The Frog King

by Adam Davies

Book Overview

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 (but Harry Driscoll is not).

His education is Ivy League (but what good is it doing him?).

His publishing job is entry level (with no exit in sight).

BUT...

Harry Driscoll has a dream (if you call an unfinished manuscript hidden in the closet a "dream").

Harry Driscoll...

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1573229385
• ISBN13: 9781573229388
• Release Date: August 2002
• Publisher: Penguin Publishing Group
• Length: 338 Pages
• Weight: 0.66 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.9" x 5.2" x 8.1"
• Age Range: 18 years and up
• Grade Range: Postsecondary and higher

Customer Reviews

I Couldn't Put this Book Down

The Frog King is a perfect example of having exactly what you're looking for right under your nose, but not seeing it. Harry has the perfect girlfriend in Evie (who he loves but can't seem to tell her), yet he continues to womanize. Of course when they break up, he does whatever he can to get her back (yet can't quite stop lying to her). On top of his woman problems, Harry hates his job at a publishing company and seems to sabotage everything he does there. Harry frustrated me so much! I wanted to give him a little smack to wake him up. Frustrations aside it was hard to not like him, as he is quite charming. I couldn't put the book down, I just had to keep reading and hoping that things to work out for him in the end.

A big kiss for a little book

I collect frogs. So when I saw signed copies of this book left by the author in a bookstore, I had to buy one. It sat on the shelf for a loooong time. Now I'm sorry I didn't read it sooner. I'd have had a much bigger vocabulary much earlier!Harry Driscoll is a bad boyfriend. He has no money. He smells. He has funky rashes. He drinks too much. He has lost his sense of compassion. And, although he loves his girlfriend, Evie, he refuses to say the words. Eventually, he loses her, and, frankly, you'll be glad. After all, how can you respect Evie if she stays?Harry makes some changes in his life in order to win back the girl of his dreams. Does it work? I won't tell, but you'll be surprised and even pleased with the outcome.For me, this book was a delightful education. See, Harry Driscoll reads the dictionary, and, because he does, the novel is full of delicious words you'd never dreamed existed--words for things you'd never dreamed existed! I can't wait for Adam Davies' next book. Meanwhile, I'll be practicing omphaloskepsis.

IT ISN'T EASY BEING GREEN

'The Frog King' dances around the 'L' word in special way The novel "The Frog King: A Love Story" by Adam Davies is an honest depiction of New York City living that explores the frustration of Harry Driscoll as he searches for the answers to healthy relationships and his editorial assistantship at the Prestige Publishing company. This satirical and comedic new novel, released in August, presents a touching story that will make you laugh, cry and kiss every amphibian that crosses your path. Driscoll, a condescending Manhattan 20-something, hates his job, is terrified of commitment, denies his alcohol dependency and detests the reckless usage of the word "love" so much, he cannot bring himself to tell his girlfriend Evie Goddard that she is the most fantastic thing that has ever happened to him.Their serendipitous romance and random displays of affection stand as pillars of wit while Harry's troublesome behavior tests the strength of their untraditional relationship.Davies' semi-autobiographical narrative demonstrates his true grasp of character detail and cultural awareness. The story's theme exemplifies Harry's opinion regarding the four lettered "L" word. "I love you is the cliched expression of the moronically unimaginative. It's for greeting cards for people who don't have the originality to say what they really mean," Driscoll says. His consequential loneliness opens his eyes to friends he never knew he had; from his homeless and admiring 12-year-old buddy, Birdie, to his intriguing coworker and comrade, Jordie Wesselesh. His Holden Caufield-like demeanor is comparable to the moods of "The Catcher in the Rye," "High Fidelity" and "Amelie". Davies' adventurous literary debut examines the natives of the Big Apple. "The Frog King: A Love Story" illustrates the paradoxical aspects of love and is sure to leap-frog into a special little place in your heart.

brillig

The Frog King is to the novel as the Krispy Kreme is to the doughnut. People should stand in line to get one. I could not put it down. Although I read it in two days (at the supermarket, in line at LL Bean, walking down the street), I later wished I had controlled my appetite for his delicious prose so that it had lasted longer. But then Krispy Kremes do that to you.Enough of the doughnot analogy. Davie's is a master story teller. The reader gets inside Harry Driscoll's mind---from one digression to the next. You can almost feel yourself sinking with Harry the hairball, wanting to beg him to see what he's doing to himself and Evie. Publisher's Weekly didn't understand the book. It's a coming of age book. Yet it's also a book about not writing a book---until the end. It's a love story about someone who can't love. It's a non cliche about a cliche. It's a story of redemption and metamorphosis. It's a comedy about a tragedy.Although I'm long past Harry's age, I still have a memory. But even if I could not relate to Harry's character, I would love the book for Davies' writing. It was one of the best books I've read in a long time.

thank god my writing prof. doesn't suck...

is just one of the many thoughts which occurred to me during the first dozen pages or so of this delightful novel. i finished it a couple days ago, not without a pang of regret, and now i feel it is my duty to write a brief, glowing review. so first, here's what i scribbled on the glossy square of cardboard when i selected this book as my "bookseller's pick" the other day (i work at a sad little bookstore in athens, georgia, which is struggling to persevere, not unlike the book's lovably snooty protagonist, under the heavy burden of several tons of bad writing): "an intelligent, wholly original novel about a young man struggling to survive (literally!) in the cut-throat world of new york city book publishing, THE FROG KING is adam davies' flashy debut. a former creative writing professor at the university of georgia, davies has crafted a modern coming-of-age tale that manages to be at least as emotionally profound as it is hilarious. harry, his peaks-and-valleys hero, is complex and tragic, but also fiendishly witty and ultimately compassionate. as an editor at a prestigious publishing firm, his supreme enemy is the literary cliche, but what happens when he discovers that it is he himself who has become the biggest, most despicable cliche of them all?"ok, now onto other things, such as comparisons (no book review, however brief and glowing, is complete without them): the three books that come to mind when i think about THE FROG KING are michael chabon's MYSTERIES OF PITTSBURGH (which is less affecting, less honest), jay mcinerney's BRIGHT LIGHTS, BIG CITY (which is less exciting, less funny), and gaitskill's TWO GIRLS, FAT AND THIN (which is less consistent, less engaging). all of these books are masterpieces in my mind, and all of them certainly have their strong suits. but now they've got a new roommate, a scampy rascal with a big fat heart and an even bigger and fatter vocabulary. so: buy this book and tickle your humanity. the end.