Book choice for 14 year old boys - lesbian novel

[NC29]

I need some distance and other ppls thoughts.
In an all boys school the 14 year olds in english lit will be reading a novel about the hardship of being a lesbian girl in a catholic household.
Why?
I don't object to the topic, or the book (haven't read it yet, just arrived today - hope it's good)
My issue is I don't understand the choice. It feels forced* and there is so much literature that I would consider foundational that they haven't read yet that this is out of place. Maybe in a year or 2 it'll be more understandable to them, but now?
I am happy for them to read all kinds of stuff, but I think you need context and some life knowledge/experience for certain stuff.

*it seems that there is a culture emerging where kids have to be tolerant towards one or other specific trait, not the person. I don't agree with this approach. They should be taught that one trait doesn't matter by itself. A person is not black OR gay OR nice OR nasty. We are all a mixture of many things. Putting colour or sexuality at the forefront without the understanding of why it matters and why it is good that nowadays it's not a stigma (or why it should not have ever been and should not be now) is more logical to me.

I want my kid to be tolerant, kind (and a lot of other things :)) and behave normally with others because he sees the other person as a whole - not their color or their sex preference. And I want him to be in a world where he can say he doesn't like xyz and it won't come down to "oh, you don't like him because he is gay". Tolerance works both ways. **
And let's be fair: how is it any of my (or anyone's) business who another person chooses as a partner?

And this is coming form a person who just gave him Murakami to read. (and he likes it.) So no issues with actually him reading any book. (ok, maybe I would not be too happy if he was reading Dosztojevszkij or the memoirs of a serial killer....).
Not for a second do I think it is going to hurt him, but i think it'll fly past their heads and it would be more value a bit later.

**I honestly get the fierce need of oppressed minorities wanting more respect or just to be left alone to be who they want to be. I also see there is a shift to be too pc. There must be a middle ground where these things can be treated factual and without connotations. (ok, naivety off)

so question is, what do you think the motivation behind this selection could be? And what would your thoughts be on this being the mandatory English lit book of the term?

When I was 14 our class novel was about a Jewish American girl growing up in an abusive household in the 1940s Arkansas, hiding an escaped German POW. The only thing I had in common with her was our xx chromosomes.

It is a really good book. The topics in it are universal and relatable. It's a fantastic coming of age type book and very thoughtful.
It's not salacious or unsuitable.
I think the people who have already commented that this is actually a good and interesting choice for a boys school I would agree with.

Sounds like your son is lucky enough to attend a forward-thinking school. Let’s hope that he becomes an adult white, straight man (I’m assuming) who uses these literary experiences to curate a true sense of empathy for the experiences of others. We need a LOT more male members of society who are like that.

Anyway, OP, I think it would be a good idea for your to examine what aspect of your son reading this book that you object to:

• Is it a female writer’s perspective that you object to? Because you’ve chosen an all-boys’ school so that your DS needn’t concern himself with the female voice from a young age?

• Is it a gay literary perspective that you object to? Because you’re afraid that it might be too provocative, or that he might “turn gay” through reading from this perspective? Remember that he will have already read/seen countless stories from a heteronormative perspective in his short life.

• Is it a working class literary perspective that you object to? Because you don’t see that it’s any business of your son’s to have to concern himself with issues of wealth and poverty that do not reflect his own social bubble?

I think once you’ve pinpointed what it is that makes you uncomfortable, then your own education can begin, OP.

@Llareggub

I’d dance naked in Waterstone’s if my 14 year old son read any book at all.

Can I join you?

(I'm picturing a mass streak in Waterstones by mothers of reluctant readers...)

As others have said it’s a great book and the lesbian aspect is only one small part. Novels are a wonderful way of seeing the world through someone else’s eyes and relating to perspectives you haven’t experienced before.

Another vote to say it's a great book
I read it when I was young and it's really memorable. I haven't liked any of her other books half so much since.

It is indeed mainly about growing up, finding your own identity, oppression etc etc It shouldn't be defined as a gay or lesbian novel.

I thought it was a lot better than Catcher in the Rye which was the 'coming of age' book we were forced to read at school and which I did not find relatable at all. I thought Oranges had more in common with White Teeth by Zadie Smith which I also loved.

@BojoKilledMyMojo

Honestly I find it odd that rather than wonder whether it's just a really great text, with lots of themes and imagery to explore, you've launched straight into wanting to know why boys should read about lesbians, whilst simultaneously trying to remind people that you're tolerant.

This! You've basically just posted "why should boys have to read about lesbians?", then wrapped it in some bullshit justification so you can preserve your image of yourself as soooo accepting.

God forbid teen boys imagine life through the eyes of a teen lesbian. It's not like these voices are hugely marginalised or anything.

I haven't read it but it sounds interesting. It does sound slightly grown-up for 14 though? Or am I hideously out of touch? I don't remember reading anything with a sexual element at that age, although I was at a Catholic school - shockingly this book was not on the curriculum

Another one here who would love to know what is wrong with Dostoyevsky and why his work equates to the memories of serial killers.

Memoires, not memories

Although it is sometimes referred to as a "lesbian novel", Winterson has objected to this label, arguing, "I've never understood why straight fiction is supposed to be for everyone, but anything with a gay character or that includes gay experience is only for queers.”

Wiki

I think it’s really important for boys to read literature with female protagonists. But in general choosing books for study on thematic grounds alone is lazy teaching. The study of literature is primarily a study of literary device. Maybe it’s just a really good book?

But you're fine with Murakami, the king of the bouncy-breasted, sexually intriguing but borderline underage female character?

GSCE Modern Prose texts from the various exam boards

Lord of the Flies by William Golding
Animal Farm by George Orwell
Never Let Me Go by Kazuo Ishiguro
Anita & Me by Meera Syal
Pigeon English by Stephan Kelman
Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe
The Power and the Glory by Graham Greene
To Kill A Mockingbird by Harper Lee
Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck
Woman in Black by Susan Hill
Coram Boy by Jamila Gavin
Boys Don’t Cry by Malorie Blackman
Paddy Clarke Ha Ha Ha by Roddy Doyle
Heroes by Robert Cormier
About a Boy by Nick Hornby
Resistance by Owen Sheers
I know Why the Caged Bird Sings by Maya Angelou
Ashes on a Young Man’s Sleeve by Danni Abse
Oranges are Not the Only Fruit by Jeanette Winterson
How Many Miles to Babylon? by Jennifer Johnston
Chanda’s Secrets by Allan Stratton

If you want your son to love reading and be truly interested in the world and aware of all perspectives and the differences and commonalities of human experiences then it is about reading widely.

Don’t pigeon-hole books into what you perceive is “appropriate” for him. Let him pick up and try anything and everything.

Books can also be enjoyed in different ways at different ages too. I have definitely had different insights and understandings when re-reading the same book at different times in my life.

And Oranges Are Not the Only Fruit is a great book.

Is the OP coming back I wonder?

Haha, do you have decided on the basis of ONE book that your school is instilling some sort of social engineering progrom.

It is a brilliant book about growing up and feeling in a different world from your parents.

Is it the only book your son will read this year?

Put in your sad face, ready for the call from the Daily Mail

But in general choosing books for study on thematic grounds alone is lazy teaching. The study of literature is primarily a study of literary device. Maybe it’s just a really good book?

I didn't go to school in the UK and we left before DS got to secondary school, but from what I gather, there's a lot of heavy-handed thematic moralising on the Eng Lit curriculum. So you get Othello and To Kill a Mockingbird both being reduced to 'It's not nice to be racist!'

But yes, I would say Oranges Are Not the Only Fruit is a good novel to study for devices and techniques the chapters are named after books of the Bible, which is interesting to tease out, and the coming of age story is studded with fairytales. And JW manages to do an awful lot with comedy it's a hilariously comic novel, despite also being the story of a child adopted by a monster and brought up in an extreme religious sect. And comparing key scenes from their equivalents in her memoir Why Be Happy When You Could Be Normal? would be very interesting in terms of self-fictionalisation.

I wish my son’s school had offered this rather than Jane Eyre which put him off reading for 4 years.

I'm puzzled by you singling out Dosztojevszkij while possibly impressed with using that spelling.

Do you think he'll read too many books with lesbian protagonists compared with straight protagonists over his studies?

Whilst I was at school I don’t think I studied any books with a female protagonist.

I studied some great books though, as will your son. You can relate to characters whose experience is very different from your own. Just read great books!

Jane Eyre could have been a very different ending if she’d had MN for relationship advice.

@Glowcat

“Reader, I left the bastard”.

A book with a gay person in it. For a 14 year old. Oh the horror.

Get a grip.

I think that was the only work by a woman that I was taught from yr7-13. Not even any Austen!