From Bookslut, a great list of books that nutty American parents attempted to have removed - with some success - from the vicinity of their children this year, including this beautifully ironic story..
Balzac and the Little Chinese Seamstress by Dai Sijie
The book, whose plot hinges on two Chinese teenagers stealing a suitcase of books banned by the government during the Cultural Revolution, contained a passage about a virgin having sex. The superintendent of the Federal Way (WA) school system pulled the book from school reading lists after the mother of a 15-year-old student complained. The school board has asked schools in the district to submit reading lists for approval, and wrote up a policy explicitly forbidding sexually explicit materials in schools.
The book, whose plot hinges on two Chinese teenagers stealing a suitcase of books banned by the government during the Cultural Revolution, contained a passage about a virgin having sex. The superintendent of the Federal Way (WA) school system pulled the book from school reading lists after the mother of a 15-year-old student complained. The school board has asked schools in the district to submit reading lists for approval, and wrote up a policy explicitly forbidding sexually explicit materials in schools.
Our collective talent for hilarious hypocrisy continues to astound me.
