Author Harper Lee’s hometown of Monroeville buzzed with excitement Tuesday over the release of her novel “Go Set a Watchman,” which was actually the first draft of the Pulitzer Prize-winning “To Kill a Mockingbird.” Both books are set in the fictitious town of Maycomb, which was modeled after Monroeville. A full day of celebrations unfolded in the small Alabama town with parties, readings and tours. Amid the hoopla, there also was trepidation and disbelief that the character Atticus Finch, the model of integrity who defended a black man wrongly accused of rape in the 1930s in “Mockingbird,” is portrayed as a racist 20 years later in “Watchman.”
