert, I absolutely adored her and wore my hair in 2 braids at the end of my elementary school years (and still do around the house and to bed).  I also grew to despise that awful, spoiled, mean old Nellie Oleson!  I was always delighted when she got her comeuppance at the end of the episodes!

Of course everyone's since grown up and it's been a well established fact that not only is Alison Arngrim a gifted comedian, she is actually one of Melissa Gilbert's best friends, even from the first day they met on the Little House set.  Just goes to show you how good those little girl actresses were!

I decided to pick up Alison's book, as it's gotten really good reviews.

Alison Arngrim is very, very funny and engaging.  I completely enjoyed her writing style and I could hear her voice in my head as I read it.  She sounds like just the sort of person I would love to have in my own circle of friends.  While she came from a showbiz family....albeit a rather unconventional one....she was far from the wealthy, spoiled, privileged child she portrayed on Little House.  There were times when her family relied on her to help out with buying groceries because they were coming up short financially.  

Alison's faced some pretty bad times in her life....let's just say that her brother is a disgusting predator and the fact that she came through it with her humour and wits intact is a miracle in and of itself. Hollywood chews up and spits out child actors, and with what she was going through at home, I don't think anyone would have been surprised if she'd gone down the road to drug and alcohol addiction.  But she did not.  She became a stand up comedian and champion in the AIDS cause.  I'd love to meet her someday; I know it's unlikely, but it would be cool.  

Pick up the book; it's a great read.  I couldn't put it down.

And since I'd just read "Nellie's" book, I decided to get "Laura's" as well.

Melissa Gilbert actually was the one who grew up in a well off, prestigious Hollywood family.  Her grandfather was loved and respected by all the Golden Age greats - Frank Sinatra, Milton Berle, Sid Ceasar....my god she grew up calling Dean Martin, 'Uncle'!  She was acting by the time she was a toddler, landing commercials and bit parts on the TV shows of the late 60s and early 70s, before getting her big break in Little House.

Melissa's book is also a good read....although I have to say it probably should be retitled "All the Famous Guys I've Slept With".  Let's just say that Half Pint was no goody-goody by any stretch of the imagination, and any thoughts I had about what horrible, cheating dogs her ex-husband and many boyfriends were...well...those went right out the window as it appeared to have been quite the two way street.  I was pretty shocked that she didn't divorce her first husband on the spot when she got up to feed their baby son one night, and found her husband having sex with a hooker on their couch!

She's very candid about her substance abuse issues, relationship fiascos, her search for her birth family, etc.  Still, I have always loved and admired her and I still do.  Interesting to note, however, that this book was published a few years ago when her marriage to Bruce Boxleitner was going strong.  Needless to say that I was absolutely stunned when I found out that they'd divorced in 2011 and she had remarried Timothy Busfield after a three month engagement in 2013.  I hope that she has finally found happiness with Timothy because to be honest, I didn't like a lot of the stuff Bruce put her through, and I remember thinking back in the 90s that he wasn't right for her.  He was too old for her, and he didn't want the same things, even going so far as being angry that she got pregnant!  I guess after 16 years it finally came to a head.

I admit to getting very emotional quite a few times, esp. she discussed her relationship with Michael Landon and his passing.  I had grown up absolutely adoring that man, first as Little Joe Cartwright, then Pa Ingalls, and I was devastated when he died in 1991.  Melissa has also done wonderful work for and with terminally ill children, and in fact that seems to be her real calling in life.  I wouldn't be at all surprised if she devoted herself full time to that cause.  

Both books are really entertaining and I am glad that I picked them up.  If you grew up with these women like I did, I think you'll really enjoy them.