I like the sound of your Aunt,

But the John Birch Society are not the only political nutjobs involved in book-banning. Many well-meaning but equally stupid groups on the Left also play this game. Look at how often “Huckleberry Finn” has appeared on lists like this. You may not be familiar with this work, but it was set in the the pre-Civil War slave states, and is told from the point of view of the title character. Huck, just a child. is a fugitive (along with his companion Jim, a runaway slave) traveling south on a raft on the Mississippi River. The book is not overtly political (neither Huck nor Jim can even imagine a world without chattel slavery), but the reader is allowed to reach his own conclusions as the pair travels farther and further into the deep South. You will recall, being “sold down the river” was the terror of every slave. It meant leaving behind the potential freedom and safety of the free states in the North.

I’ve told this story here before, Pebble, but I thought you might like to hear it…

In 1954, my aristocratic, rich Cuban aunt took her summer vacation on Miami Beach. She invited me along to translate for her. One day, after having breakfast at a drugstore lunch counter on Collins Avenue, she noticed a paperback copy of “Huckleberry Finn” on the rack next to the register. She paid for the book and handed it to me, saying, “Read this, it’s the only piece of literature your country has produced.”