LULA DEAN’S LITTLE LIBRARY OF BANNED BOOKS
Kirsten Miller
William Morrow
304 pages
In the tiny town of Troy, Georgia, local crusader Lula Dean and her Concerned Parents Committee take it upon themselves to rid the town’s public library and school libaries of what they deem inappropriate books. Which is a real headache for Lula Dean’s perennial nemesis since high school, Beverly Underwood, who also happens to be head of the local school board.Lula Dean goes a step further and replaces the “pornographic” books with her own little library of more wholesome books, out in her front yard.
What she doesn’t know is that in the opening pages, someone sneaks in and replaces them all with banned books, cloaked in the wholesome books’ dust jackets.
The Southern Belle’s Guide to Etiquette actually contains A Girl’s Guide to the Revolution. Our Confederate Heroes conceals Beloved, and so forth.
Each chapter is named after a banned book, and in most of them a different citizen of Troy comes up and takes what they think will be an interesting or at least inocuous read, and soon finds their lives changed, or at least broadened, by the actual books they unexpectedly received. Through a bit of serendipity (and artistic license), each banned book turns out to be exactly what that person most needed to read right then, often spurring them to act on their newfound insights. Each chapter is set around a different book and the person discovering it, the events that spring from those books, or the resulting mayhem when the truth comes out.
These episodes also serve to gradually reveal the townspeople’s inter-related lives and histories. Past and present events wind up weaving compelling subplots around the books. As salon owner Val remarks, “Shit that’s stayed settled for decades is getting all stirred up.” Indeed, and also spiraling the whole town toward Beverly and Lula Dean’s inevitable showdown.
North Carolina native Kirsten Miller deftly balances comedy with the serious nature of book bans and small town politics, but never comes off as preachy or polemic. Sure, it’s a feelgood morality tale, but also a love letter to reading and the power of books, as well as a playful jab at censorship and pearl-clutchers.
She also manages real empathy for all the townspeople, who sometimes have surprising, compelling reasons for they things they do and the things they think about one another. The book also emphasizes a hopeful note of what our better nature can make possible.
In light of recent events, this hilarious yet heartfelt, even courageous, book is all the more needed and appreciated. When I started it, I found it amusing. By the time I finished, it was downright therapeutic. –L.J. Gouveia
But that’s the thing about jokes, Beverly realized. The fact that they’re funny doesn’t make them any less serious. Lindsay’s little prank had started a chain reaction. The books she’d put in that library had opened eyes, granted courage, and exposed terrible crimes. That’s why they were dangerous— why so many people wanted to hide them.
Author website: kirstenmillerbooks.com/