Teachers should be aware of explicit language and some sexually frank or explicit content throughout the novel. While eleventh- or twelfth-grade students should be mature enough to deal with such topics, it may be advisable to make note of particularly graphic instances the day before students are to read the chapters that contain them.
Certain sections, particularly those that center on Archie, Clara, or Hortense Bowden, rely heavily on phonetically rendered English dialect or dialect-infused pronunciations of standard words (i.e. Archie says "speeshus" for "specious" at one point). This may present problems for some student readers. If teachers anticipate that some students may...
