I've actually wondered how Newburyport will be portrayed in the book (and the eventual movie, which I envision being filmed in North Hatley, Quebec rather than here in the city.) How much of the book takes place in Newburyport? And how will the world view us once they've read the book?
It’s funny, recently I was back in Newburyport for business and I ran into a few friends. They told me there’s been a lot of talk about Following Atticus and many folks are convinced that they are featured in the book. I’m sorry to disappoint them but the truth is that while Newburyport is a major character, not many Newburyporters are. This is not the story of the Undertoad, although my Undertoad years are highlighted in the first chapters. It’s a story about the relationship I share with Atticus and the transformation I’ve gone through.
I’d say Newburyport is in about a third of the book and readers will see the city as beautiful, charming, mysterious, and complex.
You have to remember that when I started the ‘Toad it was a different time. Gentrification was in full swing and there was tension between what used to be and what was to be. The mayoral race of 1995 between Mead and Matthews was a battlefield. Passions were high and it seemed as though nearly every house had either a Mead or Matthews sign on its lawn. People were invested in the outcome.
Those years were a bridge from the past to the future and I was lucky enough to be around then. As I write in Chapter One, “The Undertoad was not your typical name for a newspaper, but Newburyport was not your typical city. It was Norman Rockwell meets Alfred Hitchcock.”
All-in-all, I’d say that when people outside of the Port read Following Atticus, they’ll want to see the city that played such a role in my life, especially in my first steps as a writer. Even now in these tamer times, as you well know, it is a fascinating place but to truly appreciate it you have to live there.
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