To understand literature, students must explore it by reading, thinking, and writing about it. According to the editors of Literature and Its Writers: A Compact Introduction to Fiction, Poetry, and Drama :

Through the weave of literary works and literary voices, students comprehend what a human enterprise literature is – the work of talented individuals like themselves. Not only do students explore what and how literature means – interpretation and analysis – but also two fundamental questions about it: How is it made, and how is it related to us?

“Hills Like White Elephants” by Ernest Hemingway, “I Like Guys” by David Sedaris (which is also a chapter in his book Naked), “Survivor Type” by Stephen King, and “The Crack Cocaine Diet” by Laura Lippman were four stories included on the reading list of an elective English course offered to upperclassmen at Campbell High School in Litchfield, New Hampshire.

They are no longer on that list.

After objections were made by a group of parents, which was supported by the school’s superintendant, a school board meeting was called and the stories were pulled.

The department head approved these stories as she felt they were not only relevant, but would engage the student in a way classic literature could not. The teacher is quoted as saying, “the importance of literature as a means to prompt meaningful discussion about many issues, similar to our prior discussion of mental health, racial equality, and the Holocaust.”

Remember, this is an elective. Not only is it optional, it would make sense that the required English courses already have the students reading the classics.

These stories were not meant to be read alone. Through reading and then discussing the them, students would not only learn the mechanics of literature, but more. They would be asked to to find meaning not only in the story but how it was constructed. How the author used his or her skills in developing a piece of work that engages the reader, making them think about what they are reading, to question the characters decisions, reactions; to learn from what they do right, and what they do wrong.

The double-edged sword of diligence

As a parent, I kept up with what my son was reading in high school. If I disagreed with a book (and this only happened once), it was usually on the grounds that he was asked to read something far above his level. He wasn’t enrolled in an AP/Honors class, so I saw no need in him being assigned a book like The Iliad. It only fueled his believe that literature was old, boring, and assigned by teachers who couldn’t bother to develop a different curriculum for each of her classes. (Regular versus AP or Honors). Yes the discussions, such as they were, differed, as did the test questions. But that wasn’t the point. My son was almost turned completely off of thinking literature could be enjoyed. Luckily having an avid bibliophile like his mother and grandmother around, this crisis was averted.

I do believe parents should be diligent about what their children are doing in school. However, to the extent of the effect they had in New Hampshire: the pulling of several short stories and the eventual resignation of a well respected and loved department head – well, this goes too far.

As a result, a panel will be put together made of of parents, students, teachers, and administrators to help determine future reading lists. However, this doesn’t detract from the fall-out of the reactionary attitude of the superintendant who, without much thought, threw a fellow educator under the bus and force Litchfield into the limelight – and not a very flattering one at that.

In reading up on this story, I found an article that makes some excellent points. I don’t agree with all of them, but it is clear headed, and looks at the issue from an angle I think that panel in New Hampshire should take into account.

In, “Stories by David Sedaris, Ernest Hemingway, Stephen King, & Laura Lippman banned from English Class”, Michelle Kerns gets right to the heart of the matter:

“What is the purpose of high school English classes?

I would add, or clarify the above by adding: What curricula best suits regular English classes, AP/Honors classes, or electives.

There is a big difference between courses that are required, those that are optional, and advanced placement classes which are geared towards those students wanting to be better prepared for college.

In the New Hampshire dust-up, the course in question is an elective: optional. I bring this up, as optional courses are just that, and reading lists for these courses should reflect a selection not found in those that are required.

In her article, Kerns states reading and writing is an art. But they are more – much more. They are tools to a better understanding of culture and the world around us, which is made up of more than just the canon set forth by a generation that obviously doesn’t have the pulse of the current one.

I am not saying that works by Shakespeare, Steinbeck, or Fitzgerald should be shelved and left to collect dust. But that works by Hemingway, Margaret Atwood, Flannery O’Connor, and others can engage the student with more relevant themes.

The editors in their introduction to Literature and Its Writers, explain:

We read stories, poems, and plays for many reasons. When you allow yourself to become fully immersed in an author’s words and ideas, you can bring to life an imaginary world that can tell you something about your own everyday reality. As a student of literature, you will find that the stories, poems , and plays…will often enable you to view life with a new clarity as you relate what you have read to your own experience.

In looking at the stories pulled, I see one in particular that is referred to, or included in many anthologies about reading and writing: “Hills Like White Elephants” by Hemingway. This work not only epitomizes his skill in developing a plot through dialogue, the story teaches writers (and readers) about the power of subtext. Hemingway’s story is an excellent example of both these aspects of dialogue and plot.

Here is where I disagree with Kerns. She states, quite vehemently:

But do I think the short stories used in the Chapman High School curriculum were the most appropriate examples to use from the talented authors? No. Do I think that there should be much MORE attention paid to classic authors in a high school English class? Yes. Do I think that the Chapman High School English classes were being hijacked by an agenda that did NOT include proficiency in English literature? Oh, hell, yes.

Uh. No. Hemingway’s story IS an appropriate example to use. As for the other author’s, I will concede that better ones can be found. And yes, classic authors should be studied. Especially in a required course. However, this was not. There are contemporary authors who cover the same themes just as well if not better.

And how is it that you can say, without being part of the class discussion in which the teacher helps the student connect the thematic and literary dots, that there is no way they were becoming more proficient in English literature? Oh, yes, that ‘canon’ thing. That very ideology that nearly ensured my son’s permanent distaste for reading.

Hijacked by an agenda?

It is this contention that has fueled the uproar more than any other: not the banning of the stories, not even their content or appropriateness. As Kerns pointed out earlier in her piece, “The only portion of this story that will be bandied about…will be whether or not parents should have the right to have literature that does not line up with their personal belief systems banned from high school classes.” The parents who objected did in fact raise the “agenda” banner, waving it about to get attention and prove their point. This fits in with Kerns assertion that “ANY English class that is diluted by a political or social science agenda is going to suffer…The end result will be high school graduates that go tripping off to college lacking the English literature foundation they sorely need.”

So if isn’t considered a classic, then it has no place in high school. They can wait to read that relevant contemporary stuff in college. Well, by then it’s too late. We aren’t talking merely about teaching them literature as we are trying to instill in them that reading is good. It’s entertaining, enlightening, thought-provoking. It will take you places and show you things you may never be exposed to otherwise. Writing about it will further this process as well as teach one the finer points of interpretation and expression of one’s ideas and opinions.

So what is the answer?

There is no clear cut answer, no cookie cutter way of pleasing everyone, everywhere, every time. Parents do need to be involved in their child’s education. That is a given. However, a school board should never have subjugated themselves in such a fashion. It sets a precedence for those in the ideological majority believing they are justified in taking away the choices of those in the minority.

Upperclassmen curricula should take into account whether or not the course is required, upper level (AP), or an elective. There cannot be one set of standards for all English classes. Elective reading lists should be developed by educators working with parents and students. It must be made readily available.  (The high school my son attended had a course catalog much like a college. It contained all the information he and I needed.)

The Western canon is that which many required classes should look to for guidance, however, it fails to offer a wider point of view that is necessary to understand our ever increasing diversity. In looking at the current canon, it is deficient in that regard. If students are truly supposed to be prepared for the world, and college, then greater attention must be paid to contemporary writers and themes.

Sounds like an agenda, doesn’t it? And perhaps it is.

But I would rather have one that builds a better person as it does a reader and a writer, than simply an automaton full of knowledge and little appreciation for the reality of the human condition.

Articles and Resources:

• Stories by David Sedaris, Ernest Hemingway, Stephen King, & Laura Lippman banned from English class by Michelle Kerns
• Literature and Its Writers: A Compact Introduction to Fiction, Poetry, and Drama edited by Ann Charters and Samuel Charters
• Top English Teacher Leaving Campbell by Albert McKeon, Nashua Telegraph
• Board To Review List of Stories After Uproar by Joseph G. Cote. Nashua Telegraph

Review copy courtesy of the author

This is the story of Peter, a Cambridge geography don who crashes his car into a tree stump when swerving to avoid a cat, and Mina, the girl at the Sheffield call centre who deals with his insurance claim. It tracks their parallel lives, as well those of their families - because both Peter and Mina are single parents.

An old-fashioned fairy tale of love across the class divide, it is also a book about the small joys and tribulations of parenthood; about one-ness and two-ness; about symmetry and coincidence; about the things which separate us and the things which bring us together.

I know you’ve heard that saying, “Don’t judge a book by its cover.” This is a book that epitomizes this statement. I also would like to assure you that the actual book is NOT as pink as the picture above.

I am not sure I should clarify the above synopsis which I took from the author’s web site. However, if you have never been to England, have never been exposed to its culture through reading or in person – perhaps I should.

All societies are made up of social structures. In Britain, it isn’t as much money (such as it is in the States) as it is one’s accent, vocabulary, manners, etc. Thus when a Cambridge University professor comes to meet a woman whom he assumes is not only of another ethnicity, but of “social” class, the fact that a relationship begins to grow between them is something to note.

This also comes to play in the novel when Peter’s daughters become friends with a family of travelers who are sometimes called gypsies. Of course this is lost on Peter who is extremely naive when it comes to the darker aspects of prejudice. Not that he is immune to them as is evidenced by an awkward phone conversation with Mina when it comes out he thought she was Indian because of her name.

“And Meena, is that an abbreviation of a longer name?”

”Whilhemina, I suppose, strictly, according to my birth certificate. But I’ve never been anything but Mina.”

This provoked not only a prolonged pause but actually what sounded suspiciously like muffled groan of anguish. OK, so it was a pretty stupid name – there had been plenty of piss-taking at school – but this did seem a rather extreme reaction.

Finally Peter spoke, and his voice sounded odd, almost as though he was laughing again. “I had imagined it as Meena with a double ‘e’, not Mina iwth an ‘i’.”

”Oh, right. Like the Indian name, do you mean"?”

In another incident, Peter comes face to face with preconceptions when there is an incident that results in the harassment of the travelers to the point of them deciding to move on and away from the growing hostility. Peter understands that it is due to prejudice, but is shocked at its appearance in his village. For a smart man, there are many things he still needs to learn.

It is this aspect of his personality, and Mina’s own struggles with not seeing things clearly in her own life, that brings the reader closer to each character. Neither of them are perfect, have ongoing problems, and see in each other someone who understands – regardless of their social or financial status.

Thus even though this book is geared toward a British audience, any reader will be able to identify with Thornton’s story and characters.

I would say the best statement that can be made about this book is that it is indeed about “coincidence” and “the things that separate us and the things that bring us together”. This is evident not only in the growing relationship between Peter and Mina, but between siblings, parents and their children, between friends.

This is what surprised me the most about this book. In a good way. From what you read on the jacket, you would think the story was only about Peter and Mina, but much of the book is about what happens around their growing friendship. And if any of you are single parents of nine or ten year olds (twins in Peter’s case), this is very realistic.

Another thing that was a pleasant difference is that I had to really think about those things that would be a detraction for a reader. Other than warning American readers that there will be terms and vernacular they are unfamiliar with, I can only come up with the shifting points of view within the story. However, each time it switches to Mina or Peter, there is a clear break in the narrative.

All in all, I have to say, that this book has left me with a very favorable impression of the writer and I’m hoping I can find her other books locally or order them. In addition, I hadn’t thought much of the romance genre as a whole. But if there are more like this story, and this writer, I will be changing my tune willingly and completely!

I am giving this 4 stars out of 5. I can’t say it is one that will have you on the edge of your seat, or will keep you up at night reading, but it will be something you will have trouble putting down and eager to pick it back up.

Rosy Thornton’s first novel, More Than Love Letters, was published in 2006, followed by Hearts and Minds in 2007. According to the author, she writes contemporary fiction of a type which you might either call romantic comedy with a hint of satire, or else social satire with a hint of romance.