The Frog King: A Love Story

by Adam Davies

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 has a girl (although intercourse is out of the question).

Harry Driscoll even has feelings. (He asked this girl, one day in the park, to be in his life forever--and meant it!)

And the other girls? They're not the problem. (The problem is, Harry Driscoll cannot allow himself to say the word "love.")

Genres: Fiction, Contemporary, Humor, Romance, Chick Lit, New York, Novels

316 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2002

About the author

Adam Davies was born in Louisville, KY. He is the author of three novels: The Frog King, soon to be a major motion picture starring Joseph Godron-Levitt, with a script by Bret Easton Ellis; Goodbye Lemon, a family drama; and Mine All Mine, which was purchased for film with the author to write the screenplay. Adam's non-fiction has appeared in the New York Times and he has made many appearances on radio and television programs, including NPR and the A&E Channel's Breakfast with the Arts. His books are in print around the world in places such as Europe, Thailand, Russian, and Australia. He lives in Savannah, Georgia.

Reviews

[Oriana · Rating 2 out of 5]

Oh man. This book caused in me all sorts of crises. Pretty much I hated it, but not exactly for all the right reasons. I mean, some were the right reasons, like how the characters, while kind of well-developed, were still completely unbelievable in how they related to one another, and how the plot was pretty formulaic & flat. Also, it paints this terrible picture of New Yorkers, especially vis á vis the homeless (except for the "redemption" at the end, which was so corny and again unbelievable that it made my head hurt).

But really I hated it because he does a lot of the same things in his writing that I try to do in mine, and he does them in such a shitty way. I mean, here's this bildungsroman of a young, struggling writer in New York, trying to find "home" and happiness and success and love. Which should be great, right? But no no no. He is alternately wildly compassioinate and then eerily cold to his "love"; he is mystified when, after two straight years of coming in three hours late and not doing any work, he is fired instead of promoted; his New York seems to have about ten people in it, all of whom cross paths in the most "coincidental" ways; his "friends" are all caricatures; and his "change of heart" is so overly extreme as to be totally (again!) unbelievable.

But! The final but! The story actually moves! It skips along, and you kind of find yourself giving a shit what happens next. There are some very creative scenes, and pretty good dialogue, and nice little ideas that come through the murk. Plus he throws in tons of awesome words, in a nice logophilic subplot thingy. Which just made me madder because I couldn't hate it totally, even though I really, really wanted to.

At least he doesn't get the girl at the end. If he had I would have freaked out.

[Jessa · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book claims on the back cover that is is "NOT a fairytale", and couldn't be more right. It's a real look into the mind of a guy just like anybody; a guy trying to catch a break (at any cost) in a world that seems out to get him...a guy who loves words and hates his roommate. A guy who got the girl, but can't seem to keep her.

I don't really know if I connect with this book because I feel like I *am* the main character, or because I've just dated many of his ilk. Adam Davies provides a whirlwind view of one guy's life as he seesaws between egotism and self-loathing, pride and disappointment, and the terrifying discovery that he actually has feelings.

From a purely literary perspective, this book is a gem: it's written about the world of book publishing and there's a lot of conversations about lexicography and the history of words. It is clear that the author is a lover of language: he uses it beautifully and lovingly.

[Sternenstaubsucherin · Rating 4 out of 5]

Anfangs fand ich die Geschichte toll, den Schreibstil flüssig und wirklich gut zu lesen.
Mittig dann hat mich dieser arrogante Protagonist/Arschlochmann dermaßen genervt, dass ich kurz davor war, das Buch abzubrechen.
Aber gut Ding will Weile haben und das Durchhalten hat sich gelohnt.
Das Ende ist toll und hätte ich so jetzt nicht erwartet.
Kein Klassischer Liebesroman, aber trotzdem mehr Liebesroman als jedes Pilcher Buch!

[Jackie · Rating 1 out of 5]

I didn't like this book almost from the start, it uses many big words but puts them too close together and does not use them well, and the entire story is this really crappy guy writing exactly the story he spends all his time ripping on other slushies for submitting to the publishing firm he works for. I kept reading it because I always hope things will get better. They don't. Harry is annoying, the story is annoying, and most of it feels fake. The only believable part, to me, was the goriest scene, after which the writing picked up but the story didn't really improve. It might be some kind of big inside joke in the publishing industry, but saying how much you hate clichés whilst writing a big cliché is not very clever. It seems like he wants to be Bret Easton Ellis, but doesn't get what it is that makes the depraved people and behaviors Ellis writes about work, so all he ends up with is a disjointed and false-feeling story with a bit of really terrible illness in the middle of it.

I wouldn't recommend reading this to anyone. It won't make you happier, it won't teach you anything, and it won't make you a better person. I may not be the intended audience for this kind of work, but this is literally one of the only books I've ever read that I wanted to throw away afterwards.

[Evelyn H · Rating 3 out of 5]

I'm a bit biased for reasons I won't disclose, but I think I'm being fair in my assessment. I really wanted to love this book, and I did not dislike it (though I did dislike the main character, even though the author tried to give him redeeming qualities). Instead, I enjoyed it for what it is, a first time lad lit genre story. Anyone who has struggled as a twenty something in NYC will get some chuckles. Davies is talented, has an expansive vocabulary, and writes well. I look forward to reading more from him in the future.

[Barb Lawrence · Rating 5 out of 5]

I couldn't put this down, couldn't stop thinking about it. Davies' vocabulary is far better than mine, but so many of his sentences were magical that I was compelled to read with a pencil in one hand to underline passages that moved me. My copy is covered in graphite. One of the best books I've read--it made me introspective and set me on a roller coaster of thoughts, memories, purpose. I'm disappointed it's over.

[Lotte Kok · Rating 5 out of 5]

Elke keer sla ik 'm weer even open en voor ik het weet heb ik dit boek voor de vijfde keer uitgelezen. Het is briljant en retegrappig. Als Harry niet zo'n zak was zou ik 'm trouwen.

[liz · Rating 2 out of 5]

I saw this in the library a few days after I stumbled across it on Goodreads, and I have to say, the title is somewhat misleading. First off, I've read few novels with a less sympathetic narrator. I mean, I'm young, and broke, and live in the city, and it's always nice to read about other folks in the same situation... but I'm not SO broke that I steal condiments from bars to make meals out of, and can only afford to wash my clothes so infrequently that they're dirty enough that they give me a rash. You know? So he's totally in love with this girl, and he won't call her his girlfriend, he won't admit to any of it, even though he does do some wonderful things for her. And the girl is so incredibly quirky-perfect, with the patience of a saint and everything, that I did get a little sick of reading about her. (There's a whole other cultural discussion about the expectations set up by/reflected in movies/books/etc. that show life-changingly amazing women irrationally falling in love with schlubby loser guys.) But anyway, the ladyfriend has a bff who the guy hates (which I realized, after the guy and the bff fight - of course he hates her, she just wants what's best for her friend). The ending is okay. I wasn't blown away. A day or two after I finished reading, the song "Ambulance" by TV on the Radio came on my iPod, and I realized that the lyrics perfectly describe the book. So go listen to the song, because it's awesome, and leave the book alone.

[Quinn · Rating 1 out of 5]

Please read the comments for my updated review.

Old review (June 23rd, 2016): I loved this book. It was funny and completely REAL. The ending was perfect. The Frog King is definitely not a fairytale, and I spent a large part of the book waiting for Harry to change. He was a complete jerk obsessed with making his life better in a materialistic way. The author's use of big words added a sort of underlying cockiness to the book. Birdie, a young homeless girl, was a great character. She was sarcastic and annoying in the best way possible, and made you care about her. The negative, sarcastic, almost-always-doomed tone Harry talks in is brilliant. The Frog King brings you into the publishing world, the mind of a man unable to express affection towards a woman he loves (and keep himself off other "Dates"), and shows you how hard making it as an adult can be.

[Elle · Rating 2 out of 5]

I don't like this book enough to write a review twice. I had written a review but then something happened and I lost it. Suffice it to say that his usage of words interfered with the flow of the book sometimes. Sometimes the usage were cleaver and sometimes it just felt banal.

The book is well written and kept me involved in the plot but I think that at the end of it all, the book could have used plot development as well as character development. I also think that it was trying to hard to be a literary novel instead of being just a story. Maybe as a Master's Thesis, it was fine but as a book for enjoyment, it was lacking.

[Ryan Morris · Rating 4 out of 5]

Man, I love this book. It's what really got me into both reading and writing. Sure, there's parts now that induce some eye-rolling, but when those great moments hit there's nothing sweeter.
Davies is an underrated master of the humorous dialogue, and when you expect something predictable to happen, it's usually the opposite. Harry Driscoll is not a hero by any stretch of the imagination, and many reviewers find it hard to cheer for the guy, but that is definitely NOT the point here. Harry is unique in his own cliche-laden way, and this is a journey I've taken many times now, and will probably enjoy it many more times.
Viva la viva la Frog King.

[Breanna Meyer · Rating 4 out of 5]

Started off thinking I wasn't going to enjoy this story. A lot of big words to the point that I wondered if this guy was going through a thesaurus for every sentence. But once I got used to the sentence structure and the fact that I'd just have to gloss over some words, I could get into the story. Really hated how much I liked Harry. He's a pretty awful person and having been in some of the situations he puts Evie in, I hate how much I enjoyed reading through his eyes! I did like how relatable this story was though and even inspiring in the end. I hope I can one day find the same push as Harry to get my life on a better path. Wish it would've ended differently with Evie, but I can't say I blame her for her actions in her last scene. Love the relationship between Harry & Birdie. Was pleased with the ideas of what could become of them. Overall I'm glad I picked this up at the library book sale! Viva La Evie!

[Valerie Nelson · Rating 3 out of 5]

I was torn on this one. It was frequently funny. Then not so much. The characters were people you might want to know. Then like real people they got annoying. The main character had many flaws and got redemption in the end, which I usually want in a story, but this felt too pat, like the book was coming to an end so the main character had to get with the program. I did like the writing style. I see in other reviews here on Goodreads that people don't like his use of "big words." But that's very apropos of the main character. All in all, I can't really recommend this book, but I wouldn't say avoid it either.

[Ashton · Rating 4 out of 5]

It took awhile for me to get into this book, but once I was in, I was really in. Harry Driscoll starts off as a relatively unlikeable guy and then devolves into the worst type of person and then further devolves into someone worth feeling for. While this was written over a decade ago, this book is still relevant and as a young 20 something, this book prodded—like really prodded. Read it, you’ll see exactly what I mean 1/3 of the way in. It’s a great read (especially after around page 75 in the paperback).

[Diane Adams · Rating 4 out of 5]

I picked this book up a while back, in a used bookstore, because I knew the author ages ago, perhaps when he was still in high school.

That made this a little difficult for me to read. I had trouble reconciling the kid I knew with the protagonist... Really hoping that this novel is not at all autobiographical! But I pushed through the parts where I really wanted to smack Harry (or perhaps give him a good mawashi-geri) and by the end I had even grown a bit fond of him.

I look forward to reading more of Adam's work!

[Tonya · Rating 2 out of 5]

I didn't love it. The characters were almost all horrible people. In real life, I couldn't be friends with any of them (except the homeless girl. She seemed cool). The secondary characters were so much better than the main ones. I did like the word games, though, and I might have to start playing them.

[Kamila Turek · Rating 3 out of 5]

2.7? Mam mieszane uczucia. Pierwsza połowa spowodowała że chciałam to odłożyć, ale że nie lubię tego robić to czytałam dalej i dobrze! Bo druga połowa ratuje! Harry to smutna postać, realistyczna - wierzę że jest sporo takich osób na świecie. Podoba mi się jego przemiana i cieszę się że na koniec nie zostaje z Evie, to dodaje więcej realizmu, a nie romansidła

[Lynn · Rating 4 out of 5]

The Frog King was a good read. That said, the book made me very uncomfortable because the leading character, Harry Driscoll, was so unlikable. Spoiler: Harry redeems himself in the end but I just am not convinced he will not backslide immediately.

[çağla · Rating 2 out of 5]

there were maybe three good lines in this book. i immediately disliked the prose and excessive use of big words (idc if thats on purpose) and hated the main character, which even if intentional was truly so unbearable i almost stopped reading this book and if i had i wouldnt have missed much

[Karen · Rating 3 out of 5]

A coming of age, into adulthood, for a young man that has made lots of mistakes and now must deal with the outcome. NYC in the nitty gritty publishing arena. Can Harry really grow up?

[Tara · Rating 4 out of 5]

Good book. A little slow but enjoyable.

[Benjamin · Rating 2 out of 5]

“But clichés aren’t clichés when they happen to you!”

[Trish · Rating 1 out of 5]

Couldn't even finish it. Don't waste your time.

[Kelly · Rating 1 out of 5]

Couldn't get into this one. Disliked the characters, and seemed to lack a cohesive story line.

[Alexander Von Roon · Rating 5 out of 5]

Love it. Wished it had been turned into a movie.

[Yvonne Baker · Rating 2 out of 5]

I got into the plot but about halfway through I lost all interest in it. Not the best read

[Jacki · Rating 4 out of 5]

fande das buch schon sehr gut und ging auch gut zum lesen.

[Laura · Rating 3 out of 5]

I'm really ambivalent about this book. I happen to know that the person who wrote it was in his twenties when this came out, so I want to give some consideration to the maturity of the artist in that respect because the best I can describe this is that it's an old, familiar story with fresh and lively elements to it. It's the story about a guy (in his twenties, of course) who has trouble with commitment, which is to say, same ole, same ole. There is no compelling reason why he should cheat on the girl he loves, or make it a point to get fired at his job after numerous warnings, but he does. He just can't help himself. For someone my age, this is boring: the invented torments of the privileged, young, handsome, white new york male. The story of the writer who destroys himself although, oh, the talent! The story of the guy who could clean himself up but is just too darned complicated to settle for simple. I had no sympathy for the character nor for his love interest. And there are so many stories like this that one could really start a genre.

Judith, the third element, is portrayed unflatteringly as a cougar with money, and Madeleine who is out to save her friend is "an angry woman." So much for having a perspective.

But the writing has its merit, and the characters are well drawn and do have interesting quirks. Harold, the main character, has the vocabulary of a lexicographer and he and his buddy at work play an amusing game of blurting out the most obscure vocabulary word they can think of, daring the other to come up with its definition. There is also the question and answer format of the first person narrative which remains fresh and amusing almost throughout the book, getting a little weighty only towards the end. In short, without making this review any longer than it needs to be, it's worth reading as the early work of a writer who has talent but has yet to learn to develop it, or to accumulate enough life experience to come up with a more original, more interesting story.

[Barbara ★ · Rating 2 out of 5]

I didn't like this book right from the start. By page 8, I was already skipping paragraphs of nonsensical prose.

Tonight however I'm already getting into trouble. Tonight I've already flirted (snicker-snack!) with the woman in the Machiavellian miniskirt and the bioluminescent makeup; the woman who had a mouth like a broken promise; the ballet dancer who was so nice that it obliterated her personality; the woman I know sits around her apartment with heavily impasto makeup and Nina Simone CD playing on repeat in case a foreign dignitary or divorced heart surgeon stops by for a cup of sugar and some matrimony; the doleful aphid who, while doing her most artful Scarlett, told me about her Bad Luck with idle lotharios who have nothing to offer (like myself) and who I know will eventually marry a bumptious banker from Baltimore and settle for a pyrrhic life of sailboats and polo party invitations that read Mr. and Mrs. Not Happy but Relieved Not to Be Alone.

Though my personal favorite was this paragraph

I peel off my clothes and squat genuflectively on the floor and start wringing it out in pleasureless, workmanlike movements. It's a wank only Henry Ford could love, but it does the job. Eventually I get that familiar feeling of efflorescent wetness in my veins and a gun-shy orgasm gurgles stupidly out. As the stringy discharge of bleach and baby powder splatters onto the crumpled paper of a slush manuscript I never sent back, I can't help blurting out the same words I always do when I come: Viva la Evie.

Yup after this I was hard pressed to continue reading this crap but I persevered and finished this god-awful book but only because I needed it for a challenge otherwise I would have promptly chucked it in the trash. Unfortunately I had to wait until page 322 to do just that. Good riddance to bad rubbish!

[Michael Edwards · Rating 3 out of 5]

I really need to start avoiding the young-man-in-big-city genre of books. There is something about them that just seems phony to me. They indirectly suggest to me that this is normal living on top of masses of lower living, that this is the way REAL life is. Call me defensive, it's O.K.

There is no doubt that Adam's prose is masterful. After all, he is an English professor. I would say he wasted it on this slow moving journalistic ranting about his protagonist's aboriginal life, but I'm the one that plucked this 'love story' from the shelf at the library after reading other reviews. The brilliant prose I thought might distract from the schmaltzy content and painfully corny and over-cooked dialog, but that wasn't the case. Listening to Harry and Evie's long bouts of gainsaying was extremely annoying, worse than listening to college students in Starbucks speaking exclusively in metaphors to replicate the big city brats. I sure hope Adam realizes that the majority of people speak clearly and frankly, and if I may speak for other readers, this unrealism is unnecessary and distracting.

On a positive note, it was very refreshing to get inside the mind of someone in a publishing house who has to pick through an infinite amount of 'slush', and kind of tickling that he empathized with the 'slushies' often. It is a very tough world in literature and I think he captured that quite nicely. (I would hope so since he worked for Random house AND is a professor of creative writing)

I have more reasons to like this book than dislike it, but thanks to Adam, I'm going to avoid love stories again for quite some time. They suck.