Factor Separation Into the Divorce Equation

 Emily O. Gravett, "Factor Separation Into the Divorce Equation," [Modern Love] New York Times,  Oct. 16, 2022 p. ST6. 

Monomaniacal in that way children can be, she knows all about polar bears, and now, I guess, so do I.  Over time, I have checked out every book from the library with a polar bear on the cover....
In the book we have checked out most recently, "The Ice Bear," a polar bear cub is separated from his mother, transformed onto a boy, and raised for many years by human parents.  The mother bear cries over the loss of her cub and the tears etch scars onto her face.  I almost can't read this part aloud. 

COMMENT

The public library is an endless source of reading for children's obsessions.   In this case, a particular children's picture book also provides a metaphor for a parent's pain of divorce.  

Elizabeth Acevedo

 "Elizabeth Acevedo" [By the Book], New York Times Book Review, April 1, 2021, p 6. 

Most people describe their childhood reading habits as voracious, no? And in my case it still applies. Mami would take me to library every Saturday and as I grew older she attempted to shoo me outside more since I could lie in bed and read the day away.  I wound up taking the books with me and reading on the stoop instead.  

I loved all thing.  The "Baby-Sitters Club" books, "Because of Winn Dixie," "Miracle's Boys," Jacqueline Woodson.  "The House on Mango Street" was a game changer, as was Julia Alvarez's "Before We Were Free."

COMMENT 

Acevedo is an author of young adult novels with a typical Coming of Age story of weekly trips to the library.  She describes the books she found there as "game changers."   

By Observing the "Minutae of Life," Cleary Created the Universal Human Experience.

 Elisabth Egan, "By Observing th "Minutae of Life," Cleary Created the Universal Human Experience" New York Times,  March 28, 2021, p 20.

When [Judy] Blume's children were young she'd come home from the library with armloads of books "most of them went in the 'I don't want to write books like these, they bore me' pile," she recalled. "Then I came to Beverly Cleary and I fell off the sofa, I was laughing so hard.  I thought, oh my God, I want to write books like this."

COMMENT

 It's not a surprise to learn that Judy Blume was inspired by Beverly Cleary. I sometimes even confuse which author wrote which books.  For a children's author, the juvenile collection offers an opportunity for research into what other authors are writing.  The sad truth is, there are a lot of children's books that are poorly written, overly preachy or just plain dull.  Thank goodness for the influence of Clearly and Blume!

Beverly Cleary, Beloved Children’s Book Author, Dies at 104

 

William Grimes, "Beverly Cleary, Beloved Children’s Book Author, Dies at 104" New York Times March 26 2021. ://www.nytimes.com/2021/03/26/books/beverly-cleary-dead.html

After two years at Chaffey Junior College in Ontario, Calif., she enrolled at the University of California, Berkeley. She graduated in 1938. A year later, she earned a degree from the University of Washington’s school of librarianship and went to work as a children’s librarian in Yakima, Wash.

...

At her library job in Yakima, Ms. Cleary had become dissatisfied with the books being offered to her young patrons. She had been particularly touched by the plight of a group of boys who asked her, “Where are the books about us?” She had asked herself the same question when she was a schoolgirl. “Why didn’t authors write books about everyday problems that children could solve by themselves?” she wondered, as she recalled in her acceptance speech on receiving the Laura Ingalls Wilder Medal from the American Library Association in 1975. “Why weren’t there more stories about children playing? Why couldn’t I find more books that would make me laugh? These were the books I wanted to read, and the books I was eventually to write.”

COMMENT

Who knew Beverly Cleary was a librarian?   This is the first story of Finding Identity where these days the identity is not at all hard to find.   It hadn't occurred to me that before Cleary, children's books  didn't feature white suburban kids. 

Utah parents complained after kids were read a story about a transgender boy. Now other diverse books are on hold.

 Courtney Tanner, "Utah parents complained after kids were read a story about a transgender boy. Now other diverse books are on hold. Salt Lake Tribune," February 11, 2021, https://www.sltrib.com/news/education/2021/02/11/utah-parents-complained/?fbclid=IwAR1LgTnXZE7lCX9LKgaRrK7xLh4bweSHmCu7rKg1k0mNrgfsCFBKQZ7PAZ0

     It’s not the first time there’s been concern about Utah schools having LGBTQ books. In 2012, a picture book about a lesbian couple raising a child was removed from the shelves of elementary school libraries in Davis County after a group of parents there raised objections.

     But Murray School District is taking its response a step further, now reviewing all of the literature in its “equity book bundles” program — even though “Call Me Max” is not part of that initiative and is not in any of the district’s libraries. It was only in the classroom because the student had a copy.

...

     The move also comes after a separate Montessori school in North Ogden was allowing parents to “opt out” of the curriculum around Black History Month, but later reversed that decision after facing community pushback.Perry said that many books by Black authors and about people of color will still be available for teachers and kids to read, including “Of Thee I Sing” by former President Barack Obama, as well as picture books about Rosa Parks and Frederick Douglass.
     Some of those also appear on the equity book bundle lists and will remain on the shelves even with the program temporarily suspended, Perry added. Nothing will be pulled until the review is completed.
     “Anything in our libraries is fair game for teachers to use right now, including many books that are in the bundle program,” Perry added. “In fact, the bundle program is by no means an exhaustive list of books on equity. Our libraries have many others.”

     The equity book bundles effort began this fall. Under it, an elementary school is given a copy of the 38 books on the district’s list. The list was curated by Vanessa Jobe, a vice principal at Horizon Elementary where the program started. It includes works by diverse authors, including Ibram Kendi, and on diverse topics, such as what it means to grow up in a Latino family or to live with a disability. It’s meant to encourage educators to incorporate the stories into their lessons.

COMMENT

    An effort to present diverse books to schoolchildren runs into the kind of prejudice that makes it so important for schoolchildren to have diverse books. 

 

 

Inside the List

 Elisabeth Egan. Inside the List. [Angie Thomas].  New York Times Book Review, February 7, 2021, p.20.

     Suddenly, my editor texts to tell me that Dr. Jill Biden shouted me out at the American Library Association midwinter conference!  She said she just bought 'The Hate U Give."
     Thomas consulted social media, where she'd been tagged by teachers and librarians and was able to see a video clip of the moment.  She said, "What shocked be was, this novel about a 16-year-old girl dealing with police brutality found its way into the hands of the first lady of the United States.   Had you told little Angie that 20-something years ago, she wouldn't have believed she wrote something that made it that far-- that this little Black girl in Mississippi whose family sometimes didn't know if they would have food would have a book in the White House."

COMMENT

     Teachers and librarians have the ability to promote worthy books.  In this issue of the NYT Book Review, "The Hate U Give" is #4 on the Children's Best Sellers list, with 204 weeks on the list.   Clearly, Thomas' book  already made a huge impact even before Dr. Jill Biden mentioned it in her keynote.  Still, the knowledge that the first lady has read the book offers a hopeful chance that it's message might result in actual social change. 

This Election, Mom Knows Best

 Bret Stephens. This Election, Mom Knows Best. New York Times.  Nov. 3, 2020. p.A31.

The culture that's been cheapened is the one she encountered in midcentury America.  She learned English by reading Archie and Jughead comics, then Nancy Drew mysteries at a New York public library.  In high school, Theodore Dreiser ("barely literate, but a great writer") awakened her to the power of socially engaged literature, as did John Steinbeck.  Her movie crushes were Gary Cooper in "High Noon" and Robert Taylor in "Quo Vadis."

COMMENT

She is the author's grandmother Xenia who immigrated from Russia in 1950 at age 10.  Children's literature at the  library became a way for her to adapt to her new home. Comics and Nancy Drew were a gateway for high school literature. 

The Chekhov of Suburban Connecticut

Gal Beckerman, "The Chekhov of Suburban Connecticut," New York Times Book Review, July 12, 2020 p. 14.

     So deep is my remembered shame that men now, sitting at my keyboard at the age of 43, I'm blushing.  I know that times have changed, that today boys can like whatever they like, are even applauded for it.  But in the 1980's, when it seemed the only real option s for me were "The Hobbit" or the Hardy Boys or choose Your Own Adventure books, stories that as I recall all involved dragons and trap doors and motorcycle chases, sneaking home one of Ann Martin's books about a group of 12-year-old girls from fictional Stoneybrook, Conn., felt like a crime.  I mean, all of the covers were pastel. 

     It was a moment.  I think I read the first 15 books in the series over the course of fourth grade; whatever was in my school's library-- and I certainly didn't share my enthusiasm then with another soul.

 

 COMMENT

     The division between "boy books" and "girl books" is remembered as a shameful enthusiasm for books in "The Babysitters Club" series.  Luckily, these books were available from the school library.  How a 9-year-old boy worked up the nerve to check them out, the author does not say. 

     

Cheryl Strayed

Cheryl Strayed [By the Book], New York Times Book Review, Feb. 16, 2020, p. 8.

About 20 years ago my husband, Brian, and I were in Antigua, Guatemala, when I became desperately ill with a stomach parasite.  For days, I could do nothing but lie in bed in the cheap hotel where we had a room.  Brian found an English-language lending library nearby that would allow you to check out two books at a time for a small fee.  He brought back the first two installments of Stephen King's serialized novel, "The Green Mile," and read them out loud to me.  When we were done, he returned them and checked out the next tow and so on until we'd gotten through all six.  Brian and I have a long history of reading books out loud to watch other, but that one was especially bonding.  His steady voice guided me back to life.
...
In elementary school, they used to hand out catalogs form the Scholastic publishing company that allowed you to order books that would then be delivered to you at school.  I'd study those catalogs for hours and meticulously fill out the order form on the back, as if I could buy them.  But I couldn't.  I never turned in the forms because my family was too poor to pay for the books.  It's such a visceral memory, aching for those books!  The public libraries and school libraries saved me, as did my mother's bookshelf.  I read everything that looked even a little bit interesting. 

COMMENT

 Not one but two library stories.  The first is about the relief of finding English books in a non-English country.  It helps to understand what a relief it mush be for people with non-English first languages to find non-English books in American libraries.

In the second story, a young reader is too poor to buy cheap paperbacks from the Scholastic catalog.  when I was a kid I was allowed to order books and I absolutely loved getting my new stack of them.  The books where printed on acidic paper and fell apart if you read them too many times, but that was mostly OK because the old ones quickly became too childish.

The Cancer Chair

Christian Wiman, "The Cancer Chair: is Suffering Meaningless?" Harper's Magazine, February 2020, pp. 51-57.

Frustrated with the line between life and literature, Svetlana Alexievich sought a form that fused the two.  From interviews, letters, bits of history that History did not want, she complied The Unwomanly Face of War: An Oral History of Women in World War II, which I once picked off a library cart while my daughters searched for graphic novels.  That's where I learned about the radio operator drowning her own infant.  And the "sniper girls" who, as they became more expert at death, found themselves more susceptible to love.  And the woman who, among all the atrocities, thought nothing so awful as the neighing of wounded horses ("They're not guilty of anything, they don't answer for human deeds.").

COMMENT

      By serendipity, the author discovers horrifying tales of suffering in the safe space of the library where his kids are looking for something fun to read.  He teaches a course for divinity students on the Book of Job and the nature of human suffering, so had a predilection towards this sort of reading.  Nonetheless, without the library cart he might never have found this particular book with it's haunting stories.

Larry Kramer

Larry Kramer [By the Book], New York Times Book Review, January 19, 2020.

What kind of reader were you as a child?  Which childhood books and authors stick with you most?
As a kid I as a voracious visitor to Washington's main public library. I loved reading plays that Arena Stage performed across the street.  Plays were more fun to read then.  I also loved the Hardy boys and Nancy Drew series.  Nancy was more fun.

COMMENT

    Hardy boys and Nancy Drew are standard choices, but the plays are not.  It's actually quite difficult to read plays and imagine what they might look like on stage.  Perhaps the fact that Kramer had already seen the plays was helpful.  It must have been fascinating to a kid that you could watch a play and then go across the street to read the source material.

N. Mexico Author Delivers Books to Migrants

Angela Kochera, "N. Mexico Author Delivers Books to Migrants," Salt Lake Tribune (original to Albuquerque Journal), January 7, 2020, p. A6.

     Along with giving books to migrant children and their families, the book drive helps a small library that serves children in Mexico living in Anapra.
     Chavez, Lenander and volunteers with the Border Servant Corps make monthly visits to the Biblioteca para la Vida to participate in Saturday morning storytelling sessions.
     "The kids will come in their pajamas and just put blankets and pillows all over the floor," Lenander said.
    In December, the children each got their own book bag with a book and toy and celebrated the season with a piñata shaped like a big book.  Chavez read from "Dragones y Tacos" during he Christmas party as the kids munched on tacos. 

COMMENT

    The article describes a project called Libros para el Viaje that collects books in English, Spanish and Portuguese for migrants at the U.S./Mexico border.  Part of the project is a children's library located in Mexico that offers story time, community, food, books to keep and a small sense of normalcy for migrant children.  The books help migrants pass the time,  and provide language practice, but most importantly they are a deeply humane gift.
    The Biblioteca para la Vida provides an opportunity for volunteers to hold story time.  The books and stories become a connection between people who might otherwise never meet each other.

Educated

Tara Westover, Educated: A Memoir, 2018.

Sometimes, when she was delivering herbs, if we’d finished our chores, Mother would  drop us at the Carnegie library in the center of town.  The basement had a room full of children’s books, which we read.  Richard even took books from upstairs, books for adults, with heavy titles about history and science.    Learning in our family was entirely self-directed: you could learn anything you could teach yourself, after your work was done.  Some of us were more disciplined than others. I was one of the least disciplined, so by the time I was ten, the only subject I had studied systematically was Morse code because Dad insisted that I learn it.  [p.46-47]

...

     I stared at them as if they were behind glass. I’d never heard anyone e use the word “feminism” as anything but a reprimand. At BYU, “You sound like a feminist” signaled the end of the argument.  It also signaled that I had lost.
     I left the café and went to the library.  After five minutes online and a few trips to the stacks, I was sitting in my usual place with a large pile of books written by what I now understood to be second-wave writers — Betty Friedan, Germaine Greer, Simone de Beauvoir.  I read only a few pages of each book before slamming it shut.  I’d never seen the word “vagina” printed out, never said it aloud.
     I returned to the Internet and then to the shelves, where I exchanged the books of the second wave for those that preceded the first— Mary Wollstonecraft and John Stuart Mill.  I read though the afternoon and into the evening, developing for the first time a vocabulary for the uneasiness I’d felt since childhood. [pp. 258-259].

COMMENT

   The first story from Westover’s childhood describes using the children’s collection as a kind of babysitter.  The kids were inconsistently homeschooled, and the shelf of library books didn’t compensate for a lack of educational direction.

    In the second library story Westover is enrolled in college and realizing how many things she doesn’t know about.  This time the library reveals its secrets. The books offer a vocabulary to talk about feminism that was not available in small town Idaho nor at a Mormon religious university. 

Christian Doomsayers Have Lost It

Peter Wehner, “Christian Doomsayers Have Lost It” New York Times, December 8, 2019, p. SR3.

Sohrab Ahmari— a convert to Catholicism who is both the op-ed editor of The New York Post and a contributor to the religious magazine First Things— was so outraged that drag queens were reading stories to children at a library in Sacramento that he has relegated civility to a secondary virtue while turning against modernity and classical liberalism “To hell with liberal order,” as Mr. Ahmari put it. “Sometimes reactionary politics are the only salutary path.”

COMMENT

     Judging by the political behavior of Trumpist Christians, you’d think that enforcing stereotypical gender roles was a foundational principle of Christian religion. Mr. Wehner suggests that such prejudice is, in fact, contrary to a practice of spirituality, joy, gratitude, kindness and healing grace.

    As a target of self-appointed morality police the library takes on two roles that appear in other library stories: 1) a target of censorship 2)  a defender of free speech and diversity.

Work Friend

Megan Greenwell, “Work Friend: A Closed Mind Amid Open Books,” New York Times, August 11, 2019, p. BU3.

The library recently hired a new children’s department head who has told me that she doesn’t believe in evolution and doesn’t think public schools are good and that “Mexicans don’t read.” She talks about religion constantly and has added several creationist “science” books and DVDs to our library collection.

COMMENT

     This library problem comes from the work-related advice column. The library profession generates “vocational awe” but some librarians are nonetheless incompetent.  Other library stories relate encounters with racist librarians and it’s clear that a librarian with this kind of attitude has potential to cause actual harm.  It's especially hard to get rid of people who have been given administrative positions.  No matter how bad they are, administrators somehow make themselves immune from accountability.

     A professional standard of neutrality is meant to keep personal bias from bubbling to the surface, but it can’t stop someone who won’t accept the standard.  I once got into a debate at a library conference with a librarian who wanted to preach anti-abortion from the reference desk. My point of view is that the best way to approach controversial topics is to get students to identify the stakeholders— the right answer is not to take sides but to encourage patrons to determine who cares about the issue and why. This librarian wanted to use the platform of the reference desk to “guide” patrons towards her own preferred political position. In any case, stocking the shelves with science-denial is not objectivity but just false equivalency.  There are not two sides when one side is simply wrong.   Academic libraries might have creationist propaganda for research reasons, but even so it's problematic because cataloging rules can make fake information look legitimate.  If we want to combat ignorance librarians shouldn’t be spreading fake news, even if there are people out there who want to read it. 

Local Programs Fire Up Readers

Scott D. Pierce and Sheila McCann. Local Programs Fire Up Readers, Salt Lake Tribune, May 31, 2019, p. D1-

     Schools are wrapping up, the weather is warming up, and June is a day away.  Another clear sign of summer: Libraries, businesses and others are gearing up to engage and reward summer readers.…     The theme of this year’s challenge is “A Universe of Stories,” honoring the 50th anniversary of the Apollo moon landing.     Last year, almost 28,000 kids from infants to age 12 sing up along with 7,500 teens and more than 23,000 adults, said Liz Sollis, communications manager for the [Salt Lake] county library system. “We’ve actually seen a huge increase in adult participation over the last few years, “ she said.

…    

Four reading trackers for its summer reading program are available: Babies & Toddlers, Kids, Teens, and Adults, each with suggested activities.  The [Salt Lake City] system also suggests going paperless by using its Beanstack site online or by downloading the Beanstack app. 

COMMENT

This article is a local tie-in to one reprinted from the Washington Post.[1]  It lists summer reading programs at local libraries, businesses and other organizations that offer prizes and rewards for reading.  

   As an avid reader, I feel somewhat skeptical about the effectiveness of rewards.  I mean, to me getting time to sit and concentrate on reading already seems like a pretty big reward. However, it’s clear that the programs are popular and they serve a purpose if they make reading fun again. Museum and sports events tickets, free books, and food rewards might work for some people. Choosing what to read may also be the first step in developing self-directed lifelong learning skills that aren’t dependent on classroom teaching.

    The Salt Lake Public Library system is pushing a digital book subscription, which also seems questionable.  Unless kids are using a dedicated e-reader, anything on screens offers far too many distractions that interrupt reading.  Use of ebooks probably also means fewer trips to the library and consequently less immersion in the possibilities such as audio books or graphic novels.  In many library stories, a profound coming-of-age experience happens when kids first move from the juvenile section to the regular stacks.  That transition simply can’t happen online. 

   Digital reading seems even more dubious when it comes from an overtly commercial source.  Scholastic Read-a-Palooza, described in the article,  is an online summer reading program that logs the number of minutes kids read and unlocks digital rewards.  This is beginning to sound a lot less like pleasure and a lot more like the usual schoolwork drudgery, specially if parents can spy on reading minutes. Personally, I would not suggest going paperless. I’d suggest that the long, lazy days of summer are the perfect time to immerse oneself in the kind of absorbing deep reading experience that only print can offer.  The real purpose of summer reading, after all, is not to do better on standardized tests but to rediscover the joy of reading books that are not homework. 

[1] How to Draw ‘em In.

Rear

How to Draw 'em In

Karen McPherson, How to Draw ‘em In: Here’s a Magic Formula to Keep Your Kids Reading Through the Summer. [Special to the Washington Post] Salt Lake Tribune, May 31, 2019, p. D1-

It’s a challenge for parents to make reading a pleasurable priority in their family’s life.  But summertime actually is a perfect— an crucial— time to experiment with some of the following strategies, recommended by children’s librarians and reading experts.…Many children’s librarians also recommend adding a “game” aspect to reading. Signing kids up for summer reading programs at the local public library is one easy way to do this.

COMMENT

     The paradox of reading is, it’s one of the most enjoyable of all possible ways to spend time but when kids have to read for school they resist.  Too much screen time also seems to be discouraging kids from reading. The Kids and Family Reading Report (2019) says that 14% of kids ages 9-11 read no books during the summer— double the number since 2016. [1] Reading is essential to educational success, and librarians are cited as experts on how to make reading fun again with the following strategies:

• Let kids choose
• Expand the definition of reading
• Make it a family priority
• Make reading social
• Make it a game

The writer also suggests signing kids up for summer reading programs.  It’s probably not just the prize incentives, but frequent summer trips to the library that encourage reading. Shelves of graphic novels are irresistible, even for many kids who think they don’t like reading. 

[1] Kids and Family Reading Report 7th ed. (2019).

Children's Books / Graphic Novels

Victoria Jamieson, “Children’s Books/ Graphic Novels,” New York Times Book Review, March 10, 2019 p. 18.

Craft invites us into the world of Jordan Banks, one of the few African-American students at a fancy private school. As a realistic graphic novel starring a kid of color, “New Kid” is a desperately needed addition to middle-grade library collections everywhere. This funny, heartwarming and sometimes cringe-inducing take on middle school is sure to resonate deeply with its young audience. 

COMMENT

    The reviewer, who is described in a note as “the author and illustrator of several graphic novels for young readers,” imagines this book about a middle-schooler in a middle school library where it could be discovered by kids who would see themselves in the story. This suggestion shows a canny understanding of how library collections facilitate both diversity and self-discovery.  If an adult handed this book to a kid it might be taken as a heavy-handed message.  If kids find it themselves it may seem like it was written just for them.  A savvy librarian might put a book like this on display  in the school library and simply wait for the right kids to find it. 

     

     

Donna Leon [Interview]

“Donna Leon" (By the Book) [interview], New York Times Book Review, March 10, 2019, p. 7.

What kind of reader were you as a child?I loved books about animals (and still do: Sy Montgomery’s “The Soul of an Octopus” [1] is a dream)  and about ancient history. When I was about 7, I complained to my mother that I had nothing to do. She did not hesitate but drove me immediately to the local library and took me to the children’s room and told me I could take home five books. The first was a book about Egypt, with pictures. I remember realizing that the whole world was there, in that small room.

COMMENT

Here’s yet another coming-of-age-at-the-library story — that memorable moment when a child is allowed for the first time to chose her own library books and take them home. Leon's memory of the event is so clear she remembers the details right down to the number of books she was allowed to take and what those books were about.

Leon describes a feeing of awe to think that books contain the whole world. Perhaps it’s not just the knowledge and stories inside of books, but also a newfound sense of responsibility that creates such indelible childhood library memories.  Children given the freedom to choose books are also asked to take care of them and return them on time. In a sense,  the rules of the library make them into guardians of the whole world.

[1] Sy Montgomery, The soul of an octopus: A surprising exploration into the wonder of consciousness. Simon and Schuster, 2015.

Teen Fiction and the Perils of Cancel Culture

Jenifer Senior, “Teen Fiction and the Perils of Cancel Culture,” New York Times, March 10, 2019, p. SF5.

     If the book-buying public had found “A Place for Wolves” as criminally distasteful and insensitive as Twitter did, it would have sunk the novel in slower, more deliberate ways. Librarians would have read it and taken a pass. Bookstore owners would have decided it wasn’t worth the space. Book critics would have savaged it— or worse, ignored it.
     It should have failed or succeeded in the marketplace of ideas. But it was never giver the chance. The mob got to it first.

COMMENT

     The librarian role in this editorial is somewhere between censor and anti-censor— a type of objective reader able to judge the book by literary standards and/or market potential, not a knee-jerk reaction to identity politics. The proposed  antidote to rabid crowd-sourced Internet mobs is a professional class of critics to help sort out literary dross. As a librarian and book reviewer I appreciate the vote of confidence!

     The editorial describes a Twitter mob attack on a YA novel by Kosoko Jackson by people who had never read the book but who objected to the way a particular ethnic group was portrayed. Ironically, Jackson had seen himself as a defender against cultural appropriation, even developing “rules” for writers that claimed fiction must, for some reason, reflect the identity of its author (isn’t that autobiographical non-fiction?):“Stories about the civil rights movement should be written by black people. Stories of suffrage should be written by women. Ergo, stories about boys during life-changing times, like the AIDS epidemic, should be written by gay men. Why is this so hard to get?”

     It’s so hard to get because it is not just wrong but absurdly wrong. Who has authority to declare which contemporary identity groups own which parts of history? Not only does the idea of identity censorship undermine the artistic possibilities of fiction, striving to avoid stereotypes at any cost has the unfortunate side effect of erasing authentic diversity.[1]  If authors were only allowed to write autobiographical fiction about people just like  themselves, we’d just get nothing but segregated books.

     Jackson seems to have fallen into the identity politics trap by assuming that cis-gendered white people are value-neutral regardless of ethnic, national or religious identity. Perhaps that false idea led him all unawares to write about the complicated and violent identity politics of the Balkans, seemingly without po0ndering the meaning of the word “Balkanization.”

[1] See: Autism as Metaphor.  Which is worse? To find people like you in books reduced to caricature or metaphor? or not to find people like you in books at all?