Of all the books that are currently bought and read, we do most of the buying and the reading. I’m thinking particularly of popular fiction by women, for women, and about women which, in my opinion, is too often the butt of jokes, the butt of critique, or is flat out ignored by those with reviewing powers.
These books may not be barred from the shelves, but they are brushed under the rug like an unsightly dust bunny by the media literati. But what really interests me – and enrages me – is the way so many books, while not banned, continue to be shunned, demeaned, and denigrated by the book-reviewing establishment. It’s completely understandable to me that banning a book, and thus banning our freedom to read what we wish and write what we wish, causes so much furor. When it was recently rumored that vice-presidential candidate Sarah Palin wanted a list of books banned from her local library in Alaska, a media whirlwind ensued and now when you google “Palin and banned books” you find hundreds, if not thousands, of posts on the matter. I’m secretly hoping my debut novel The Professors’ Wives’ Club might be banned for inciting groups of women to rise up and fight mean deans who threaten to bulldoze beloved faculty gardens!Įven the mere mention of banning books is enough to whip up a storm. Indeed, if your book gets banned for any reason, your future sales record will probably look very rosy (I hear Salman Rushdie has a very nice New York pad, thank very much). The Professors' Wives' ClubBanned books never go quietly into the night.
We’re delighted to have her as a guest this week, and happy to have her write on our theme this week–banned books.
Her much-anticipated debut novel, “The Professors’ Wives’ Club,” recently launched to wonderful reviews. Joanne Rendell Joanne Rendell has been a friend of the Debs for a long time–and several of the 2008 Debs got to spend time with her in San Francisco at a conference last summer.
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