Picked 'The Satanic Verses' over 'Lolita' for my book club and I'm glad I did

My local group in Portland was voting between two banned books last month: Rushdie's 'The Satanic Verses' and Nabokov's 'Lolita'. We went with Rushdie and holy moly, three members quit over it because they thought it was blasphemous. The discussions got super heated but honestly it made me realize how censorship hits different books in different countries. Iran had a fatwa on Rushdie for years while 'Lolita' gets banned in US schools for very different reasons. Has anyone else had a book club fall apart over a controversial pick like that?

2 comments

2 Comments

knight.diana17d ago

my buddy had almost the exact same thing happen with their book club in seattle. they picked lolita and this one mom in the group got super upset halfway through because she said it made her feel sick reading it from the girl's perspective. like she straight up walked out mid meeting and never came back. it got so awkward that the group just fizzled out after that because nobody wanted to pick the next book and risk another blowup. wild how a book can be about totally different things to different people.

kai_bennett17d ago

wait but is it really the book's fault that the group fell apart? i feel like the issue is more about people not being honest about what they can handle before joining a book club. lolita is literally one of the most famously controversial books out there, it's not like it's some hidden surprise. if you sign up for a club that picks heavy literature, you gotta be ready for heavy topics or just say "hey that's not for me" quietly instead of making it everyone else's problem. the mom walking out like that kind of killed the vibe for everyone, which seems a bit unfair to the rest of the group who were probably down to discuss it. picking books that challenge you is kinda the whole point of a book club imo, otherwise you're just reading fluff and nodding at each other.