Byron: The characters in Webb’s books aren’t shy about using the N-word. In his first novel, Fields of Fire, check out chapter one, paragraphs 35, 41, 45, and 46. Webb shouldn’t be condemned for this–he’s just trying to capture a certain kind of dialogue that is an unfortunate reality. We don’t ban Huckleberry Finn; we shouldn’t ban Fields of Fire. But it’s worth noting that this was a best-selling book. A lot more people have encountered racial epithets from having read Webb’s novels than from having heard Allen speak them (and Allen, crucially, has denied speaking them).