I forgot the name of the book--and why was it considered risque?
shareIt was one of the Marquis de Sade's books, probably "Justine", an unexpurgated version of which was released in Britain in 1953 and in the USA not long afterwards.
The fact that Justine was 12 at the start of the book and the sadistic "perversions" made it pretty hot for the 1950s.
The book was "The Ballad of the Sad Cafe" by Carson McCullers. It was made into a stage play by Edward Albee. I haven't read the book. However, you can get a synopsis on line.
Nancy
Millie was reading the Ballad of the Sad Cafe. According to the play script (I'm not sure if it's the same reason in the movie), Rosemary tells Flo that everyone in the book is some sort of degenerate and the book itself was banned from the library.
shareI read "The Ballad of the Sad Cafe" in college, and it wasn't risque at all, but it probably wasn't considered wholesome and sunny reading for young ladies, with too much focus on human frailty. But the teacher didn't know what she was talking about anyway.
McCullers also wrote "A Member of the Wedding," which more people might be familiar with. It was made into a pretty good movie.
Honour thy parents. They were hip to the groove too once you know.
Carson McCullers most familiar and best work is "The Heart Is A Lonely Hunter". Both the book and movie are better than Picnic although slightly similar.
shareI've read the Ballad of the Sad Cafe and didn't find anything about scandalous about it. I've always assumed that Inge included the remark as more of a humorous comment on the more conservative values of middle america imbodied in Rosalind Russell's schoolteacher.
shareWell lets see The Ballad Of The Sad Cafe features a middle aged man who happens to be a hunchback who has a homosexual crush on a covicted prisoner who has just been released from jail. This same prisoners ex wife is a spinster who has a crush on the hunchback despite the fact that the hunchback is her cousin. The crisis of the story is a bloody knockdown dragout fight between the spinster and her ex husband that the hunchback eventually gets involved in. Even in our enlightened times if some high school teacher assigned this book to her class there would be neanderthal parents who woul protest saying the book is decadent. Which is sad because it is a great book.
shareNot sure if you were suggesting that the book was assigned to Milly by one of her High School teachers but I believe in the script she mentioned that it was on the reading list for college. Not quite the same thing but close.
shareMillie already had won a scholarship, so the college she knew she was attending had doubtless assigned it.
"Joey, have you ever been in a Turkish prison?"
Millie later wrote her own bestseller, "Madge Was the Pretty One," had a brief, but torrid fling with Jack Kerouac (before chronic alcoholism rendered him impotent) and became a prominent figure in the world of radical feminism. She and her wife currently reside in Northampton, Massachusetts where Millie occasionally lectures at Smith College.
The hard life that Madge had with Hal took a toll on her looks and she's no longer "the pretty one." Sadly, she's now a resentful divorcee working part-time at a Dollar Tree store in Tulsa to supplement her Social Security income. She discovered through bitter experience that love really doesn't pay the rent. In her free time, she drinks too much beer.
Lol, hilarious! I still hope that Madge's life, while not perfect, turned out to be better. But, there's so many subtle connections made between Flo and her daughter that's it's hard to look the other way and ignore them. Hopefully, Hal (at the very least) doesn't take up with other women.
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