Rating: 
Summary: It's funny 'cause it's true
Review: All right, dammit, I'm one of those thirtysomething, single writer-editor types with Star Wars videotapes living in NYC that Smith had in mind when he wrote this book, so some might say that makes me biased. _I_ say it makes me an expert! And the book is brilliant. But it doesn't just capture immature Gen Xers and New Yorkers. It turns every fumbling moment from every nerve-wracking date any of us has ever been on into painful comedy: How can I kiss her if she doesn't put that water glass down? Can I make this home-cooked meal seem classy even though I only have one bowl in the entire apartment? Am I a lying monster if she praises an album I hate and I say nothing? And looming in the background of it all, the question as haunting as mortality itself: Will I ever really mature while I have access to the Cartoon Network? The anguished -- yet ironic! -- cry of a lame generation.
Rating:
Summary: I love this book
Review: If you have ever lived and dated in the NYC area, you will completely relate to and enjoy this book, although I can't imagine that there is anyone out there who wouldn't find Love Monkey thoroughly amusing. I seriously laughed out loud the whole way through and even cried once or twice. Chic lit was soooo over, but Kyle Smith reinvented it. As a former New Yorker, I wish I read it back in my single days, because I would have understood a lot more about what guys are actually thinking about (other girls!). But this book also reminds us that even the most cynical, immature guy can fall in love. And I fell in love with this book.
Rating: 
Summary: Not very impressed by this novel.
Review: Meet Tom Farrell...average guy looking for love in all the wrong places. Tom believes he should live his life as a thirteen year-old boy playing sports and chasing girls, oh and by spending his Saturday mornings watching cartoons.Tom is a headline writer for the New York Tabloid, a job he likes but knows won't amount to much more. His love life is nothing to talk about, until he meets a new coworker. Julia is spontaneous and fun, and after a few dates Tom is hooked. Unfortunately, the harder Tom falls for Julia, the faster she runs in the opposite direction until a tragedy strikes and everyone must look at themselves and how they are living their lives. 'Love Monkey' should have been a cool male novel about love and life in Manhattan, unfortunately it's a slow novels filled with too many pop culture references and too much sarcasm in the form of the main characters thoughts. The book is written in the first person and quickly becomes tiresome as every thought going through Tom's mind is explained and examined thoroughly with witty comments thrown in for comic relief. I had a hard time getting through this book; the writing style is choppy, the characters uninteresting and the plot never really goes anywhere, but I did stick with it in hopes of it getting better and it did, somewhat. The novel did pull together toward the end, but by then it was a little too late. Kyle Smith does show promise of being an exciting author, especially since he is among the few writing this type of fiction for men. If he tweaks out the kinks that slowed this novel down his next book could be a big hit. Nick Gonnella
Rating:
Summary: Love Makes a Monkey of Us All
Review: A dazzling debut by a very funny and talented writer--as a fellow male member of the NYC generation between the Boomers and the Xers, this one brought back all of the memories of the exhilarating highs and the inevitable lows of the dating jungle inhabited by said Love Monkey. While it speaks to a very specific place and time, aspects of the tale are timeless, so here's hoping that this one is around for quite a while. Smith turns a phrase with the best of them; sprinkled in with his take on big picture themes are some classic witticisms out of the mouths (and, in at least one case, groins) of some unforgettable characters. To all who haven't read it yet, Enjoy!
Rating:
Summary: Love Monkey Shines!
Review: In this day and age of drab dates, women may be better off spending a few evenings at home curled up with Kyle Smith's Tom Farrell character. He's funny, intelligent and (though he tries hard to hide it) incredibly sexy and romantic. It makes you want to shake up some of the female characters in the book for writing him off. Smith also succeeds in making New York City the book's second most intriguing character, capturing all the sounds, smells, and excitement-in-the-air sense that is the city. So take note: there's only a few episodes of "Sex and the City" left. Get "Love Monkey" and ease those withdrawal pains!
Rating:
Summary: I flipped for Love Monkey!
Review: Some people will want to call Kyle Smith a "poor man's Fitzgerald," but I think "Love Monkey" shows that he's a "rich man's Nick Hornby." Skewering the callow world of New York's tabloid culture, Smith serves up an anti-hero for our celebrity-saturated time. His Tom Fallon is at once a product and a victim of this age and, as such, "Love Monkey" will live on as a historical timepiece. I hope future generations won't judge us too harshly, but the truth of Smith's book makes it all too clear that they will.
Rating:
Summary: meh
Review: the main character repeatedly calls himself a "manboy", but the author went overboard trying to prove this. the writing comes off as immature and extremely chauvinistic. his overall prose style was okay. it was an easy read, but there was pretty much no plot. kind of boring, actually.
Rating:
Summary: superb peek at guy life
Review: I have found myself getting a little bit bored with the very slight, very predictable genre of stories about smart, stylish people dating in the big city, but Smith's novel turns the whole category on its ear with his furiously funny, savagely accurate portrayal of what it's like to be single, getting into your 30s, and yet still unattached. The women I know love this book, not only because of its many hilarious, unforgettable set pieces but because it all comes with a healthy serving of heart, introspection and self-deprecation. Beneath it all, it turns out, Tom Farrell, that cynical, joke-slinging tabloid journalist, is something of a romantic, and as you follow his funny journey you'll be hoping he finds what he's looking for.
Rating:
Summary: Think With the Right Head!
Review: There is no one who can resist a novel that features a conversation between a man and his penis. This is the sort of chat that many of us have, in fact, had with our "love monkeys" -- usually after a disastrous decision made by him for which WE are held responsible by society.
Some of us are blessed with a penis who actually responds to our questions in full sentences. Mine speaks with a posh British accent, for some reason, but only after I have consumed a great deal of alcohol.
This is the story of Thom, our thirty-something protagonist, who is gainfully employed by a tabloid that resembles a combination of the New York Post and a supermarket newspaper. He is lonely, horny, romantic despite himself, and besotted from the moment he meets Julia, a charmer, with "mysterious green eyes."
It is an understatement to say that "I can relate to this material."
The wit on display in this work bears comparison with the likes of Martin Amis and vintage Gore Vidal, the plotting is adequate, Julia had me falling in love too. On the whole, the novel is a great pleasure and has hooked me on Kyle Smith's prose for life.
You will enjoy this book.
Rating: 
Summary: not so so so bad
Review: LOVE MONKEY honestly could be worse. I don't think it was a total waste of my time. I do think I found myself scanning to the end beacause a friend reccomended it and gave me his copy over a month ago so I felt bad not finishing it. But not 'cause I wanted to . But I felt I had to write something here and that's this: If the six or seven very funny pages were folded down when you started reading it miiiight be worth it, but overall the writing is really stale and there is no plot or charachter that kept my interest. My definition of a beach read where you're not really paying attention anyway but want a laugh every once in a while.
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