Rating: 
Summary: DISAPPOINTING
Review: Simply put, I think this book is awful. To me it's the worst fiction so far in 2004, and possibly one of the worst books of 2003. Hackneyed plot, narcissistic and annoying lead character, cardboard female characters, and writing that could have used some good, solid editing. So what is my take? Put Kyle Smith's "Love Monkey" on your Not To Do list.
Rating: 
Summary: "Even the most impartial observer"
Review: I stand corrected, 'Gilesy43 from Bangor, Maine,' and thanks for your sharp-eyed vigilance. As you observe (below), there are some genuinely impartial readers out there who've been unimpressed with LOVE MONKEY and who've posted their negative reviews here on Amazon--not just the "spiteful low-lives" (as you called them) with personal vendettas against the author, but some ACTUAL readers like yourself! I disagree w/ you that "even the most impartial observer can recognize" that the book is "a disaster"--beauty in the eye of the beholder and all that--but not with your right to say so. And I couldn't agree more with your assessment that "delusion runs thick and fast in the publishing industry"--passionate delusion is, in fact, its principle fuel! [May we infer from this insight some prior experience in this field, perhaps?] So I appreciate your participation in this dialog, even though your comments reflect poorly (but accurately, no doubt) on me. No, what I take issue with is the individual who has been abusing the anonymity that this site allows, to post perhaps as many as two dozen nastily personal 'reviews' under the pretense of being numerous individual readers--it's this "reviewer"'s cowardly sniper-attact, without attribution, that is so tiresome. If he's got a legitimate beef with the book, he should (as "real" reviewers must) go on the record--identify himself (and by name, not as, say, Freddy from Fredericksburg), state his case emphatically and with great specificity--and let his critical eloquence speak for itself (or not, as the case may be). Since he won't do so, one can only infer that his vehemence is based on something else--perhaps he's a writer himself, unable to get published? or whose book was poorly reviewed by PEOPLE Magazine, where Kyle Smith works? I'm not suggesting that all of the negative reviews LOVE MONKEY's received are illegitimate, nor that every negative review found herein is result of some sort of personal payback--a negative PEOPLE review, say, begetting a negative Amazon review. But any fool (and I stand implicated) can see what's going on here. Whattaya say, 'Gilesy43 from Bangor, Maine'--think this fella has the stones to quit this vituperative nonsense and come out from behind the curtain? Nah, me neither...
Rating:
Summary: thoroughly entertaining
Review: There are so many pleasures in this debut novel that it's hard to know where to begin. On one level, it's a sharp-eyed comedy with lots to say about single men chasing women (and their own demons), various New York city movers looking for an angle, the way well-meaning friends can give each other hilariously bad advice, and the (many) little ways that people who like each other can find their romance interrupted by a cellphone call or a law school exam. On another level, though, it's more serious than that; Smith is a comedian-philosopher. It's one of the best books I've read in the last year.
The book starts inside the cluttered mind of a confused 30-year-old man named Tom Farrell. Gradually, as he fires off joke after joke about how tired he is of being single, being harassed by his mother to get a serious girlfriend, of watching too much TV, we come to realize that he is seriously head over heels for a lovely aspiring ballet dancer named Julia. Both of them work at a grimy, hard-hitting, cynical New York newspaper called the Tabloid, and the fast-talking scenes at the paper are like a modern day update of the great screwball comedies like His Girl Friday. Despite knocking himself out trying to impress her--the scene where he tries to make a romantic dinner for Julia in his cramped apartment despite having no cooking ability grander than the skill to heat soup or spread peanut butter is particularly amusing-- Tom can't get Julia to commit to him. In fact, it takes him a good long while to even figure out that she already has a boyfriend, and isn't particularly looking for a new one. Nevertheless, her evenings with Tom get increasingly steamy.
Tom is forced to go back out on the town looking for someone to comfort him, and Smith perfectly evokes the upscale bar scene in New York City. Tom has one longtime best friend/enemy named Bran, who is every bit his match in cynicism and wisecracking, and like him she is a journalist. Unlike him, she takes it seriously, and thanks to the magic of the cellphone she is rarely separated from work for more than minutes. This makes Tom increasingly frustrated, but he can't resist Bran and at times he almost tells her so. Meanwhile, Bran's friend, a lawyer, comes on the scene and Tom quickly discovers that flirting with Bran's friend seems to make Bran more interested in him. The way all this stuff ends up may surprise you, especially as the book takes a more sombre turn towards the end. Love Monkey reminded me of the most intelligent romantic comedies, the ones you quote to your friends, like Annie Hall, When Harry Met Sally or Say Anything. But, with its frequent allusions to Hemingway and Bob Dylan's masterpiece Blood on the Tracks, it will leave you not only with a smile, but with a few things to think about. Ultimately it's the story of a guy very aware of his own faults who is trying his best to improve.
Rating:
Summary: very funny and very true
Review: I got a big jolt out of this book because it has so many piercingly accurate things to say about the single-guy life. When he's firing off one hilarious one liner after another about his dating life, being bewildered by overly proud Super Parents or mocking the ink-stained hacks who work at New York city tabloids, Tom Farrell says the kinds of things a lot of guys say to themselves late at night after a couple of drinks. I haven't read a book as funny as this in a long time, but it's not flashy sitcom-style jokes on the one hand or moronic frat-boy jokes on the other hand. It's sophisticated, smart and, in the end, even profound. Great job.
Rating:
Summary: You'll fall in love with this book
Review: What an amazing book. Witty throughout, frequently hilarious and sometimes tell-a-friend-the-next-day, bust-a-gut, fall-down funny, Love Monkey also carries a suprising amount of soul-searching. The characters are all believable, especially when they screw up, and the fast-paced New York City setting adds a lot to the mix. The main guy, Tom Farrell, cracks so many jokes at his own expense-he's a lonely bachelor looking for love- that you're right there rooting for him even when his dates go bad. This is a book you will recommend to everyone you know. It'll make a really good romantic comedy movie for John Cusack or somebody like that.
Rating:
Summary: HILARIOUS AND HONEST -- COULDN'T PUT IT DOWN
Review: LOVE MONKEY may be called "lad lit," but as a 30-year-old woman, I found it far more entertaining than the vapid "chick lit" offerings out there. Not only was it -- according to my guy friends, who recommended the book -- an accurate and honest peek into the male psyche, but the author's wit and insightful observations about our culture, dating, the ways men and women view the world differently and the same, loneliness, longing, and even the media world had me turning the pages until the very last one, all in one sitting. I laughed aloud -- not only while reading LOVE MONKEY, but in remembering specific phrases or scenes later on. This book is a stand-out. HIGHLY RECOMMENDED.
Rating:
Summary: I laughed, I cried, I laughed some more
Review: The book really gets you in the heart because the dates seem so real and the people in it aren't like sitcom people. They actually have pluses and minuses and they screw things up and they do things for the wrong reasons. The best were the scenes between this tabloid headline writer named Tom and his best friend/best enemy Brandy, who works in TV and is one of those people who is constantly checking in to work on her cellphone. They're an almost couple who spend Valentine's Day moaning about how neither of them can find a date and bickering about whether he should buy her flowers or not. And the scene where disaster results from them both having exactly the same kind of cellphone with the same ring is the kind of thing I can really picture happening. I really liked the style of writing too. It was pretty much funny all the way, with no dead spots. Also it wasn't predictable like some of these books. It was one of the best things I've read lately.
Rating:
Summary: I laughed so hard, my stitches came out
Review: Don't read this book while drinking milk, okay? It's guaranteed to come out your nose. That can't be attractive. Listen, this is one of the funniest books you'll ever read. My favorite is the scene in the gym where this likable loser named Tom, who says he is "just three skinny guys trapped in the body of a fat man," notices that "there are mirrors on every wall, mirrors on every side of every column...it's like a fun house, only for fun, substitute "bone-cracking agony." And by the time he gets off the treadmill? "It's as if I'd been dipped in sweat salsa. For something to do while I gasp for life, I press a button. The calorie meter says I have burned...a third of a Big Mac." Yeah big fella, I've been there too. This is the kind of book you have to read aloud to your friend because it's so $%&*@ funny. Word.
Rating:
Summary: er, uh, the, no, ah, um......
Review: Kyle Smith's LOVE MONKEY is so below par that I can't find the words to express my response to it. The story is one we've all read before, and not particularly memorable; the writing is not even MFA workshop-worthy; it's more college-level. I suppose that frat boys might think this book was good, but can't imagine anybody else would. I couldn't get into it, and couldn't get past the bad prose. What I could do, thankfully, was put the book down, and move on to something better........
Rating:
Summary: really liked it
Review: It's hard to believe anyone could not like such a warm, truthful, yet hilarious account of the madness of being single.
Love Monkey has so many great insights into what it takes for people to get it together, it's hard to know where to begin, so you'll just have to check it out for yourself. There's a funny scene in the gym where the hero, Tom, wonders, "Why can't men and women understand each other? Look to the gym, where by using the exact same equipment, men hope to become larger and women hope to become smaller." There are also some quietly romantic moments between Tom and the women in his life, Julia (who already has a boyfriend and anyway doesn't seem to be the right one for Tom) and Bran, a television reporter who is constantly insulting him but also clearly has a soft spot for him. I was hoping Tom would make the right choice, but with a guy like this, you know he's going to make many, many hilarious mistakes on the path to self-knowledge. The waiting list to get this book at the public library I went to was so long, I had to buy it.... but, hey, kids, it's worth it.
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