Go Set a Watchman

News stories of particular interest to me have exploded over the past four or five months and yet I’ve hardly commented on them. The black hole of the school board is trying to pull me into its damned singularity.

From Fergusson to the removal of the Stars and Bars from South Carolina’s capitol I’ve watched race relations stories with the greatest interest. Claudia read Harper Lee’s “first draft of To Kill a Mockingbird” in one squeamish fell swoop yesterday. She did not like it and yet she said the anecdotes about childhood in it were as wonderful as the whole of Mockingbird. She told me she wished the “prequal” hadn’t been published.

We had a very long talk about this book yesterday. I’ve long thought about my hero grandfather, George Robb, and his attitudes which were both benevolent towards African Americans at the time and unforgivable by today’s standards. Claudia said that the book is poorly written which is what you might expect of a first draft. I am not surprised that Lee put the first draft in a closet for fifty years. I decided after an hours conversation that I don’t have to read it…..I’ve got a lot of other books lined up including the one on Israel’s history that I’m reading out loud to Claudia. Another one is about my Grandfather’s infantry division which I’ve just peaked into. It was all black other than its white officers.

I told Claudia that my hope was that the publication of “Go Set a Watchman”, no matter how faulty, was a great opportunity for intelligent conversations about our race history. At the moment I’m listening to a wonderful conversation on Lee’s book on Kari Miller’s MPR Book club. Its not yet possible for me to link to it but when its uploaded by MPR you should be able to find it here.

About the author