I Read Banned Books

The funky Bayfield bookstore, the kind of place where I could spend hours, featured a display of Salman Rushdie’s books.

A young fanatic had recently attempted to assassinate Rushdie, long a target of fundamentalists offended by one of those books.

Lots of offended folks these days are seeking not assassinations — not yet, anyway — but the banning of certain books. More than 1,600 have been targeted, by one account, including classics like “Catcher in the Rye,” “Catch 22” and “Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee.”

My favorite children’s book, “Where the Wild Things Are,” is on some lists. While I didn’t buy a book in Bayfield, I did notice, in a display near the cash register, a T-shirt and I just had to have. It sported the simple slogan, “I read banned books.”

The past year, I did indeed read a couple of books that various groups have tried to ban. One was Nobel Prize winner Toni Morrison’s debut novel, “The Bluest Eye.”

Writers are often urged to write what they know, and Morrison, growing up Black, knew intimately the Black experience. So she portrayed the deep grittiness of life for some Black folks who’d moved north, struggling for a better life in the middle of the last century.

It’s a coming-of-age story that portrays violence and incest, and yes, some parts are uncomfortable.

Should we ban the book because it is truthful? If a parent does not want their child reading it, I can understand, and they should have the right, as many school districts offer, to choose an alternate book. But not the right to say no child can read it.

In some locales, self-appointed censors have tried to ban Tim O’Brien’s “The Things They Carried,” which I consider the best novel about the war that transformed my generation: the Vietnam War. nnnn nnnn

The complaints are that the book is filled with F-bombs and violence and some “pornography.” What does one expect in a war novel? I assume the complainers never served.

As to F-bombs, when I got off the bus at basic training at Fort Bragg, the first word I heard was “you,” the second was a particular variation of the F-bomb. F-bombs, as nearly every part of speech, are maybe the most-used words in the military.

Anyway, kids these days hear the F-bomb flung about on the playground from an early age. Should we then keep our kids off the playgrounds?

As for the “pornographic” parts, well, war is pornographic, and 16- and 17-year-olds should know what situations politicians might want to throw them into. I went to school with Tim in St. Paul; I know how much he gave up to serve as a drafted grunt in Vietnam. His books should be read by all.

If I were banning books, I would start with those by hate-monger Alex Jones.

But there it was, his latest, prominently displayed at a local bookstore. I considered burying the book at the bottom of a pile, but I didn’t. If someone wants to read it, they’ll find it.

It’s still a free country, for now. I also had this thought: If “pornography” is the complaint (and the term is too freely applied), might not “Song of Solomon” in the Bible be banned? The language is beautiful, but it is also rather juicy.

A novel that should have no trouble with censors, but that I found a great read, is Claire Keegan’s “Small Things Like These.”

A small book that can be read in an evening or two, its beautiful and economical use of language to tell a tale based on the tragic treatment of pregnant unwed mothers and their babies in Ireland through much of the 20th century got it short-listed for the prestigious Booker Prize.

Its appealing protagonist is what we might call an ordinary man who rises to nobility through a small, defiant action.

Finally, if you’re looking for an easy read at bedtime, or any time of day, pick up anything by Carl Hiassen.

His densely plotted novels feature multiple story lines, all set in Florida’s crazy socio-political climate. Hiassen’s day job as a Miami newspaperman has given him endless material that often leads — even when the stories deal with dastardly financial shenanigans and murder — to laugh-out-loud moments with characters who tend to be zany and outlandish.

One caution for the politically sensitive: Hiassen is not afraid to skewer any Florida politician or arrogant capitalist; he can also be ribald at times. But he is always entertaining.

I enjoy writing this annual books column for winter days when it’s sometimes easier to stay inside. Thanks for suggestions some readers have made about what should be up next from the bookshelf.