This morning, several media outlets published the first chapter of Harper Lee's new old novel, Go Set a Watchman. The Guardian apparently got the text early enough to create a flashy, "interactive" version that features near CNN-level-technology and is actually kind of fun. You can also hear Reese Witherspoon reading the chapter. She speaks very clearly and sharply, unlike the slightly slurred southern drawl I have in my head. I want a little bit more of a slide, I want it a little easier, a little less pronounced, but I suppose the nature of the audiobook demands clarity over style.

Anyway, the first chapter's pretty delightful. Scout—who the narrator calls by her proper name, Jean Louise—is a grown woman now who "sleeps only in pajama tops," gets into scrapes on trains, and is "pursu[ing] the stony path of spinsterhood" to prevent an inevitable divorce from her over-enthusiastic suitor. But this doesn't preclude hot make-out sessions on train station platforms. Like the young Scout of old, the Scout in To Kill a Mockingbird, she's a funny, witty, casually wise person who challenges gender stereotypes all over the place. The book was written in the mid 1950s, but if you told me it was written last year I would have believed you.

The chapter is propelled by one-two punch sentences like this summation of Maycomb, the town in which Lee sets To Kill a Mockingbird and Go Set a Watchman, which places you in Alabama more viscerally than a description of landscape could: "If you did not want much, there was plenty."

There are also some one-two-uppercut sentences. After she describes the founding of Maycomb, she says:

Recorded history’s version does not coincide with the truth, but these are the facts, because they were passed down by word of mouth through the years, and every Maycombian knows them.

Those three clauses at the end are the one-two-uppercut thing I'm talking about. I love how Lee subtly critiques and admits her character's complicity with the power that the traditional fallacy has over Southerners. Little touches like that make me feel as if the rest of this book is going to be very fucking good.

I should say that the release of this book is controversial. Despite the fact that the state of Alabama Securities Commission, who opened up an elderly abuse investigation after the release of the book was announced, found that Lee was with it enough to make a decision regarding the publication of the book, and despite the fact that Lee feels convinced of the book's worth, some people still have objections. The whole controversy is so small-town gossipy to me, and since Lee won't speak except through her lawyer it's impossible to figure out what she "truly" believes.

Regardless, if Lee ever worried that this book wouldn't stand up to To Kill a Mockingbird, this excerpt suggests that she can rest easy.