Harper Lee fans ready for 'Go Set a Watchman'

It sounds like readers who grew up revering wise and kindly southern lawyer Atticus Finch are in for a disturbing shock with Tuesday’s release of a newly published work by famed Pulitzer Prize-winning author Harper Lee.

Advance reviews tell us an aging version of the brave and just attorney in Lee’s first book, “To Kill a Mockingbird,” appears in her new novel, “Go Set a Watchman.” But this time, he’s a racist sympathizer whose segregationist views stand in stark relief to his courageous defense of a wrongly accused black man in the Deep South in “Mockingbird.”

But neither Finch’s newly flawed character, nor uneven book reviews, or even questions about whether the writer, now 89, truly desired to have her previously undiscovered novel published, appears to have diminished readers’ excitement over the chance at another glimpse of Lee’s literary gifts, local booksellers and book lovers said Monday.

Hundreds of copies have been pre-ordered from Sonoma County bookstores in what Alta Sutherland, store manager at Barnes & Noble in Santa Rosa, predicted would be “our biggest book release” since “Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows” in 2007. The store will open two hours early Tuesday for the release.

“To me, it’s just a real thrill to have another chance to read her, just because she had a huge impact,” said David Dodd, collections manager for the Sonoma County Library, which has already fielded hundreds of hold requests for the book.

“People have been talking about it for months,” said Keith Hotaling, co-owner of Treehorn Books in downtown Santa Rosa.

In the 55 years since Lee first published her tale of Finch and his children, Scout and Jem, in small-town Maycomb, Ala., of the 1930s, readers had grown resigned to the fact no other work would be forthcoming from the famously reticent author.

But her existing novel, centered on the trial of a black man charged with raping a white woman and Finch’s seemingly hopeless crusade for justice amid intolerance and prejudice, remained a well-loved, literary masterpiece, a constant in high school English classes around the nation.

News in February that Lee had written another novel - completed in 1957 and hidden away ever since - and that it would be published this years, set literary circles abuzz.

That buzz peaked over the weekend with word of Lee’s recasting of Finch in a story about a grown-up Scout, now known as Jean Louise Finch, visiting Alabama from her new home in New York, only to face revelations about her father’s moral and physical frailty.

In the run-up to its release, readers have been snapping up copies of “Mockingbird,” as well as books about Lee and her novel, with the kind of enthusiasm that, on its own, would have informed booksellers of the kind of demand there will for “Watchman.”

But inquiries about the newer novel and pre-orders tell the story as well. Amazon.com announced last week it had taken more pre-orders for “Go Set a Watchman” than any book since the 2007 release of the seventh and final volume in the Harry Potter series.

Lee, said Sheryl Cotleur, buyer for the seven-store Copperfield’s Books Inc., “is an iconic American author that wrote a brilliant book, and even if they don’t think this one’s brilliant, people want to have more of her creative output and understand her better and read about those times and that place. And from all of the reviews that I’ve been seeing, this is a book that really does express an era in America, and people want to get Harper Lee’s take on that.”

Aaron Rosewater, a partner in Levin & Co. booksellers in Healdsburg, said interest in the book is particularly strong among the over-50 crowd - folks who remember when “Mockingbird” or the iconic 1962 movie adaptation starring Gregory Peck as Atticus Finch were new, or who were alive during the Civil Rights movement.

But the mystique of Lee and her apparent failure over all those decades to produce another work likely adds mystique to the new novel, he said.

“I can’t think of another book that has that kind of cultural status that was the only book that the author wrote,” he said. “That was the only thing that she ever published, and so to have another one and to have it with the same characters is huge.”

Dodd said the county library had purchased well over 100 copies of the new book, including versions in Spanish, in large type and on compact disc. He received so many inquiries and order recommendations from patrons when its pending publication was announced that he had to set up a separate email inbox just for messages.

But release of even the book jacket’s design has been tightly controlled. Bookstore buyers signed detailed embargo contracts that prevent them even from letting customers glimpse the cartons in which the book was shipped.

When one of the county library’s employees posted a photo on Instagram showing stickered and pre-staged books, the distributor contacted the library the next morning and ordered the photo be taken down immediately, Dodd said.

That didn’t stop customers from asking at several stores if they could sneak an early peek, several booksellers said.

That kind of excitement prompted Rosewater, at Levin & Co., to rethink his initial order from months ago, even though he placed a large order then. He added another case for good measure, and then, more recently, asked his distributor for an extra 10 copies beyond that.

“So I’ve been kind of upping my order as we’ve seen how much publicity and buzz there is about it,” he said.

Maria Carrillo High School English teacher Brigette Mansell, also a Healdsburg city councilwoman, said she’s been teaching the book for 33 years, rereading it every year and still finding nuance and richness in the writing.

She said she has preordered the new book and is eager to read it. And however the Atticus Finch of “Watchman” plays, it won’t diminish the iconic figure that Lee created in her first book, nor dim the pleasure of entering the author’s world, fans said.

“? ‘Mockingbird,’ said Dodd, “has been read now by multiple generations, and the book can be read by people as young as fifth or sixth grade and it still rewards you when we you’re rereading in your 70s. And that is a really a rare status to obtain.”

He added, “She had important things to say, and some of it might be a little dated, but that book has important things to say to America today, as we saw demonstrated in Charleston,” referencing the racially motivated shooting at a black South Carolina church last month. “I think people have to keep reading ‘Mockingbird’ for a long time.”

You can reach Staff Writer Mary Callahan at 521-5249 or mary.callahan@pressdemocrat.com. On Twitter @MaryCallahanB.