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9 Must-Read Banned Books

Blood and Guts in High School by Kathy Acker

Steeped in controversy starting from its first publication in 1984 and banned in Germany for obscenity, Blood and Guts in High School is the novel that made Kathy Acker the preeminent voice of post-punk feminism and the cult icon she is. It follows a young girl named Janey through her exploits as she grows up in Mexico City, moves to New York, and eventually flees to Tangiers where she starts a torrid affair that leads to her demise. Fantastical, sensual, and fearlessly radical, this hallucinatory collage is both a comic and tragic portrait of erotic awakening.

“Kathy Acker’s writing is virtuoso, maddening, crazy, so sexy, so painful, and beaten out of a wild heart that nothing can tame. Acker is a landmark writer.”—Jeanette Winterson

Naked Lunch by William S. Burroughs

Released from Grove in 1962 after a three-year censorship battle in which Grove argued for its social and literary value, Naked Lunch has survived numerous banning attempts. In some editions, court transcripts from the obscenity trials were in included. One of the most important novels of the twentieth century, Naked Lunch reshaped not just literature but American culture through its take on art and obscenity. Composed of a series of vignettes that mostly follow opioid addict William Lee in brief glimpses of his life, Naked Lunch is a sharp, satirical look at humanity.

“A masterpiece. A cry from hell, a brutal, terrifying, and savagely funny book that swings between uncontrolled hallucination and fierce, exact satire.” —Newsweek

Heart Sutra by Yan Lianke

Heart Sutra is the newest work by Yan Lianke to be published in English, although it remains unpublished in his native China. Set at the Religious Training Center on the campus of Beijing’s National Politics University, a year of intensive study and training devolves into corruption and chaos as the center director organizes tug-of-war competitions between the disciples of Buddhism, Daoism, Protestantism, Catholicism, and Islam. Illustrated throughout with beautiful original papercuts, Heart Sutra is a stunning and timely novel that highlights the best and worst in mankind and interrogates the costs of division.

“A warm-hearted, if not gentle, satire that skewers religious institutions without mocking faith itself . . . Heart Sutra starts out seeming like a romantic comedy; by its end, it has moved through absurdity, darkness, and body horror into a strange and flickering form of hope.”—Lily Meyer, NPR

Tropic of Cancer by Henry Miller

Banned in the US, Canada, Scotland, Australia, and Finland, Tropic of Cancer was eventually deemed non-obscene by the Supreme Court in 1964 (twenty-three years after its first publication in 1934) and paved the way for literary free speech. This is the first volume of Miller’s famed mixture of memoir and fiction, which chronicles with unapologetic gusto the bawdy adventures of a young expatriate writer, his friends, and the characters they meet in Paris in the 1930s.

“There is an eager vitality and exuberance to the writing which is exhilarating; a rush of spirit into the world as though all the sparkling wines have been uncorked at once; we watchfully hear the language skip, whoop and wheel across Miller’s page.”—William H. Gass, The New York Times Book Review

Waiting for Godot by Samuel Beckett

Banned in East Germany and Guantanamo Bay, people can only speculate as to why Waiting for Godot was subject to a ban in these two places—the reasons were never given. This play by Irish playwright Samuel Beckett is considered genius and a masterpiece by critics while also leaving audiences bewildered by its absurdity. It has become one of the most important and enigmatic plays of the past fifty years and a cornerstone of twentieth-century drama.

“One of the most noble and moving plays of our generation, a threnody of hope deceived and deferred but never extinguished; a play suffused with tenderness for the whole human perplexity; with phrases that come like a sharp stab of beauty and pain.”—The Times (London)

Querelle by Jean Genet

Banned in France, Querelle is regarded by many critics as Jean Genet’s highest achievement in the novel–certainly one of the landmarks of postwar French literature. The story of a dangerous man seduced by danger, it deals in a startling way with the Dostoevskian theme of murder as an act of total liberation, and as a pact demanding an answering sacrifice.

“Querelle is a sailor, assassin, dealer in opium, homosexual, thief, and traitor . . . Genet takes seriously the threat latent in sexuality, and drags us with him to a confrontation with the basest of angels.” —Michael Levenson, Harper’s Magazine

Candy by Terry Southern and Mason Hoffenberg

Banned in France upon its first publication, Candy, a satire of Voltaire’s Candide, is a lusty romp of a story centered around the impossibly sweet Candy Christian, a wide-eyed, luscious, all-American girl. It chronicles her adventures with mystics, sexual analysts, doctors, and everyone else she meets when she breaks ties with her family and sets out to experience the world. Criticized for its scandalous content, Candy nonetheless sold thousands of copies, dazzled readers, and won Southern a reputation that will never die.

“Wickedly funny to read and morally bracing as only good satire can be.”—William Styron

City of Night by John Rechy

First published in 1963, City of Night ended up on several censorship lists during the 1960s and 1970s. Bold and inventive in style, Rechy is unflinching in his portrayal of one hustling “youngman” and his search for self-knowledge within the neon-lit world of hustlers, drag queens, and the denizens of their world. As the narrator moves from El Paso to Times Square, from Pershing Square to the French Quarter, Rechy delivers a portrait of the edges of America that has lost none of its power to move and exhilarate.

“Rechy’s tone rings absolutely true, is absolutely his own, and he has the kind of discipline which allows him a rare and beautiful recklessness . . . This is a most humbling and liberating achievement.”—James Baldwin

Malcolm X Speaks edited by George Breitman

Though this specific book has never been banned, Malcolm X faced speaking bans and censorship in the US and abroad throughout his life as an activist against racial inequality. This collection of speeches documents his changing vision of racial equality and is a testament to the enduring power of his words. Now reissued with an introduction by Ibram X. Kendi, author of How to Be an Antiracist and Stamped from the Beginning, this edition of Malcolm X Speaks is a more-essential-than-ever volume in the literature of Black power.

“In their pages one can begin to understand his power as a speaker and to see the political legacy he left his people in its struggle for emancipation. Over and over again in simple imagery, savagely uncompromising, he drove home the real truth.”—I.F. Stone, New York Review of Books

Keep reading for resources to fight book bans:

Right off the bat, we recommend supporting your local library and your local indie bookstore, both of which are major forces against book banning. If your local library has recently been subjected to a book ban, the Brooklyn Public Library, Boston Public Library, LA County Library, San Diego Public Library, and Seattle Public Library have joined Books Unbanned and are offering free eCards to teens. Below are a variety of resources for any kind of reader and educator to browse. See what you can do to fight against book banning nationwide as well as within your own community.

Resources for Facing Book Banning in YOUR Community

Book Resumes

Little Free Library

American Library Association

Freedom to Read Foundation

National Coalition Against Censorship

Pen America

#FReadom

Fight For The First

Resources for Educators

United Against Book Bans

National Council of Teachers of English