Go Set A Watchman by Harper Lee

I know that there was tons of controversy surrounding the release of Harper Lee’s Go Set A Watchman, BUT selfishly, I am so happy that it was released. Harper Lee is a good writer who gives her readers a lot to think about. I believe that all of our talents are connected to enhancing the lives of others, and in return our lives are enhanced. I believe that none of us should take any of our talents to the grave with us; we should deplete every last one of them before we leave this earth if possible. Not sure why she did not publish this book years ago, but I want to believe that the praise and glory that she would have gotten from this book may have given her the fuel to write tons and tons of books! Yea, there would have been haters, but haters can fuel us to greatness as well.

This book drew me right in with Scout, Harper Lee’s character from To Kill A Mockingbird, returning home to Maycomb county. There were so many things that felt familiar and made me feel warm such as the smells of the deep South, that warm, small town feeling, and the idea that at home you can drop all pretense and just REST for just a little while. However, just like Scout’s experience, sometimes home ain’t all that we romanticize it to be.

When Scout returned home not much appeared to have changed, but she quickly learned new things about her town and her father that were unsettling; they were fighting integration. However, with the way that Lee writes about this time in history in the deep South, mid 1950’s, I could clearly see both sides, and I thought a lot about Booker T. Washington and his philosophy of “Cast down your buckets where you are.”

Scout thought about her father, Atticus, and to her and her brother, Jim, Atticus was a super hero, and now she has to deal with the fact that Atticus is not a super hero, but he is definitely human. Now, isn’t that life? I remember hearing someone that I looked up to say something that I thought was completely hurtful about another person, and I had to deal with the idea that even our heroes are not perfect, and this is what Scout seems to be dealing with in this book. After I heard this person say something that showed me that she was human, I can still hear those words in my head even though its been over fifteen years. However, I try and cast down the hurt and focus on the idea that this person is human and needs grace and so do I.

The cleverness of Lee’s writing is that she makes the reader think, and I thought a lot about integration, hearing and trying to see things from a different perspective, what defines a heroes etc.

Recently, my mom and I drove through Monroeville, Alabama, the hometown of Lee and inspiration for her novels, and I couldn’t help but to think about Lee’s two book, and Just Mercy by Bryan Stevenson which talks about a guy who was falsely accused of a murder in Monroeville, and he was sent to death row for thirty years before he was finally released. I rode through Monroeville wondering if things have changed at all....

Now, I absolutely love Lee’s first novel To Kill A Mockingbird, and I taught it for many years with my whole heart, and I love Go Set A Watchman just as much. I can’t wait to teach it and help other teachers to teach it as well.....

Happy, Happy, Happy that this gift, Go Set A Watchman, was finally given to the world!!

My People, consider not going to the grave with your gifts still inside of you; we need them...

Nelle Harper Lee

Nelle Harper Lee was born and raised in Monroeville, Alabama which is about 84 miles from my hometown of Mount Vernon, Alabama.

Monroeville had a Vanity Fair Outlet, and as a child, my family would go to Monroeville to buy underwear, jeans, socks etc. So, whenever I would teach To Kill A Mockingbird, I would lovingly show my students a map of Alabama, and we would pay careful attention to my hometown and the hometown of Harper Lee. I would fondly tell my students about my trips to Monroeville whose only claim to fame was Nelle Harper Lee and The Vanity Fair Outlet.

I would teach To Kill A Mockingbird with my whole heart, because I love the characters, the fictional town of Maycomb, and the storyline.

The premises of the entire novel is Atticus, one of the main characters, defending a Black man who was accused of raping a White girl. After a little research, I realized that this plot was based on The Scottsboro Case. This was a real case where nine Black youth were accused of raping two White ladies in Alabama. All of the youth, except one who was twelve years old, was convicted, and this caused a uproar in the North.

My students would do presentation on The Scottsboro Case, and each time that I would teach this novel and listen to the presentations, my love and respect for Nelle Harper Lee and To Kill A Mockingbird would intensify.

If you have not read To Kill A Mockingbird, I highly recommend that you do.

So, today there was some breaking news. One of my co-workers sent us an email early this morning with an article attached which stated that another book by Harper Lee would be released July 14. Now, I read this email, and my heart started racing. The only book that Harper Lee ever published was To Kill A Mockingbird, and I sure did want her to write another one. However, I had given up. Now, fifty years after To Kill A Mockingbird, another book by Harper Lee is going to be released that is titled Go Catch A Watchman.

Today is a GOOD day in the literary world.... Long Live Nelle Harper Lee!!!

I've started the countdown to July 14.....

"In Cold Blood" by Truman Capote

There are two things that I absolutely savor about the holidays: the time to do morning workouts and the time to read.

So, today is the day after Thanksgiving, and I have enjoyed every moment of this day. I woke up early and talked to my momma on the phone, went to Barnes and Nobel, ran six miles, and spent the rest of the day reading In Cold Blood by Truman Capote. What Joy!

I must admit that this book left me feeling really crazy and in deep thought about life, death, the act of killing, the death penalty etc.

Truman Capote is quite dear to my heart, because we were both raised in Alabama. Capote and Nelle Harper Lee, author of To Kill A Mockingbird, were both raised in Monroeville, Alabama. (Great things DO come from Alabama.)

In Cold Blood is the TRUE story of two ex-convicts, Dick and Perry, who went to Kansas to kill a family whom they didn't know. The family was the well-respected Clutter family: Herbert, the father; Bonnie, the mother; Nancy, the daughter; and Kenyon, the son.

While in prison, another convict told Dick about the Clutter family. He told him that Mr. Clutter was rich and kept a safe with money in his house. Dick decided that once he was released, he and his friend Perry, would drive across the state of Kansas, to the Clutter's home, and rob them.

However, once they got to the house, Perry and Dick realized that there was no safe, and they were only able to retrieve between $40 and $50 from the family. Things took a BAD turn, and all four members of the Clutter family, who were in the house, were killed; Mr. Clutter 's throat was slashed, and the rest of the family was shot in the head. (The Clutter's had two older daughters who did not live with them.)

Capote spent years, alone with Nelle Harper Lee, interviewing the killers and the people in the small town of Holcomb, Kansas in order to give the reader snapshots into the Clutters' lives and the minds of the killers.

This novel really disturbed me. I live a carefree life, and I am cautious but fearless. I go out at anytime by myself and feel pretty safe. I refuse to live in fear, but I needed to be reminded of the fact that people like Dick and Perry do exist in this world.

Also, Dick and Perry both were sentenced to death, and this made me think a lot about the death penalty. I spent a summer at Amherst College studying Crime and Punishment. We discussed  the death penalty at great length, and I am not sure if it the death penalty should or should not be considered a cruel and unusual punishment if you believe that death starts at the moment that a person finds out that he has been sentenced to death. Can you imagine the agony that a person must go through when he knows the exact day and time that he is going to die?

Things that make you say hmmmmmmmm......

This book is captivating, easy to read, very revealing about the minds of two killers, and it will make a person think.

 "It takes a great deal of history to produce a little literature."  Henry James

Truman Capote