User:Music2611/Blue Mondays

Blue Mondays (Dutch: Blauwe Maandagen) is a dutch drama novel, and the debut of writer Arnon Grunberg.

Development
Grunberg owned his own publishing house, called "Kasimir" in 1993, but after he had published five books he got in financial trouble and had to sell his publishing house. In order to do so, he went to the Frankfurt Book Fair, in Germany, where he met Vic Vandereyt, a dutch publisher. The two had dinner in a chinese restaurant, and started to talk about Grunbergs life. At a certain point, the publisher offered Grunberg to publish his story if he would write it down. Since the publisher was drunk, Grunberg thought he was joking, but after two months the publisher called asking for the first chapter, and Grunberg started writing. While he had written for theatres earlier, writing a novel was new for Grunberg. Although the title character of the book shares the same name as Grunberg, a big part of the book is ficition. In comparisation between himself and the character in the book Grunberg stated "We were both kicked out of high school at 17, did different jobs, and my father died, too. I took those from reality. But when I felt I should lie for the sake of the story, I lied. That's one definition of fiction: lies."

Grunberg has also explained that the novel combines various (life)stories he had written or told to people earlier. In an interview with CNNfn's It's Only Money, he said that the name of the novel comes from the dutch expression "Blue Monday", which indicates a quick brief moment, he named the novel Blue Mondays because the novel's title character did a lot of things for only a short period of time.

Reception
Blue Mondays was positively received in the Netherlands, Grunberg's native country, critics had described it as "funny" and "strong". Dutch writer Ronald Giphart believed the book was a "dreamdebut". Book critic Tom van Deel of Trouw stated the following: "Blue Mondays is the debut of a born storyteller, who understands that humor is the best way too show the tragic side of things. This causing that the novel is not heavy, but light, although, judging the story, that seems almost impossible." Elsevier critic Doeschka Meijsing compared it to the book Portnoy's Complaint by Philip Roth, saying Blue Mondays was "just as funny". Various dutch critics agreed with Meijsing's comparison, describing Grunberg as "a young Philip Roth". Much to Grunberg's surprise, Blue Mondays sold over 70,000 copies in The Netherlands. It won two dutch awards, the 1994 Anton Wachterprize and the 1995 Golden Donkeyear, both awards were for best debut novel.

The novel was positively received internationally. Christina Patterson, of The Observer called the novel "unsettling", "funny" and "idiosyncratic", altogether making it "...an unusual and memorable debut". Dan Jeffrey of The Leeds Guide, stated the novel told a "gripping story" and said he could not recommend it enough. One particular negative review came from the Christian Science Monitor, reviewer Merle Rubin called Blue Mondays a "bad book", and said she wondered why it was ever published.