The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain

“All modern American literature comes from one book by Mark Twain called Huckleberry Finn,” Hemingway tells us, but John Wallace says, “The reading aloud of Huck Finn in our classrooms is humiliating and insulting to black students.” From the moment it was published, The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn inspired both praise and condemnation. Despite...

The Blind Assassin by Margaret Atwood

“I like long novels,” I overheard a bookstore clerk say years ago. “I like long novels that span years and in which characters change and grow.” Though I don’t believe she was talking about Margaret Atwood’s The Blind Assassin, she could’ve been. This is a family saga that spans several generations, but it mostly...