Is there a book in this blog? A book blog by writers who love to read

Archive for October, 2008

Self Censorship: The Jewel of Medina and The Portage of A.H to San Cristobal

Friday, October 31st, 2008

I have no idea whether Sherry Jone’s novel The Jewel of Medina originally deserved to be published, and I’m not quick off the bat to scold Random House, the publisher which decided at the last minute to not publish the novel after they were warned that it may cause offence to Muslims. Publishing is a subjective [...]

Italians want Zorba the Greek

Monday, October 27th, 2008

A popular arts show in Italy, Che tempo che fa, has appealed to viewers to write in to the show requesting books that, currently out-of-print, they’d like to see re-published by authors.
Top of the list is Zorba the Greek by Nikos Kazantzakis.
Another surprising  entry is Alan Hollinghurst’s recent Booker winning novel The Line of Beauty [...]

Chuck Palahniuk and The Great Gatsby

Tuesday, October 21st, 2008

Is Chuck Palahniuk one of America’s most underrated or overrated novelists? The answer to the question probably revolves around your attitude towards the shocking, because he is without doubt a novelist with the power to churn the stomach (although the reported faintings at readings of his short story ‘Guts’ seems exaggerated to me).
Speaking to Three [...]

Roberto Saviano and the new Italian epic

Friday, October 10th, 2008

Regular readers of Three Monkeys will know that we have a soft-spot for the Italian literary collective Wu Ming, the people behind novels like Q and 54 (which is very much on our ‘to-review’ list). Wu Ming I (there are five of them) has just published a thoughtful piece where he attempts to define what [...]

Writers and the Credit Crunch - Margaret Atwood and Tim Parks

Sunday, October 5th, 2008

I very rarely have the cause or inclination to browse to the Financial Times, but was glad to have done so today. The immediate reasoning was to check for news on the troubled bank of which I am, unfortunately, an account holder. No particular joy there, but instead I stumbled upon an extract from Margaret [...]