It's a book badly in need of revision. I'm glad I got it from the library and didn't buy it. ( )

This is a sequel to "To Kill a Mockingbird” (1960), but "Go Set a Watchman" was written first, in the mid-1950’s. So, this did screw with my mind a little. There were a few scenarios in this writing that were also in “To Kill a Mockingbird”, and a few things that were a little different, such as, the rape case against Tom Robinson. Here, Atticus had proven it was consensual sex, and he had won an acquittal. In “To Kill a Mockingbird”, Tom went to prison. And Jem, Atticus' son, was only a memory, having died at the early age of 22.

That being said, the story line was just not that interesting; therefore, I had to give it a 3-star. I found the dialogue confusing, and the political stances confusing. It wasn’t till the very end of the book that I understood how the title even related to the storyline.

Isaiah 21:6: “For thus hath the Lord said unto me, Go, set a watchman, let him declare what he seeth.”

Jean Louise found out that her father, Atticus, was an implant (a watchman) in the KKK and, later in life, in the Maycomb County Citizen's Council, where all the leading men of Maycomb were in agreement to hold back the Negroes and to keep them from voting themselves into office until they were at least more educated. They were planning their fight against the NAACP. Not the Atticus we learned about in “To Kill a Mockingbird”. He said each man joined for their own reasons. He joined to know who the men were and what their plans were. His intentions were to never go against the law, ever. But, his opinion of Negroes did differ from his daughter, Jean Louise, in the respect that Atticus felt and believed in “white privilege”…anyway, I think that’s what I gathered from the book.

When Jean Louise returned home for her 5th visit, she learned this truth about her hometown, friends, and family, which made her angry and she threatened to never return, but her uncle told her that Maycomb needed her. They needed someone who believed like she did...black or white, they were all created equal. They needed someone to open their eyes to the injustices in the ways they treated the blacks of their hometown. She needed to go in and become the “watchman” and persuade opinions little by little. ( )

Amazed to find out this was a "first draft" of To Kill a Mockingbird, because the plot is so different. It's still good. ( )

Puoi trovare questa recensione anche sul mio blog, La siepe di more

Inizierò questa recensione in maniera piuttosto insolita: sono molto dispiaciuta di aver letto questo libro, non tanto perché non mi è piaciuto granché, ma perché mi ha reso davvero dubbiosa sul fatto che una scrittrice come Harper Lee abbia dato il suo consenso alla pubblicazione di Va’, metti una sentinella.

Il punto è che sembra una bozza e non un romanzo finito. È incoerente, logicamente molto debole, noioso a morte nella prima metà, non c’è una vera e propria trama – o anche solo una strada da percorrere in compagnia della scrittrice – e alcuni brevissimi paragrafi formati da una sola proposizione sembrano semplici appunti.

Ho capito la storia – e le tesi – che Lee voleva raccontare, ma penso che anche l’editor meno capace si sarebbe resu conto che questa storia non sta in piedi. Ci sono delle parti notevoli e che danno l’idea del bel romanzo che poteva essere, ma sono completamente abbandonate a loro stesse e lasciate alla deriva in pagine e pagine che non si capisce nemmeno perché sono lì.

Avrei preferito una pubblicazione critica che presentasse Va, metti una sentinella come la bozza informe che è piuttosto che farlo uscire come il seguito de Il buio oltre la siepe. ( )

A lot of critics and readers of to Kill the Mockingbird were hurt and upset to see their hero Atticus Finch portrayed in this novel as a racist bigot. Many said they were disappointed and wished the they hadn't read it. When Jean Louise(Scout) discovered her fathers' true and hidden beliefs about Negroes she was like those readers, shocked and deeply hurt. But in the end, they talked it over and Scout came to terms with her father. Readers should do the same because Go Set A Watchman teaches us an important lesson about the origins of prejudiceism. Human Beings are not born hating each other, it's something we're thought. And Atticus being a man of time(his father fought in The Civil War) was thought to hate Negroes. But to his credit, Atticus made a conscious effort not to pass that hatred down to his children. OK, Atticus was not the man we thought he was. But like Scout, I was able to come to terms with him. Hopefully you can too. ( )