Dec 15, 2009

The View from Saturday | Social Sensitivity

Konigsburg does not seem to shy away from controversy, but her novels tend to be much more concerned with the inner lives of young people than with social issues. Even so, The View from Saturday may make some readers uncomfortable with its disdainful treatment of the idea of diversity, the academic buzzword of the moment. Although the educational concept of diversity is a secondary issue in the novel, it is a recurring motif. Konigsburg points out that the theory of diversity in practice excludes Jews (perhaps even discriminates against them), other...