Customer Reviews

The Frog King

5 star:		(68)
4 star:		(20)
3 star:		(8)
2 star:		(5)
1 star:		(10)

 

 

The Frog King is to the novel as the Krispy Kreme is to the doughnut. People should stand in line to get one. I could not put it down. Although I read it in two days (at the supermarket, in line at LL Bean, walking down the street), I later wished I had controlled my appetite for his delicious prose so that it had lasted longer. But then Krispy Kremes do that to you.

Enough of the doughnot analogy. Davie's is a master story teller. The reader gets inside Harry Driscoll's mind---from one digression to the next. You can almost feel yourself sinking with Harry the hairball, wanting to beg him to see what he's doing to himself and Evie.

Publisher's Weekly didn't understand the book. It's a coming of age book. Yet it's also a book about not writing a book---until the end. It's a love story about someone who can't love. It's a non cliche about a cliche. It's a story of redemption and metamorphosis. It's a comedy about a tragedy.

Although I'm long past Harry's age, I still have a memory. But even if I could not relate to Harry's character, I would love the book for Davies' writing. It was one of the best books I've read in a long time.

is just one of the many thoughts which occurred to me during the first dozen pages or so of this delightful novel. i finished it a couple days ago, not without a pang of regret, and now i feel it is my duty to write a brief, glowing review. so first, here's what i scribbled on the glossy square of cardboard when i selected this book as my "bookseller's pick" the other day (i work at a sad little bookstore in athens, georgia, which is struggling to persevere, not unlike the book's lovably snooty protagonist, under the heavy burden of several tons of bad writing): "an intelligent, wholly original novel about a young man struggling to survive (literally!) in the cut-throat world of new york city book publishing, THE FROG KING is adam davies' flashy debut. a former creative writing professor at the university of georgia, davies has crafted a modern coming-of-age tale that manages to be at least as emotionally profound as it is hilarious. harry, his peaks-and-valleys hero, is complex and tragic, but also fiendishly witty and ultimately compassionate. as an editor at a prestigious publishing firm, his supreme enemy is the literary cliche, but what happens when he discovers that it is he himself who has become the biggest, most despicable cliche of them all?"

ok, now onto other things, such as comparisons (no book review, however brief and glowing, is complete without them): the three books that come to mind when i think about THE FROG KING are michael chabon's MYSTERIES OF PITTSBURGH (which is less affecting, less honest), jay mcinerney's BRIGHT LIGHTS, BIG CITY (which is less exciting, less funny), and gaitskill's TWO GIRLS, FAT AND THIN (which is less consistent, less engaging). all of these books are masterpieces in my mind, and all of them certainly have their strong suits. but now they've got a new roommate, a scampy rascal with a big fat heart and an even bigger and fatter vocabulary.

so: buy this book and tickle your humanity. the end.

I collect frogs. So when I saw signed copies of this book left by the author in a bookstore, I had to buy one. It sat on the shelf for a loooong time. Now I'm sorry I didn't read it sooner. I'd have had a much bigger vocabulary much earlier!

Harry Driscoll is a bad boyfriend. He has no money. He smells. He has funky rashes. He drinks too much. He has lost his sense of compassion. And, although he loves his girlfriend, Evie, he refuses to say the words. Eventually, he loses her, and, frankly, you'll be glad. After all, how can you respect Evie if she stays?

Harry makes some changes in his life in order to win back the girl of his dreams. Does it work? I won't tell, but you'll be surprised and even pleased with the outcome.

For me, this book was a delightful education. See, Harry Driscoll reads the dictionary, and, because he does, the novel is full of delicious words you'd never dreamed existed--words for things you'd never dreamed existed!

I can't wait for Adam Davies' next book. Meanwhile, I'll be practicing omphaloskepsis.

Davies first novel is an excellent novel. Jennifer Belle has called it "totally orignal" which is not exactly true, but does have some original moments and characters. You can't help but fall in love with Evie and her extraordinary patience. Harry is hard to love, but somehow you cheer for him. At times he reminded of Rob from High Fidelity (all arrested development and commitment phobic). Nevertheless, our American boy does ok. There are things that Harry goes through that many of us who are single and 28 (or there abouts) and live in the big city go through. He captures, with wonderful and painful truth, the awful feelings of losing someone you love. And the moral of this non-fairy tale fairy tale: To love someone, you must love yourself is not new--but told with humor and heart. The ending was a bit surpising, but not at all disappointing. I read most the book in one day. I enjoyed it. Davies writes very well and he clearly loves language. Was Judith based on Judith Reagan I wonder? I still have some questions, but overall I'd recommend this fine debut. Harry is something of hairball, but to some he may become a hero.

The hype said this book was about a modern Holden Caulfield.

In fact, it's just about a drunk.

Save your time, money and most importantly your stomach bile by not reading this book. It had the nauseating combination of a boring storyline and unreal dialogue. It seemed to me as I grudgingly turned the pages that this book was simply a vehicle for the author to display his command of pretentious never-used words. I would have honestly prefered to read the dictionary.

I read "Goodbye Lemon", the author's second novel. I found it so compelling that I was left thinking about the characters long after the last page was turned. I begged my husband to get me "The Frog King" since I could not find it at Borders or any other book store in the area. Enter Amazon. So, blissfully for my birthday, he complied.

I read this book in less than a week. It was utterly compelling, somewhat edgy at times, yet the story was not boring. It is a love story in the sense that Harry can not admit to Evie he loves her. Instead, he says "Viva la Evie!" He cheats, though in his mind for the right reasons. He wants to provide a better life for her so he figures the ends justifies the means. I think Harry epitomizes many of us who have worked in entry level jobs where you can't seem to get anywhere. He became jaded, thus his sliding backward into sophomoric behavior. He is poor, he has no money and is often hungry. This novel speaks to everyone, I think. A somewhat twisted, yet neurotic at times, love story, a story about a guy who is trying to get by and ultimately ahead, and the wrenching pains of growing up finally and realizing that you want to be somebody and stop sabotaging yourself. I recommend this book to anyone. It is quirky, smirky and was a thought provoking read.

I have to confess my shock upon picking up this book in the bookstore in realizing that there are people still writing these fantasy New York books. Presumably for people who don't and probably never will ever live in New York City. What nonsense! But that's forgivable considering the immaturity and inanity of poor Harry Driscoll. Re TFK's plot: picking lint out of your navel is a fine activity, just don't write about it. I consider fake books with fake premises, books like these, a crime. Thankfully they're few and far between. I hope we're not witnessing a McInery-Ellis-coked-out 80s surge in boring novels again. Save your time.

The only reason I read through this entire book was that it was the only novel I'd brought with me to a place where no books in English were readily available. Yes, the writing is elegant, even beautiful. But the plot and the thoroughly unredeemable character of Harry were depressing and somehow degrading to wade through.

It's a shame. It had the set up of everything I'd like--words, publishing, engaging characters, NYC. Instead I swore every time I turned a page and I did actually pitch the ting across the room in disgust when I finished it.

The titled character of TFK, Driscoll, tries the patience with his relentless self-pity, self-consciousness and exaggerated sense of self-importance. In otherwords, he's an adolescent. And a really dense one. The story is frighteningly shallow, superficial shilly shally non-sense borrowed from places we've been and authors we've read before. You're actually better off reading the Brothers Grimm original Frog Prince which is far more entertaining and has much more depth than this vanity project. This type of MFA fiction is precisely the reason I left writing school to become a translator with the UN. Honestly, write if you have something to say. Otherwise...