3.5 stars.

I started this book last night, setting all expectations aside. And I was indeed transported to an alternate universe. Jean Louise aka Scout, Atticus, and Uncle Jack all have different voices. Harper Lee's voice is different.

Atticus raised his eyebrows in warning. He watched his daughter's daemon rise and dominate her: her eyebrows, like his, were lifted, the heavy-lidded eyes beneath them grew round, and one corner of her mouth was raised dangerously. When she looked thus, only God and Robert Browning knew what she was likely to say. (page 19, 20)

That's just one example. I live in the Midwest, but I soon became accustomed to the strange, lilting way of speaking, the random vocabulary, the barking humor. Lee's writing isn't as sharp in Watchman, but the elements are there, found especially in the Coffee scene and Jean Louise's back-and-forth's with Uncle Jack.

The story quickly turns To Kill A Mockingbird on its head. Gone is the halcyon world of Scout, aged 6. Now 26, nothing makes sense to Jean Louise anymore. Many newspapers and magazines have beaten this point to death (Atticus is racist!). And yet, isn't Lee writing fact? People aren't as wonderful as you think. People change. Your parents aren't God. They aren't even saints.

"I don't know why you can't [live with a hypocrite]. Hypocrites have just as much right to live in this world as anybody." (Atticus, page 235)

That's the truth. Racism and prejudice create blurry lines. Is it racist if you want to marry someone whose the same ethnicity as you? If your friends all share the same beliefs as you? If you use stereotypes to generalize a particular group? Beyond the black and white (Racism bad! Inclusion good!), there lies a much more complicated issue.

"You sort of haven't caught up with yourself..." (Calpurnia, page 138)

She sat up. "I don't know if I can tell you, honey. When you live in New York, you often have the feeling that New York's not the world. I mean this: every time I come home, I feel like I'm coming back to the world, and when I leave Maycomb it's like leaving the world." (Jean Louise, page 75-76)

Had she been able to think, Jean Louise might have prevented events to come by considering the day's occurrences in terms of a recurring story as old as time: the chapter which concerned her began two hundred years ago and was played out in a proud society the bloodiest war and harshest peace in modern history could not destroy, returning, to be played out again on private gound in the twilight of a civilization no wars and no peace could save. (page 122)

Jean Louise's coming-of-age story will either resonate with you or disgust you. Is your glass half-empty or half-full? Has the world built you up or torn you down? Or like Jean Louise, you're somewhere in the middle, caught between your ideals and the reality.

No war was ever fought for so many different reasons.