Love Monkey (novel)
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| Love Monkey | |
 Cover to the first USA edition |
|
| Author | Kyle Smith |
|---|---|
| Cover artist | Jacket Photograph (c) Royalty Free/Corbis |
| Country | United States of America |
| Language | English |
| Genre(s) | Comic novel |
| Publisher | William Morrow & Harper Perennial & HarperCollins e-books |
| Publication date | February 2004 |
| Media type | Print (Hardcover & Paperback) & e-book |
| Pages | 352 pages (Hardcover edition) & 368 (Paperback edition) |
| ISBN | ISBN 0-06-057453-4 (1st edition) & ISBN 0-06-057454-2 (Paperback) |
Love Monkey is a novel by Kyle Smith published in 2004, and is the basis for the 2006 CBS show of the same name, Love Monkey.
[edit] Plot introduction
Love Monkey is a novel about a man named Tom Farrell who is in his thirties and is living in the New York City of 2001 (pre, during and post 9/11). The novel is a Slice of Life type of book, briefly visiting several months of Tom Farrell's life, with a certain amount of romance and humor thrown in.
[edit] Explanation of the novel's title
The title, Love Monkey, is from a song lyric.
[edit] Plot summary
The book follows the life and times of Tom Ferrell as he attempts to live his life in New York City as an editor of the weekend edition of the New York City newspaper called Tabloid. As his friends and relatives advance in life (marriage, kids, etc), he finds himself basically treading water. He makes around $86,000 a year, but the most expensive item he owns is a several thousand dollar couch (doesn't own a high priced item like a home, car, etc.). The novel tracks Tom as he moves through his life, with each chapter being a day in his life during the year 2001 (not all days covered, and not all chapters start new days).
Throughout the book, Tom dates several women, including the woman he really fancies, Julia. Unfortunately for him, Julia is living with another man, and is ten years his junior in age. Julia also works at is an editor of the weekend edition of the New York City newspaper called Tabloid, but while Tom is an editor, Julia is just starting out.
Tom's days are filled with drinking, watching TV (lots of cartoons), working at Tabloid, and trying to deal with his deep desire to be in a relationship with Julia, who seems somewhat determined to not have said relationship.
On his ride through 2001, Tom interacts with some of his friends, including Bran, Karen & Mike, Rollo, and Shooter (among others).
[edit] Characters in Love Monkey
Tom Farrell: Narrator and star of the novel, Tom is a man of relatively average height who describes himself as having the shape of a bowling pin (pudgy, fat, overweight), who also happens to have long hair. Tom works as the editor for the weekend edition of the NYC newspaper Tabloid. Tom has worked the majority of his professional career at this newspaper. His friends include: his default date Bran, who is something of a female friend, though the relationship is undetermined; Karen & Mike, the married couple (and unlike in the TV series, Karen is not his sister); Shooter, the tall, powerful, rich, ladies man, who is black. Tom is from Maryland, and his Missouri breed mother still lives in Maryland as a dental hygienist.
Brandy 'Bran' Lowenstein: Bran works as a producer for a television news program, is Jewish, and is the “default” date for Tom. They tend to like each other, but not really in a romantic way.
Karen & Mike: Are Tom's married friends.
Katie/Kate/Katherine: Tom's law-student girlfriend, who is increasingly talking in lawyer speak, and whose personality shifts from tarot card reading Katie, to extremely serious Katherine as she moves through law-school.
Julia: Julia is the young new copygirl at Tabloid, and the woman that Tom cannot seem to get move past, or to get her to enter into a serious relationship with him.
Liesl: Another of Tom's girlfriend's, Liesl is of German descent and works for a legal organization that represents the high-profile terrorist, murder/serial killer type clients (like the terrorists who bombed the parking garage at the World Trade Center).
Shooter: Shooter comes from a very wealthy family, and briefly worked for his father's company. Due to some poor decisions, the father decided that it would be easier for all involved if Shooter would be given a sum of money and told to spend his life spending it. Shooter has some very strong feelings about women, and never has a problem finding a woman to spend some time with. There was one woman, though, that really got to him, and might have warped his mind.
Rollo: Respected veteran journalist, Rollo now spends his time as the movie reviewer at Tabloid, with Tom as his editor (and sometimes writer of the reviews). Well, mostly he spends his time drifting around bars getting drunk.
[edit] Major themes
thematic description
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[edit] Allusions/references to other works
Several Bob Dylan songs, including Idiot Wind, If You See Her Say Hello, Simple Twist of Fate, and You're Gonna Make Me Lonsome When You Go, and numerous other musical work are mentioned in this book (including Train's Drops of Jupiter (Tell Me), and Pink Floyd's The Wall). Tom writes a review for David McCullough's book John Adams.
[edit] Literary significance & criticism
"If it succeeds in its hack vernacular, it fails to offer any masculine insights for the curious." -Edward Champion, January Magazine[1]
"Love Monkey" is an engaging romp through the mind of a single guy -- at times laugh-out-loud funny, at times endearingly touching." - L.D. Meagher, CNN[2]
"LOVE MONKEY is a direct, if somewhat scary, glimpse into the unvarnished, single male psyche of modern day. It's a must-read for women in the dating scene, especially those who wonder what really goes on in the minds of men. As they say, forewarned is forearmed." -Aime Taylor, Bookreporter.com[3]
"The male response didn't take long to arrive. Soon there were lots of novels about young, urban men at work and play. Wags named it "DickLit". Of course, it was all about trend-hopping. "I thought that women would like to see Bridget Jones on the other side", Kyle Smith, the 32-year-old books and music editor of People magazine and author of Love Monkey has explained in an interview. "I wanted to show Bridget Jones in his Timberland shoes instead of his sling backs. So he has all the same concerns that she does, except from a different point of view." -?, GoodReports.net[4]
[edit] Reviews
- Edward Champion (2004). "Y-Chromosome Lit?". January Magazine March.
- L.D. Meagher (2004). "'Love Monkey' funny, revealing". CNN 7 April.
- Amie Taylor (?). "Love Monkey". BookReporter.com.
- ? (2004). "Love Monkey". GoodReports.net 17 April.
[edit] Allusions/references to actual history, geography and current science
The events that occurred during the attacks on September 11, 2001, are mentioned and witnessed by the characters in the book.
[edit] Film, TV or theatrical adaptations
Love Monkey has been adapted into the 2006 CBS television series Love Monkey.
[edit] Trivia
Love Monkey is Kyle Smith's first novel. Smith is the music review editor at People magazine.
[edit] Release details
- 2004, USA, William Morrow, ISBN 0-06-057453-4, February 2004, Hardcover
- 2005, USA, Harper Perennial, ISBN 0-06-057454-2, February 1, 2005, Paperback
