The Last Days of Huckleberry Finn

Today, eager to get out of my house and experience the world as it used to be, and with some retail stores now open here in Maine, I stopped at a bookstore in downtown Freeport. It was an odd experience. Once inside, I wasn't quite sure what to do. I realized that in the past three months I had forgotten how to shop. I certainly didn't need any books, and even if I did I would simply order them from Amazon, since this particular store wasn't known for books but rather its wide array of Maine souvenirs, including baseball caps, bandanas, socks, greeting cards, shot glasses and ashtrays embellished with images of moose, lobsters, lighthouses, sailboats and pine trees.

Anyway, I browsed the aisles and started to get the hang of it. It was entertaining, and there were no commercials. Wandering over to the Fiction department, I came across a lone copy of "The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn." Despite being a fan of Mark Twain I have never read it, and since it is now steeped in controversy, as it has been since it was first published in the 1880s, I grabbed it and considered my shopping expedition over and done. Paying for my purchase, I told the cashier that I had taken the last copy. "Thanks," she said with a smile, "but we won't be re-ordering that one." I asked why, and she said, "For obvious reasons."

Apparently Huck has been cancelled and the book has to go, along with all those statues of Robert E. Lee and Christopher Columbus.