I want my book banned. Unfortunately, given my childhood’s PG experiences, I will probably not be joining the ranks of Gabriel Marquez on Iran’s banned book list. (As if anyone in Iran knows about Growing Up Moffett.) Then again, Growing Up Moffett isn’t exactly as provocative as Marquez’s Memories of My Melancholy Whores, which was translated into Persian with the slightly less titillating title of Memories of My Melancholy Sweethearts. The Associated Press reported that “the ban has only provoked greater interest in the novel and on Saturday, copies of the book were being sold for more than twice their list price.” Imagine that. As Allen Ginsberg, author of the scandalously explicit poem Howl once observed, the best thing that ever happened to Howl was that it was tried for obscenity.
Or maybe I should pretend to be someone I’m not in the next memoir installment. Author Tom Carew pulled a James Frey, according to the BBC, by writing a book describing his alleged adventures fighting in Afghanistan with the SAS. Problem was, it seems Mr. Carew never was in the SAS. And Tom Carew is a pen name. And…Well, you get the idea. Britain’s the Guardian took this as an opportunity to post Top 10 Hoaxes of the Literary World. Rarely does one see Shakespeare hanging out with flying saucers on the same list.
And on a more morbid front that I’d rather not imitate anytime soon, another author has bit the dust. Ira Levin, author of Stepford Wives, Rosemary’s Baby, and a slew of other Hollywood-ized gold makers, died of a heart attack last week. He was 78. He joins Vonnegut, Mailer, and a slew of others on the the 2007 list of literary deceased.
Now about that book banning idea…
