Literature Books Articles published in Three Monkeys Online
The Final Word: Fictional spaces, Death and Literature. Mervyn Peake and the Gormenghast trilogy
Death as a fictionalised experience allies itself harmoniously with literary fiction. Both are spaces of invention and both seek to fill what is essentially an ever-present void of abstraction. A perfect example of the marriage between death and literary
The making of a monster - Mary Shelley's Frankenstein
Literary monsters are metaphors for our own deep fears. Little wonder, then, that one of literature's most famous monsters has been depicted differently throughout his illustrious career. Stephanie Lawless compares and contrasts representations of Shelley
Carry me down - M.J. Hyland in interview
The first person narrative of a troubled young Irish boy, told in M.J.Hyland's second novel Carry Me Down
Dantean Echoes - The influence of Dante on Samuel Beckett and Seamus Heaney
James Joyce was, and remains a domineering presence on the Irish literary landscape. Less acknowledged, though, is the influence of Dante Alighieri, despite echoes found in the works of Samuel Beckett, Seamus Heaney, and indeed Joyce.
American Purgatorio
Employing diverse structures, including the seven deadly sins, dante, and the American coast-to-coast road-trip, John Haskell's debut novel has been described as 'wildly original' (by Geoff Dyer, no less) and 'remarkable'. Haskell spoke to TMO about Am
The Nuclear Option - Declan Lynch and The Rooms
Alcohol as a literary theme is an enduring one, despite the frowns of the politically correct. Irish journalist/novelist Declan Lynch places the 'demon drink' firmly, and unrepentantly at the centre of his debut novel The Rooms. In interview with B...
A 'special' writer. Dacia Maraini in interview
Dacia Maraini is one of Italy's most succesful writers - translated into dozens of languages, she has written novels, essays, plays, and poems. Maraini talks to Vincenza Fanizza for Three Monkeys Online....
Books by and an Interview with: Mary Midgley
Mary Midgley is one of Britain's leading philosophers. Highly critical both of religious fundamentalism, and at the same time blind faith in 'sociobiology', Midgley recently spoke to Three Monkeys Online. On the table for discussion were the role of philo...
Democracy with blood on its Hands: An Interview with Ariel Dorfman
According to Ariel Dorfman, the central dilemma of our times is "how to make sure that, when grievous harm has been done to us, we do not turn into the monster who has given us such pain". Dorfman, a playwrite, novelist, and essayist of international reno...
Sparkle of crimes in their voices - Aziz Chouaki and The Star of Algiers
Aziz Chouaki was forced by threats to leave his native Algeria. His novel, The Star of Algiers, portrays a society collapsing, with his central character caught between the 'sirens of the North, and the roots of the South'. It's a novel that tells ...
Michael Longley: Entwining Strands of Love, Nature, War & Death.
Michael Longley has been labelled a nature poet, a war poet, and a love poet. In truth his large body of work contains elements of all these, and more. The Belfast poet discusses the nature of poetry with Tom Brace, for Three Monkeys Online, as part of ou...
"You kill them, if pressed" - Tim Winton
Tim Winton, Australian author of novels including Cloudstreet, The Riders, and Dirt Music, talks to Three Monkeys Online about his inspirations and fiction, and why the "novel that tries too hard starts to smell like a thesis"....
Our man in Havana: introducing Leonardo Padura Fuentes and the quill of mystery
Cuban Leonardo Padura Fuentes, novelist, essayist, and critic is probably best known for his series of detective novels based around the character of Mario Conde in Havana. Three Monkeys met the author on a recent visit to London (he still lives in Cuba) ...
Making Love in Spanish - Carlos Fuentes and The Eagle's Throne
Carlos Fuentes, Mexico's most famous literary export, recently presented his latest novel, The Eagle's Throne, to the press and public in London. Ascen Arriazu and Abigail Schteinman met with Fuentes for Three Monkeys Online....
Samuel Johnson is indignant - TMO meets Lydia Davis
Even the best writers, at times, need to waste some words to work their way into a story. Few have been as daring as American author Lydia Davis, whose stories, on occasion, have been no more than two lines. Davis, also a novelist and sought after transla...
Memories, Fight and Fantasy at the Hand of the Great Superhero of the Spanish Narrative - Isabel Allende in interview
Isabel Allende is one of Latin America's most celebrated novelists - no mean feat considering the competition and the challenges faced writing as a woman in an implicity chauvinist society. Her work, now justifiably celebrated world wide, concerns itself ...
Capturing the Moment: Geoff Dyer in Interview
Geoff Dyer's eclectic output -three novels and eight non-fiction books (on subjects as diverse as Jazz, Photography and John Berger) - has led to him being described as "quite possibly the best living writer in Britain" (Daily Telegraph). Alex Mitchell in...
Bootleg Chomsky Meets the Big Societal Novel - Robert Newman talks about The Fountain at the Centre of the World
Robert Newman's third novel, The Fountain at the Centre of the World is set against a backdrop of globalisation, world trade, and political protest. Newman, a succesful stand up comic, answers questions on polemics, petrol, politics and Dickens, in...
A Poet's Space - an interview with Brendan Kennelly
Lauded by Auden and Bono, Brendan Kennelly is one of Ireland's most succesful, and popular, poets. Kennelly, born in Ballylongford Kerry, is the author of , amongst others, The Book of Judas, Cromwell, and Poetry My Arse. Brendan Kenn...
Tragedy is an extreme form of desire - Ken Harvey interview
Ken Harvey's debut collection of short stories, If You Were With Me Everything Would Be All Right won the inaugural Violet Quill award for Gay/Lesbian fiction. In interview with Three Monkeys, American author Harvey discusses the inspiration for hi...
Break, Blow, Burn - Camille Paglia discusses poetry
Camille Paglia, since the publication of her first book Sexual Personae: Art and Decadence from Nefertiti to Emily Dickinson, has stood out as one of America's leading, and controversial, intellectuals. Her latest book, Break, Blow, Burn- Camil...
"Good writers do not write to flatter people’s good feelings" - Tomás Eloy Martínez in interview
Argentinean author Tomás Eloy Martínez was one of the 18 writers on the longlist for the inaugural Man Booker International Prize this year, along with Garcia Marquez, Ian McEwan, Milan Kundera, and Margaret Atwood. His novels Santa Evita and ...
Spending imaginative capital - Michel Faber and The Fahrenheit Twins.
The Fahrenheit Twins, is the new collection of short stories by Michel Faber, author of the novels Under the Skin and The Crimson Petal and the White. In interview with Three Monkeys Online, Faber discusses the short story format, ref...
Showing the Bones - Sean O'Reilly in Interview
Included by some as part of a group of young Irish writers chronicling life in a vastly changed Ireland, Sean O'Reilly's novels The Swing of Things and Watermark are set in contemporary Dublin. O'Reilly, though, as he tells Shane Barry in in...
A Long Long Way - Sebastian Barry in interview
Irish playwright, poet, and novelist, Sebastian Barry has long approached the obscured sides of Irish history in his work. With his latest novel, A Long Long Way, shortlisted for the Man Booker Prize, he has confidently approached one of the great ...
The People's Act of Love - Author James Meek in interview
Longlisted for the Man Booker prize, The People's Act of Love is James Meek's third novel. Lauded for its language, originality, and narrative, the book has garnered acclaim from critics and fellow novelists. Meek, an accomplished journalist and wr...
The Poetess of Naïveté – Interview with Syrian poet Maram Al-Massri.
Syrian poetess, Maram Al-Massri, author of A Red Cherry on a White-tiled Floor, talks to Three Monkeys Online about the themes in her poetry: liberty, sensuality, affection, diversity. And, above all else, the white innocence of existence....
The Stupidity of Men - Women in the Plays of Seán O'Casey
Women had a profound effect on the life of Seán O'Casey. He was brought up by his mother, and educated at home by his schoolteacher sister. His plays, set against the turmoil of man-made conflict, contain a vision of pragmatic and realistic women, rare f...
Guess what’s cooking for dinner? An interview with Marsha Mehran, author of Pomegranate Soup
Born in Iran, educated in Argentina, author Marsha Mehram found the inspiration for her first novel, Pomegranate Soupe in the west of Ireland. She talks about the novel, multiculturalism and the Celtic tiger with Three Monkeys Online. Just don't as...
Using Genre to Effect - Neil Gaiman
Anansi Boys is the latest novel from English writer Neil Gaiman. Gaiman, the author of the influential Sandman comic series, acclaimed novel American Gods, and a number of Film and TV scripts talks to Three Monkeys about genre hopping...
Writing Against Terror - Nadeem Aslam
In the wake of the London bombings, Nadeem Aslam's critically acclaimed novel Maps for Lost Lovers takes on a new relevance, set as it is in the Pakistani immigrant communities of the North of England. For Aslam, art and politics are not separate w...
Seán O’Casey - Portrait of the Artist as an Outsider
Seán O’Casey, for many was the 'slum dramatist', not only because his classic trilogy of plays, Juno and the Paycock, Shadow of a Gunman, and The Plough and the Stars were set in Dublin's working class slums, but because O'Casey hi...
The most irresponsible occupation. Liz Jensen, author of The Ninth life of Louis Drax talks about writing.
With The Ninth Life of Louis Drax, her fifth novel, Liz Jensen seems to be getting the recognition and profile that her varied and inventive work deserves. The book is currently in the process of being turned into a film by literary director Anthon...
Lovely Seaside Girls. James Joyce’s Musical Interludes
Tom Brace takes a historical look at some of the music, and culture, that influenced Dublin writer James Joyce when writing his masterpiece Ulysses....
On the brink of believability. Rupert Thomson's Divided Kingdom
Divided Kingdom, the latest novel from Rupert Thomson, presents a dystopian view of an immaginary, but current day Britain. Three Monkeys Online interviews the author Jim Crace defined as 'a risk taker'. ...
