Go Set a Watchman
Actual rating 3.5.I tried to avoid reading too many other reviews lest they influence my opinion. I heard all the horror and hype about Atticus being a bigot etc. However that really is an oversimplification.
It's true, the writing doesn't sing like Mockingbird, but the subject matter is darker. Mockingbird speaks to our hopes, aspirations, our better halves and our innocence. This book speaks to our fears, disappointments, our lesser halves and our 'adultness'. Atticus is revealed to be your regular polite, paternalistic 'missionary' white who sees things as he believes them to be and assumes this is the way they should be.
His love of the law is the one thing that redeems him and prevents him from descending into nasty, narrow odiousness.
This is a story about seeing our heroes as they are and accepting them and their imperfections. But Atticus' role as an embodiment of the civilising power of the law remains untarnished.
