Harry Driscoll is living in New York City (if you call trying to survive on an editorial assistant's salary "living").
His family is wealthy (... read full description
His family is wealthy (... read full description
reviews
Jul 05, 2010
oriana
rated it: 
Oh man. This book caused in me all sorts of crises. Pretty much I hated it, but not exactly for all the right reasons. I mean, some were the right reasons, like how the characters, while kind of well-developed, were still completely unbelievable in how they related to one another, and how the plot was pretty formulaic & flat. Also, it paints this terrible picture of New Yorkers, especially vis á vis the homeless (except for the "redemption" at the end, which was so corny and again unbe
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Aug 16, 2007
Jessa
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This book claims on the back cover that is is "NOT a fairytale", and couldn't be more right. It's a real look into the mind of a guy just like anybody; a guy trying to catch a break (at any cost) in a world that seems out to get him...a guy who loves words and hates his roommate. A guy who got the girl, but can't seem to keep her.
I don't really know if I connect with this book because I feel like I *am* the main character, or because I've just dated many of his ilk. Adam D More...
I don't really know if I connect with this book because I feel like I *am* the main character, or because I've just dated many of his ilk. Adam D More...
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Dec 17, 2009
Evelyn
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I'm a bit biased for reasons I won't disclose, but I think I'm being fair in my assessment. I really wanted to love this book, and I did not dislike it (though I did dislike the main character, even though the author tried to give him redeeming qualities). Instead, I enjoyed it for what it is, a first time lad lit genre story. Anyone who has struggled as a twenty something in NYC will get some chuckles. Davies is talented, has an expansive vocabulary, and writes well. I look forward to reading m
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Mar 03, 2011
Zach
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This crisp novel is the ultimate young-guy-gets-his-shit-together story. It's about figuring out life and love, and it's a reminder that, even when it seems like the loss of the latter precludes the progress of the former, the big wheel keeps on turning (the novel is also, often, a biting criticism of cliché, while maybe also being an acknowledgement of the universality of ideas that do, in fact, become clichés - it is at once an indictment of the obvious when it is cheap and an acceptance of th
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Feb 15, 2011
Jackie
rated it: 
I didn't like this book almost from the start, it uses many big words but puts them too close together and does not use them well, and the entire story is this really crappy guy writing exactly the story he spends all his time ripping on other slushies for submitting to the publishing firm he works for. I kept reading it because I always hope things will get better. They don't. Harry is annoying, the story is annoying, and most of it feels fake. The only believable part, to me, was the gorie
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Aug 08, 2011
I liked this book. As a first novel, i thought that Davies was spot on. It read a little bit like a movie thus I am intensely excited as I heard that Bret Easton Ellis is adapting this book for the big screen. It was actually Ellis' review comparing this book with Jay McInerney's 'Bright Lights, Big City' that made me want to pick the book up in the first place. Very young-and-confused-in-the-big-apple just as most reviewers promised... and even though it says that it is a love story right on th
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Apr 28, 2009
Kieran
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What can you say about a book with a character that is so nasty, self serving, spoilt, an over-educated wasp who only redeems himself at the last chapter? If it weren't for Adam Davies beautiful style of acerbic and witty english I'd have given him a 1 star. It was interesting, given the stream of chick lit books that were bupbished since the days of Bridget Jones - young, smart, pennliless, under utilized, dating-bad-boyfriend (while mr perfect is in the appartment one floor below), beautiful a
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Jul 22, 2009
Ross
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I bought this book because it was written by a University of Georgia professor, but it ended up sitting on my shelf for a while. I picked it up again after reading a review that compared it to Bright Lights Big City--one of my favorite books. The storyline is similar--i.e. young guy in publishing on the path to self-destruction--but the characters are not nearly as sympathetic. The beauty of Bright Lights Big City is the way that the reader is drawn into the narrator's plight and his sincere
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Sep 21, 2010
Marita
rated it: 
My friend Dave said, "even if you're not trying you'll finish this book in a week." He was correct. Beyond just making me really wish I had more to offer this world in the way of vocabulary, this story hit home in some scary sorts of way.
The lead is a downtrodden editor, not so freshly out of college, trying to survive on meager pay in NYC. Of course, he is in love with a girl--his girlfriend for all intents and purposes--but he can't quite admit it to her. Tie in a self-a More...
The lead is a downtrodden editor, not so freshly out of college, trying to survive on meager pay in NYC. Of course, he is in love with a girl--his girlfriend for all intents and purposes--but he can't quite admit it to her. Tie in a self-a More...
Dec 30, 2008
Jenny
rated it:
This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers.
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Jan 07, 2009
liz
rated it:
I saw this in the library a few days after I stumbled across it on Goodreads, and I have to say, the title is somewhat misleading. First off, I've read few novels with a less sympathetic narrator. I mean, I'm young, and broke, and live in the city, and it's always nice to read about other folks in the same situation... but I'm not SO broke that I steal condiments from bars to make meals out of, and can only afford to wash my clothes so infrequently that they're dirty enough that they give me a
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Nov 13, 2010
Michael
rated it:
I really need to start avoiding the young-man-in-big-city genre of books. There is something about them that just seems phony to me. They indirectly suggest to me that this is normal living on top of masses of lower living, that this is the way REAL life is. Call me defensive, it's O.K.
There is no doubt that Adam's prose is masterful. After all, he is an English professor. I would say he wasted it on this slow moving journalistic ranting about his protagonist's aboriginal life, More...
There is no doubt that Adam's prose is masterful. After all, he is an English professor. I would say he wasted it on this slow moving journalistic ranting about his protagonist's aboriginal life, More...
Dec 11, 2011
Wileyacez
rated it:
This was actually a great book. Harry is a complete idiot--total fool. You see his downfall coming from a million miles away, but you don't necessarily dislike him. The story is told from his perspective, so you almost (not totally) get sucked into seeing the world the same way he does and justifying his behavior because he's telling you exactly WHY he's doing things. His love for Evie is just as convincing--he knows every single tiny detail about her. Still, things are obviously going nowh
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Apr 14, 2011
Nash
rated it:
This was not what I expected. A guy I used to like lent me this and I raised an eyebrow at it thinking, "seriously? you're giving me chick lit?!" But i read it anyway thinking that there might be clues in it about how he felt.
I guess that's when i knew that he just wasn't that into me. Hahaha! The book was great though. I was thoroughly destroyed but it didn't matter. My love went out to Adam Davies and whoever the character was who had to go through everything he did. Not a More...
I guess that's when i knew that he just wasn't that into me. Hahaha! The book was great though. I was thoroughly destroyed but it didn't matter. My love went out to Adam Davies and whoever the character was who had to go through everything he did. Not a More...
Jan 29, 2011
Steve
rated it:
Having recently read a few incredibly deep books consecutively, it was refreshing to pick up The Frog King in all its quirky glory. Davies is an incredible writer of story, as the episodes he creates for the world of Harry Driscoll seem almost too impossibly ridiculous and detailed to be figments of the author's imagination; almost as if Davies himself had to live through and experience each, from routinely "cannonballing" a lover in the throes of endmetriosis to subsisting almost enti
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Sep 28, 2007
Jake
rated it:
I found this book endlessly frustrating. Besides Davies trying so hard for people to like his writing and to make his plot and style hip, cutting edge, and daring, he just falls flat. Much like his main character, Harry Driscoll, Davies' writing is inherently infuriating because it just doesn't get it - it never actually succeeds in realizing its own flaws and correcting them. The tragically late climax in the novel does address Harry's faults and highlights his attempts to transform his own
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Apr 18, 2007
Abby
rated it:
"Viva La Evie. Viva la viva la viva."
Never will I hear "Viva La..." without thinking of poor Harry, the hero that I didn't want to like but ended up loving.
The Frog King was a hard read. Not because it wasn't written well, or because the plot was unbelievable. It was because you, as the reader, are following around a masochistic character who hates his job at a publishing house (but refuses to get out of it), wants to be promoted (but loses important m More...
Never will I hear "Viva La..." without thinking of poor Harry, the hero that I didn't want to like but ended up loving.
The Frog King was a hard read. Not because it wasn't written well, or because the plot was unbelievable. It was because you, as the reader, are following around a masochistic character who hates his job at a publishing house (but refuses to get out of it), wants to be promoted (but loses important m More...
Sep 20, 2011
Keon
rated it:
I read it, loved it and recommended it to a friend who I thought would love it too but she didn't. She hated it.
Based on the reviews I've read here, it seems like a book that divides people. For me it captures people whose lives are in shambles and realizes that they need to get their shit together. I won't spoil the ending but this book surprised me and stuck with me. It captured a moment in my twenties when I had no idea what I have to stand up for or know how to live my life.
Based on the reviews I've read here, it seems like a book that divides people. For me it captures people whose lives are in shambles and realizes that they need to get their shit together. I won't spoil the ending but this book surprised me and stuck with me. It captured a moment in my twenties when I had no idea what I have to stand up for or know how to live my life.
Aug 10, 2010
Lyssa
rated it:
This book is a perfect example of the fall of innocence, in this case, in a modern day young man. Harry Driscoll is the perfect example of just about everyone's ex-boyfriend, and is therefore very easy to relate to. I loved the focus on language and diction, as well as the random conversations he has with himself, but other than that...it's the fall of innocence, which is not one of my favorite themes. I felt anxious and weary throughout the entire book.
Jul 19, 2010
Elvia
rated it:
I don't like this book enough to write a review twice. I had written a review but then something happened and I lost it. Suffice it to say that his usage of words interfered with the flow of the book sometimes. Sometimes the usage were cleaver and sometimes it just felt banal.
The book is well written and kept me involved in the plot but I think that at the end of it all, the book could have used plot development as well as character development. I also think that it was trying More...
The book is well written and kept me involved in the plot but I think that at the end of it all, the book could have used plot development as well as character development. I also think that it was trying More...
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Jan 19, 2009
Cindy
rated it:
This book was so slow at the beginning that I almost did not finish it. The main character is self center, egotistical and not a character I want to read about. He redems himself towards the end but at a high cost. I would not recommend this book to my freinds. It took way to much effort to finish it. NOrmally I would read a book of this size in a sitting or two and this took one long and painful week.
Aug 26, 2011
Nader
rated it:
I'm not normally one for sappy romance novels, even if they are written by post-modern hipster socialites. I found to my great surprise that this book was more of a love letter to the craft of creative writing in the English language. Davies has an immense vocabulary, and he has no difficulty showing it off while simultaneously weaving a charming story about a whiny deadbeat who can't seem to get the girl.
May 23, 2011
Deena
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Such an interesting point of view. Most chick-lit is written from the woman's point of view. This one is from the man's. You watch as his life unravels and he becomes rather unlikable (other than his steadfast, but undeclared love for Evie), then cheer as he begins to put himself back together again. I enjoyed it- very different and fun.
Mar 18, 2011
Kjersti
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The main character becomes more and more of an unlikeable, stagnant, helpless asshole until he comes close to Chuck Pahlaniuk levels of irritation - but then the woman he loves pops his bubble by pointing out what a cliche he is. Revelation and refrain: "Cliches aren't cliches when they happen to you!"
Jul 21, 2010
Lauren
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This is the second time I've read this book. I read it for the first time 8 years ago right after it was published. I distinctly remember how much I enjoyed the book the first time around. I find this fascinating now, seeing as 80% of the books references would have been lost on me back then. Now, having lived in New York, I was able to relate to the book on a whole other level, thus making it even more enjoyable. Point being: good book, worth a read or two. Will it change your life? Perhaps if
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Jan 28, 2010
Shauna
rated it:
I read it because it was there, and liked it ok, but when it came time to pass it on to someone (the set condition for me borrowing it in the first place) I couldn't think of anyone I'd recommend it to. The writing was clever, but it left little impression on me other than that.
Jul 25, 2010
Mckenzie
rated it:
Hysterical, heart wrenching, frustrating and a great ride. I can't wait to read more my Davies. He is very unique and seems to have a voice all different readers can relate to. Read this book if you've ever had a bad relationship. I promise you'll love it.!!
Dec 26, 2008
Matt
rated it:
I was impressed by this debut. The story is funny, moving, and very personal. The idiosyncrasies revealed about the main character are very entertaining. I felt a bit lost at the end of the story, but maybe you could call the ending non-traditional, which was nice in a way.
Apr 04, 2011
Allison
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I really enjoyed the play with language in this book. The smart style is refreshing. I did however see the end coming. And while Harry isn't reformed by any stretch of the imagination at the end of the novel. He doesn't learn a whole lot either. I like that.
May 23, 2009
javier
rated it:
it's one of those i'm-alone-in-the-world-feel-sorry-for-me type books, but soooo much better than dave eggers' a heartbreaking story of staggering genius.
i found the author's banter very witty. especially when the main character has all sorts of ridiculous rules for staying single, and all sorts of inside jokes. It made me think to myself that i'd like to be more that way.... but that it's just not my nature to have inside jokes. i probably just have very simple dialog running throug More...
i found the author's banter very witty. especially when the main character has all sorts of ridiculous rules for staying single, and all sorts of inside jokes. It made me think to myself that i'd like to be more that way.... but that it's just not my nature to have inside jokes. i probably just have very simple dialog running throug More...
