Lula Dean’s Little Library of Banned Books

by Kirsten Miller

It was sheer luck that he happened to glance at Lula Dean’s library as he passed. Lula was one of the people Delvin went out of his way to avoid. She’d greet him at the door on a hot day. Offer him lemonade and yammer on about the weather. Meanwhile she was making lists of books that Delvin’s kids shouldn’t be allowed to read. When you have everything, the only luxury left is taking things away from others. It was an indulgence that Lula Dean certainly seemed to relish.

Beverley was reminded of the advice the town librarian had given her all those years ago. You get to choose whose footsteps you’ll follow, Jeanette Newman had told the young Beverly. Find a set that went in the right direction.

My complicated relationship with the South is something I think about every day. There is so much to love about the Southeastern states—and so much that hurts my soul. But I want to make it perfectly clear that the issues addressed in this novel—book banning, white nationalism, anti-Semitism, etc.—are by no means unique to the South. These are American problems. Pretending they only occur in the South has allowed them to flourish unchecked elsewhere in the United States.