3 out of 4 stars
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The Banned Book About Love, by Scott Hughes, is an edgy commentary about the human capacity for both love and hate. The underlying train of thought is the idea of “love thy neighbor” (no matter what a monster they may be) and that it is much easier and tempting to hate rather than to fight through the hardships and difficulty to love unconditionally. Hughes offers some very intriguing truths about the human relations that will stick with you as profound; however, it is understandable why amazon might have banned the book as his method of presenting his ideas are harsh and easily offensive.
This book truly made me think about the people around me and more importantly about how I internalize elements of my relationships with others. His explanation of both love and hate resonates as truthful and brutally honest, which is easy to appreciate because it forces the reader to self-reflect and empathize with others. When you look beyond Hughes’ approach for presentation of his ideas to the ideas themselves, he has clearly analyzed the tendencies of human nature and the capacity for humans to love and hate. For a week afterward, I found myself repeating his main ideas to friends and colleagues as I embraced the ideology.
On the other hand, the book is written in such a way that would absolutely turn off the sensitive or conservative reader. It is very harsh and in-your-face in the method of explaining his ideals. For example, he opens the book by promoting love and respect for a well-known rapist who was perceived as getting off from his charges with a slap on the hands. He outright judges those who have hateful feelings toward this rapist and then comes off as superior for promoting love for this man. His approach for explanation is very passive-aggressive and alienating for the reader.
Beyond the offensive, there are other elements that diminish the quality of the text. One is that the rapist example is not a big enough case to pass the test of time. While people today would be aware of the reference, in five or ten years, the case will have lost its timeliness or relevance to readers. Additionally, there are sections where Hughes brings in religion and politics; yet, these elements seem contrived because the text reads as a personal essay and then shifts to exposition and persuasion in these two sections. It breaks the flow of the commentary.
This book rates a 3 out of 4 stars in my opinion only because I appreciated the underlying message and it resonated with me for days after. I don’t think a book needs to be polite and nurturing to the readers’ emotions to present extremely valid and insightful thoughts. In fact, sometimes riling up the audience is the best way to make them think. Through conflict, we grow. I did not give the book a four because of the elements that I have previously explained: the aggressive nature of the writing; the awkward inclusion of religion and politics; and abrupt shift between personal narrative and persuasive expository writing. Despite these problems, the underlying message was poignant and relevant; it resonated with me and kept me thinking for days after. For this reason, there is no way I would give the book a 2 star rating.
This book would appeal to adults because of the level of philosophical analysis. The points made would certainly miss the consciousness of most teen readers, and even a few adult readers. I think the truly ideal audience would be the educated adult because they are able to discern the harsh metaphors in the text from the valuable message that the author intends. Despite the presentation, as a reader I am better for the contemplation of the author's message.
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The Banned Book about Love
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