Will Go Set A Watchman save the publishing industry? Will it also be delicious?

The narrative surrounding the publication of Harper Lee’s upcoming novel Go Set a Watchman has been inconsistent at best. Tonja Carter — Lee’s lawyer and friend — has been cagey; Alexandra Alter and Serge Kovaleski’s coverage in The New York Times has been, alternately, thorough and overly credulous; Harper has seemed just on the edge of respectability throughout; and Lee herself remains as reticent and distant as always, giving statements through her lawyer and agent, holding a behind-closed-doors luncheon with Harper execs and close friends, and generally providing very little in the way of clarity. Some of this has seemed shady, most of it has been speculative, and almost all of it will be rendered immaterial once the book hits shelves on July 14th. The book will either be good, and the initial print run of 2 million will evaporate; or the book will be bad, or clearly a draft, and people will pillory HarperCollins and possibly Lee. Two million will seem like a hilariously naive or ambitious number. Mockingbird and Lee’s position in the American canon will always carry an asterisk.

But only time will tell, and, until the 14th, I think we should savor the tension; embrace the exciting strangeness of the whole debacle. How? By taking a trip to Imagination Station, hopping in the way-back machine, and pretending to be a small fictional town from the 1930’s! That’s what they’ll be doing in Monroeville, Alabama, the real-life hometown of Harper Lee and inspiration for Maycomb, the fictionalized setting of To Kill a Mockingbird.

As reported in the Montgomery Advertiser:

Monroeville will celebrate the launch of Lee’s new novel by becoming the fictional Alabama town of Maycomb as it would have been 60 years ago….

There will be vintage cars and trucks parked around the 1903 courthouse and about 250 fans of the famous novel will take part in a marathon reading of “Watchman,” according to Alabama Department of Tourism and Travel Director Lee Sentell….

Wayne Flynt, a close friend of the author, will join other Alabama historians sitting in rocking chairs off the northeast corner of the square to tell stories. It is the same building where the La Salle Hotel stood and where in 1961 Gregory Peck and his wife stayed when they visited Lee, according to library director Mrs. Bunny Nobles….

Guides will lead walking tours around the square and point out locations that inspired scenes in both of Lee’s novels, the chamber director said.

Sounds fun! Oh, wait! There’s more!

People who participate in the marathon reading will receive a “readers” certificate and those who purchase a $20 family membership at the library will get a hand fan with the cover of the novel on one side and a vintage photo of the La Salle Hotel on the back, said the library director.

SWAG!

If all goes well, the Alabama Chamber of Commerce can make its hay before anyone has a chance to read the book. And, since everyone loves a little make believe, we can all indulge in some willing suspension of disbelief, averting our gaze from the man behind the curtain selling early drafts as finished novels, and enjoy a day in the sun pretending that it’s 1934, or 1960, and hoping that one of America’s most treasured literary legacies will be preserved.