By Talmage Boston on September 3, 2015
Talmage’s article “Cracking the Code on Harper Lee” was published in the September issue of the Texas Bar Journal. Talmage was one of the first people to read Harper Lee’s novel Go Set a Watchman. He has closely followed other book reviews and controversy among readers who believed that the character Atticus Finch was portrayed as a bigot in Lee’s second book. In this article, Talmage takes a look at all the facts, including the era in which the book was written and the mindset of Atticus Finch as a lawyer in the book. Talmage explains in his review that critics must look at all the facts and have an open mind about race and relationships before dismissing the book as a negative portrayal of a beloved fictional character in American literature.