Honk If You Love Aphrodite

by Daniel Evan Weiss

Written in the epic style of Homer, Honk If You Love Aphrodite is a modern-day tale of one man's odyssey across New York City to the woman he adores. Aphrodite, goddess of love, sends her son to deliver this mortal Stanley Short-Sleeves from many perils; the treacherous subway and underworld below it; a bewitching Voodoo dancer; a drug dealer whose turf Stanley trangresses; and strange women unaccountably besotted with him. However, the greatest obstacle is not the colorful mortals Stanley encounters, or even the gods of the modern world, but rather Stanley's own divided heart. Does he truly want to return to the woman, as he claims? It is the duty of the son of Aphrodite to find out before the dawn. This swift, hilarious adventure sweeps the reader through the city, and ultimately through the many faces of love in our time.

Genres: Fiction, Poetry

192 pages, Paperback

First published May 15, 1999

About the author

Daniel Evan Weiss is the author of four novels: The Roaches Have No King, Hell on Wheels, Honk if You Love Aphrodite, and The Swine’s Wedding. His most recent book is non-fiction, The Magic of Middle-aged Women: Romance, Sex, Deviance--Freedom.

Reviews

[Starr ❇✌❇ · Rating 1 out of 5]

TW: incest, rape (false identity), textual racism & fatphobia

Well. I got this book because I want to read more indie and older works, and because it was meant to be written in an epic poetry style, like The Odyssey. Some of the things that didn't work for me may be due to it being from the 9os and having the coarseness of an indie, but I genuinely just really disliked this book.

Not only is there very little plot, but it also doesn't manage to stick with the "epic poetry" style enough to be an interesting read at least. All we get are wild tangents about fake Greek mythos, mostly only told in order to be racist.

There is only Black woman in this book and she is a fat, domineering, sex obsessed woman. There is on Black man and he is a drug dealing high on crack, who is immediately described as looking "slave-like". He is only referred to as "The Nubian" and is told a whole story excusing slavery and racism by blaming those things- and an implied primitive infighting in the Black people & Africa- on their own god, and having them be "lesser" the curse given.

There were moments this book could have been entertaining but it always sharply veered away from then. A nice Jewish family came into the page and I full body cringed because I was afraid of how gross is could get (mostly just overwriting Jewish dialogue and saying the Jewish god isn't real). Everyone in this book is a stereotype and they don't even have the decency to do anything interesting

[Nick Colen · Rating 4 out of 5]

A more relatable Odyssey than THE odyssey. Daniel Evan Weiss is one of my all time favorite authors. The NY called him "the evil kanievel of novelist" his stories are gritty to the point of being filthy but they also feature more heart and honesty than almost any of his more famous contemporaries.

[Christopher · Rating 4 out of 5]

The prose style takes a little getting used to, as the whole book is written in the style of an epic poem. Once you get past that, however, you'll find that this is a funny, touching, and smart treatise on the nature of love and sex in modern America. It's like a cross between The Odyssey and Scorsese's After Hours. Between this and The Roaches Have No King, Weiss definitely deserves a spot in the pantheon of great contemporary writers, and it's a shame that he's not more well known.

[Keatonship · Rating 3 out of 5]

Interesting as an experiment in writing style, and I loved some of the turns of phrase. The story is dece, but I didn’t adore.

[k · Rating 3 out of 5]

Seesawed between great and maddening and boring (it's a three-sided seesaw). The idea and execution are impressive, occasionally the humor and language were perfect (Olympians taking over the Catskills with the invention of borscht and stand up comedy...) and the final conflict between Aphrodite and son (ending with the "My love for love" line) was a great nugget of tragedy. The maddening parts were that somehow for all the subtle tracings of modern love, plenty of less subtle territory wasn't covered. Were the son's actions at the end actually for the better? Did Aphrodite really equate cheap temptation with real love? Somehow there's no justice, ironic or poetic or otherwise, in the son's final punishment, because at no point do you think Stanley is not deserving of love. And, worse, sections of the book just came across as cliches, already familiar points of view on love being presented just to cover the bases, without offering a challenge. The curse of Nablus section was indicative about what I didn't like about the book - a Greek retelling of what's a hashed out and small-minded idea, and you can't tell whether your negative reaction is intended by the author or not. My suspicion is not.

[Charles · Rating 3 out of 5]

While I enjoyed this book, I am a little disappointed. It is inventive and entertaining and Weiss manages to pull off the pseudo-Greek-epic-in-verse thing without being pretentious or shticky. However, his ultimate take on the theme of love seems cliche and sappy and unconvincing (it took me a while to understand why Stanley is hesitant to get home, because his reason really is trivial and unmotivating, especially in light of his apparent deep love for his wife). After reading "The Roaches Have no King," I expected something more edgy and insightful from Weiss. Any edge in "Honk if You Love Aphrodite" is purely ornamental, and real insight is reserved for incidental topics like the obesity and bad taste of Americans. Still, a quick and lively read, even if a bit underwhelming in the end.

[Chris · Rating 3 out of 5]

Not my favorite of this author's books, perhaps because it is almost entirely wound around it's premise, and never really gets to anything that makes sense. The protagonist is out to prove that love exists. It's hard to say whether or not he does in the end. Therefore, I am not really sure what the point is here.