The Star's Tennis Balls [Mass Market Paperback]

Stephen Fry (Author)

Product Details

• Mass Market Paperback
• Publisher: Arrow Books, Limited (2002)
• ASIN: B000NGD0J4
• Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (13 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #5,852,637 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Quite a ride!, August 13, 2003

By 

starspangledgirl "starspangledgirl" (Arlington, MA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Stars' Tennis Balls (Paperback)

I knew nothing about this book when I picked it up, other than it was written by the actor/comedian who played Oscar Wilde. Based on the first few pages, I thought it would be a fun, witty story about some young people in prep school, their romantic entanglements, with a bit of British politics thrown in. And for a while it is this--a nice light satire.

Then this novel takes an amazing radical turn and becomes harrowingly serious in a vivid description of a kidnapping and confinement. Then it turns once again to be a suspenseful escape story, and finally a step by step "Count of Monte Cristo" revenge story (the latter of which is a bit unsatisfying as the main character becomes an efficient revenge machine and we lose the sense of him as a person that the middle of the book had so wonderfully built).

Still, Fry is an excellent writer to be able to pull off all of these tones in a single book. It is a great read, and it makes me want to seek out other works by Stephen Fry. Recommended!!

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A fun read!, October 26, 2005

By 

Armchair Interviews (Minneapolis, MN) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Stars' Tennis Balls (Paperback)

Stephen Fry in the past has written some brilliantly original books that are so overflowing with humor and wit that they are can seem almost too clever. This however, is not 100% original, in that it updates the classic The Count Of Monte Cristo to the modern day. (I should point out that TCOMC is my favorite book of all time, and one that I have read many times in many versions).

The way Fry has transplanted the characters and applied the dot com touch to it, must have been like untangling a huge stubborn knot of string--but he succeeds.

The story touches most of the main points of the classic, each central character from Dumas' book has a Fry counterpart, and while there are changes, they are changes that are in keeping with a contemporise adaptation of the story.

Even though this is a very clever re-telling of such a classic story, and while I enjoyed it, I must say that this lacks the original's grace.

Perhaps the era in which the original story was set had in fact more grace to it, but the conclusion to this version seemed very abrupt and stark.

Dumas brilliantly showed us some of the inner torment that the Dante's character was suffering, while Fry showed nothing like that from Ned Maddstone, leaving a rather one-dimensional feeling in relation to the character. In fact, it was in some of Maddstone's "victims" that you were given greater insights to, especially leading up to their final scenes.

All in all, a fun read very cleverly composed, but nothing more...but I'm sure Fry being the frighteningly clever man he is, realized that his version would suffer in comparison.

Armchair Interviews says: Well worth the read.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars perfect for making a movie out of it!, June 16, 2002

By 

B.Friendly "Bee" - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Stars' Tennis Balls (Paperback)

Why this book is not available as normal quick-to-ship-paperback by AMAZON is beyond me (it doesn't even pop up while searching for Stephen Fry stuff), but anyway: this is a highly suspenseful novel which is perfect for turning into a movie. Old Babe could be played by Richard Harris- is he still alive?- and Ned perhaps by Linus Roache! I wish I were a screenwriter for this one. Well, come on, buy the bloody book already (if you can stand seeing a nice young lad ending up like Jack Nicolson in 'One flew over the cookoo's nest' for a while)!