Author Harper Lee’s hometown of Monroeville buzzed with excitement over the Tuesday release of her novel “Go Set a Watchman,” the sequel to the Pulitzer Prize-winning “To Kill a Mockingbird.” The town is the model for Maycomb, the setting of both books. A full day of celebrations is planned, including readings, tours and a mint julep cocktail hour outside the old courthouse.
But amid the excitement, there also was trepidation and disbelief that character Atticus Finch, the courtly model of integrity who defended a wrongly accused black man in the 1930s in “Mockingbird,” is portrayed as a racist 20 years later in “Watchman.”
