The literary world has been abuzz this week with the July 14 release of Harper Lee’s surprise follow up to her Pulitzer Prize-winning novel, To Kill a Mockingbird, published in 1960.

Go Set a Watchman takes place 20 years after To Kill a Mockingbird, in which Atticus Finch’s daughter, Scout, is 26 years old, grappling with her life living in New York and goes back to visit her father. Two major controversies have led up to the release of this sequel. One, Lee has chosen to portray Atticus as a bigot and a racist. Two, there has been speculation that the 89-year-old Lee, who lives after a stroke confined to an assisted living home, was manipulated  by her attorney and the publisher, HarperCollins, into consenting to allowing this book published.

Whatever people are saying about it, local booksellers have been dealing with the flurry of orders — and opinions.

Lacy Simons, the owner of hello hello bookstore in Rockland, said that people have been coming into the store for months asking for it. Despite ordering the book a month ago, due to the limited size of her order, the book will arrive July 16, two days later than the release date. As to the controversies, she said, “My impression without having read it is that I am a little wary that this book was released without a lot of work on the manuscript and I’m a little skeptical about its quality, given the situation under which it was published. From reviewers I trust, I’ve heard that it reads messy and also, people have been really emotional about Atticus being pro-segregation. It’s not like this would be a completely unrealistic [part of his nature] but it’s just we get really disappointed in fictional characters when they let us down like that. I do really like the idea of seeing Scout as an adult and her struggles and the most interesting piece for me would be her trying to figure out what her role is and where she belongs as a woman in the 1950s.”

Elaine Knight, co-owner of Owl & Turtle Bookshop in Camden, said, “The customers are very anxious to get their hands on it.” Like Simons, she placed her order well over a month ago, but she too will not receive the books until a day after the release date, July 15.

“There has been a lot of anticipation regarding this book, but of course, the media has had a lot of controversy around it, which makes people even more curious,” said Knight.

Left Bank Books in Belfast received their order of several dozen copies on July 14. With approximately 30 pre-orders, they had nearly 20 people come in and buy it.

Nancy Hauswald, Left Bank Book’s publicist said, “It’s been fascinating. Mostly it boils down to people are in two camps. They either can’t wait to read the book or they absolutely refuse to read it and it’s clearly because of what they’ve heard, because of Atticus. What is so interesting is how passionate people are about this fictional character. I’ve never heard conversations among strangers in a bookshop like I have around this book. A typical conversation would be ‘I can’t wait to read it’ and someone else saying to them ‘I can’t possibly picture Atticus as a racist and I don’t want to destroy that image.’ And then the other person would say ‘But Scout has to deal with that. She goes home to deal with that and so must we.’ Another customer said something also very interesting. She said ‘But that's the very power of great literature. It should be disturbing. It should shake us up and make us think.’”

Whatever people think about these controversies, book lovers are seeing a revival in literature this week—an art form that often gets too little attention in today’s hyperdigitalization.

“To have these conversations about civil rights and equality in a bookstore—that’s what bookstores are all about,” said Hauswald.

Kay Stephens can be reached at news@penbaypilot.com