false http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1172260713m/155870.jpg 155870 4 A mediocre book leaves you cold. But an almost-great book--that's enough to make you gnash your teeth. In his debut novel, <I>The Frog King</I>, Adam Davies maddeningly fails to recognize and develop the terrific material he has at hand. Harry Driscoll, raised in privilege and Ivy League-educated, is a peon at a prestigious New York publishing house--in fact, the house is called Prestige--and he hates it: hates the menial labor, hates the intellectual pretension, hates the political jockeying necessary to advancement. Driscoll is terrific on the disappointment peculiar to the overeducated and underemployed: "All those years of schooling (Yes I speak Old English!) and resumé building. (Yes I interned on Capitol Hill!) didn't pertain at all to the life that was waiting for me." The insider peek at New York publishing is terrific, too, if scant: "There's a joke at Prestige that <I>The New Yorker</I> will publish any story that ends with the word 'home.'" Davies devotes most of his energy, however, to Harry's somewhat mystifying relationship with his girlfriend Evie. He loves her madly, but he's sleeping around. When he loses her, he continues to lie to her even as he tries to win her back. Davies may have some kind of emotional profile in mind for Harry, but he fails to put it across to the reader. Fortunately, the well-observed social comedy and nicely exaggerated workplace farce more than make up for the rest of the novel's shortcomings. <I>--Claire Dederer</I> 502463 6 8 2002 The Frog King total:442|5:71|4:130|3:155|2:58|1:28| 442 1484 551 69 5 1 false false Mon Apr 01 00:00:00 -0800 2002 Thu Aug 16 17:32:00 -0700 2007 Thu Aug 16 20:14:17 -0700 2007 more...]]> 3 1 false false Tue Jan 01 00:00:00 -0800 2002 Fri Aug 10 15:09:49 -0700 2007 Fri Aug 10 15:18:28 -0700 2007 more...]]> 3 0 false false Tue Apr 28 00:00:00 -0700 2009 Sat Apr 25 19:06:55 -0700 2009 Tue Apr 28 21:11:23 -0700 2009 more...]]> 3 0 false false Wed Jul 22 00:00:00 -0700 2009 Tue Jul 14 17:24:29 -0700 2009 Wed Jul 22 12:38:32 -0700 2009 more...]]> 3 0 false true Tue Dec 30 00:00:00 -0800 2008 Tue Dec 30 08:31:39 -0800 2008 Tue Dec 30 22:42:46 -0800 2008 1
The book was a quick read for the first 150 pages, but once Harry started hitting the bottom I had to put the book down...more...]]> 2 0 false false Mon Dec 01 00:00:00 -0800 2008 Sat Dec 06 12:52:23 -0800 2008 Wed Jan 07 19:43:54 -0800 2009 more...]]> 2 0 false false Tue Sep 04 14:58:13 -0700 2007 Sat Sep 29 09:21:11 -0700 2007
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Ok ok ok ok. Now look. This book caused in me all sorts of crises. Pretty much I hated it, but not exactly for all the right...more...]]> 3 0 false false Sat Sep 01 00:00:00 -0700 2007 Thu Jun 21 08:23:24 -0700 2007 Fri Sep 28 07:25:45 -0700 2007 more...]]> 3 0 false false Wed Apr 18 10:52:43 -0700 2007 Wed Apr 18 10:59:57 -0700 2007
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 unbelieva...more...]]> 2 0 false false Sat Jan 10 00:00:00 -0800 2009 Mon Jan 19 15:58:46 -0800 2009 Mon Jan 19 16:01:10 -0800 2009 more...]]> 4 0 false false Tue Mar 01 00:00:00 -0800 2005 Mon Dec 22 20:54:57 -0800 2008 Fri Dec 26 07:39:32 -0800 2008 4 0 false false Thu Jul 01 00:00:00 -0700 2004 Sun Mar 18 22:19:41 -0700 2007 Sat May 23 00:38:10 -0700 2009 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 a...more...]]> 1 0 false false Wed Jan 28 10:50:46 -0800 2009 Wed Jan 28 10:52:01 -0800 2009 1 0 false false Sat Dec 01 00:00:00 -0800 2007 Wed Dec 12 14:01:13 -0800 2007 Wed Dec 12 20:10:05 -0800 2007
I started reading while standing up at Barnes and Noble, and after the fantastic first pages I bought a cup of coffee and sat dow...more...]]> 5 0 false false Tue Jan 20 11:15:50 -0800 2009 Tue Jan 20 11:16:43 -0800 2009 Damn you Davies!]]> 3 0 false false Wed Mar 04 07:59:46 -0800 2009 Wed Mar 04 08:01:56 -0800 2009 5 0 false false Fri Aug 31 06:04:15 -0700 2007 Fri Aug 31 06:09:50 -0700 2007 more...]]> 3 0 false false Wed Mar 26 00:00:00 -0700 2008 Wed Mar 26 17:19:19 -0700 2008 Wed Mar 26 17:23:02 -0700 2008 Goodbye Lemon. The story in this first novel was, I found, more realistic, more believable. The more I think about the two books, however, I realize that the character development was either non-existent or too big of a jump. I realize tha...more...]]> 3 0 false false Tue Jun 09 09:23:46 -0700 2009 Tue Jun 09 09:27:48 -0700 2009 3 0 false false Thu May 14 00:00:00 -0700 2009 Mon May 11 21:09:29 -0700 2009 Thu May 14 10:16:23 -0700 2009 http://www.goodreads.com/book_link/follow/8?book_id=155870