With One Eye Open [Paperback]

Polly Frost (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: May 14, 2010

Polly Frost's humor book, "With One Eye Open," brings together twenty-five of her funniest stories, essays and pieces. Her targets for delicious satire include blogaholism, fitness trends, gamers, sex writers, carbohydrate addicts, and friendship in the age of the internet and cellphones.

Polly's humor has been published in numerous magazines including The Atlantic, The New Yorker, Grin & Tonic and Narrative. Four of her humor pieces were selected for The New Yorker "best of" anthologies "Disquiet, Please!" and "Fierce Pajamas."

PRAISE

"Miss Polly Frost is so funny, so wildly intelligent, and so mean to the unfortunate half-wits who cross her path, she is the Edith Wharton of her generation." --E. Jean Carroll, Elle columnist and life advisor at AskEJean.com

"In these sharp and unsettling, and very, very funny pieces, Polly Frost shows us how inordinately pleased too many of us are with the way we live now." --Daniel Menaker, author of A Good Talk: The Story and Skill of Conversation

"Polly Frost captures in fabulous details, the absurdity of life. Laughing out loud often follows. Whether it's inventing an I-Dog (cross between a phone and a dog) or seminars to help repressed bloggers release their inner critic, it's all here. Her work mixes highly observational smarts with a little bit of sass. It comes back and bites you in the ass when you're not looking." --Laura Banks, author of Embracing Your Big Fat Ass

"Polly Frost makes it look easy. I hate her." --Larry Doyle, author of Go, Mutants! and I Love You, Beth Cooper

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Polly Frost is an author, playwright and journalist who lives in New York City with her husband, Ray Sawhill. Polly's story collection, "Deep Inside," was published by Tor in 2007. Polly and Ray Sawhill often collaborate. Their play, "The Last Artist in New York City," was selected for Best American Short Plays 2008-2009 published by Applause. They co-wrote and co-produced "The Fold" webseries along with director, Matt Lambert. Visit Polly's website for more information: pollyfrost.com.

Product Details

• Paperback: 164 pages
• Publisher: Rapture House (May 14, 2010)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0615376487
• ISBN-13: 978-0615376486
• Product Dimensions: 8.7 x 5.9 x 0.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 8.8 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,720,178 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Hi, I'm Polly Frost. My latest book "The Bannings" is a psychological suspense novel co-written with my husband, Ray Sawhill. It's just been released on Amazon for Kindle, 423 pages for only $4.99. My episodic e-book, "Rescue Dog: How I Saved America, One Human at a Time" -- a sweet, funny mock memoir -- is available now for Kindle. You can buy Part One for only $0.99. I've also co-written and co-produced some erotic audio plays, "Sex Scenes," which you can find on Amazon under MP3s. There are 17 of them, featuring the voices of 33 of New York City's finest actors. My humor book "With One Eye Open" is available on Amazon in print and for Kindle. It's a collection of 25 of my most popular humor essays published in magazines like The New Yorker, The New York Times and The Atlantic. Some of my humor pieces have been included in The New Yorker anthologies "Fierce Pajamas" and "Disquiet, Please!" My book "Deep Inside" is a collection of erotic horror stories and is available in print and for Kindle. I've also written plays: "The Last Artist in Manhattan" which I co-wrote with my husband, Ray Sawhill, is included in "Best American Short Plays 2008-2009." My website is pollyfrost.com and you can also find me on Facebook and Twitter.

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars The Humor Essay at Its Best November 11, 2010

By Erotic Elf

Format:Paperback

The name Polly Frost is well recognized and well loved among both erotica and humor readerships--and deservedly so, given Frost's proven mastery of both forms (and all combinations thereof). This collection showcases the author's gift for rocking the humor-essay format--a talent that is as impressive as it is rare. Essays like "Notes on My Conversations" and "My Diagnosis" demonstrate that the classic prose of Woody Allen was not, in fact, the last word in the brilliant literary comedy of narcissism and neurosis; while items such as "Reblock Yourself the Polly Frost Way" and "New Carbs" highlight Frost's adeptness at looking contemporary society squarely in the face--and laughing.

Part of what makes these gems rise (and shine) so far above the ordinary is Frost's refusal to fall into the formulaic. Though brief, the pieces are rich in madcap, creative twists, as Frost lets her fiercely insightful wit take trampoline jumps to new levels of perfected absurdity.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Barking in New York Style July 3, 2010

By L. C. Henderson

Format:Paperback

Polly Frost reassures the reader that she has done her best to ensure that each and every one of the twenty-five humor pieces in With One Eye Open is "entirely free of seriousness". Whereas seventeen of the short pieces and stories were written in the last two years, she has included some earlier pieces as well, dated from 1985 onwards. That Frost takes humor seriously is clearly evident from her telling herself, in private, that her "mini-creations cover a Chekhovian range of subjects and embody a Dostoevskian variety of approaches". Her use of self-parody and irony are clear in her wry consideration of herself in such a light (as we all know, the writings of both Chekhov and Dostoevsky are redolent with the dark despair of the Russian soul, whereas Frost's text radiates the uptown blues ambience of New York, the city which, indubitably, first gave rise to the executive suite-bound angst of such literati as Woody Allen). Akin to her literary mentors, Frost is given to deep exploration of her own psyche, revealing her underlying introspective nature in her continuous undermining of self.

Not only does Frost go to great lengths to poke fun at herself and her own literary endeavors, but she also goes to inordinate lengths to explore the implicit falsifications of the urbane living in an urban society. Frost has come a long way from her first attempts at penning a fictional masterpiece, which, on her presentation to a creative writing class, she claims, only served to elicit an eruption of giggles, and advice from the workshop's instructor that she focus on doing something funny instead.... Rather than mincing off in high dudgeon, as many an erstwhile writer is prone to do, after some profound reflection Frost decided to take such sound advice to heart, and, rather than fight the laughter, to invite it instead. And, indeed, her invitation is most appealing...

The fixations of the internet obsessed, who wish only to boost their Amazon ratings in a vainglorious attempt to seize their Warholian fifteen minutes of elusive fame, are upended in Frost's opening piece, entitled "Reblock yourself the Polly Frost way" in which she details the agenda of "The Polly Frost Boot Camp for Shutting You Up". Some of Frost's pieces are much shorter than others, a case in point being the two-page "Goodbye, I", in which she compares herself to "the human equivalent of a Jack Russell terrier" (as a dog lover, I vehemently object to her use of such a metaphor--what is she trying to imply, that all Jack Russells are psychotic? [RAOFL!!!]). Her appreciation of the canine kind (and any reference to her as the female gender of such a species could not be further from the truth) is also revealed in her illustrated (think James Thurber-type cartoons) description of innovative hybrid pooches in "My dog breeds", in which she expounds on the virtues of owning such outrageous breeds as the Bollywood terrier and the EcoDoodle ("a dog whose coat is 100 percent organic hemp...all shedding is guaranteed not just 100% recyclable but smokable too.") Just a sample, but hopefully enough to titillate your taste buds...

Love it or leave it, Polly Frost's collection of humorous pieces, fifteen of which first appeared in The New Yorker or in Grin & Tonic on nook, the B&N eBook reader, is inescapably witty and unavoidably wry. So why don't you go on ahead and give it a try? (And no, I have no aspirations to be the next Sylvia Plath, despite my penchant for derivative rhyme...) [Reviewer for [...]] Read more ›

4.0 out of 5 stars so topical that it could have been written 6 months from now June 6, 2012

By Robert Nagle

Format:Paperback

This is a series of sophisticated but hilarious sketches by Polly Frost about popular and Net culture. It's light and fun reading, poking fun at writers, Facebook, theatre, commercialism, dieting, celebritydom, software to write novels. These are obvious targets of satire, yes, and the humor is so topical and trendy that I wonder if it could have been written 6 months from now. Most take place under a Manhattan backdrop, with a love/hate relationship towards technology, publishing and the bohemian lifestyle. Among my favorite stories were "Final Paper You Want From Me" (a college girl dreams up new and crazy social networking sites), Reblock Yourself the Polly Frost Way (seminars to teach people to resist the impulse to write) and My Dog Breeds (an illustrated guide to dog breeds for today -- such as the iDog). Frost and her husband Ray Sawhill are the writers behind SEX SCENES, sexy audio stories about Hollywood.

PS, I read a lot of these pieces on the bus while standing up!

5.0 out of 5 stars A solid addition to any humor collection September 11, 2010

By Midwest Book Review

Format:Paperback

If you're not laughing at your life, you're doing it wrong. "With One Eye Open" is a collection of writing and other works from Polly Frost as she launches her dedicated assault on humor and lfe around her. With plenty of musings and thoughts, Polly's work does well in offering much to think about and makes for a fun and fascinating read. "With One Eye Open" is a solid addition to any humor collection.