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Mister Monkey
The acclaimed New York Times bestselling author weaves an ingenious, darkly humorous, and brilliantly observant story that follows the exploits and intrigue of a constellation of characters affiliated with an off-off-off-off Broadway children's musical.Mister Monkey--a screwball children's musical about a playfully larcenous pet chimpanzee--is the kind of family favorite that survives far past its prime. Margot, who plays the chimp's lawyer, knows the production is dreadful and bemoans the failure of her acting career. She's settled into the drudgery of playing a humiliating part--until the day she receives a mysterious letter from an anonymous admirer--and later, in the middle of a performance, has a shocking encounter with Adam, the twelve-year-old who plays the title role.Francine Prose's effervescent comedy is told from the viewpoints of wildly unreliable, seemingly disparate characters whose lives become deeply connected as the madcap narrative unfolds. There is Adam, whose looming adolescence informs his interpretation of his role; Edward, a young audience member who is candidly unimpressed with the play; Ray, the author of the novel on which the musical is based, who witnesses one of the most awkward first dates in literature; and even the eponymous Mister Monkey, the Monkey God himself.With her trademark wit and verve, Prose delves into humanity's most profound mysteries: art, ambition, childhood, aging, and love. Startling and captivating, Mister Monkey is a breathtaking novel from a writer at the height of her craft.
285 pages, Hardcover
First published October 18, 2016
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3114 people want to read
About the author
Francine Prose
154 books863 followersFrancine Prose is the author of twenty works of fiction. Her novel A Changed Man won the Dayton Literary Peace Prize, and Blue Angel was a finalist for the National Book Award. Her most recent works of nonfiction include the highly acclaimed Anne Frank: The Book, The Life, The Afterlife, and the New York Times bestseller Reading Like a Writer. The recipient of numerous grants and honors, including a Guggenheim and a Fulbright, a Director's Fellow at the Dorothy and Lewis B. Cullman Center for Scholars and Writers at the New York Public Library, Prose is a former president of PEN American Center, and a member of the American Academy of Arts and Letters and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. Her most recent book is Lovers at the Chameleon Club, Paris 1932. She lives in New York City.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 514 reviews
December 29, 2016
I'd rate this around 3.5 stars.
I remember a number of times attending a local professional theater production that wasn't particularly good, and I wondered about those involved. Did the actors know it was bad, and if so, were they soldiering on for the sake of the audience, or were they so far gone in their own careers that this was the best they could do? It was an interesting, but somewhat sad thought.
"But the actors and presumably the director never expected that they would wind up doing that play—in that theater. Whatever they'd hoped to achieve in their careers certainly wasn't that."
Francine Prose's new novel reminded me a bit of those productions. The story of a very-far-off-Broadway production of a children's musical called "Mister Monkey," the book is both satire and commentary on many different aspects of our society. It's surprisingly sensitive and astute in some places, amusing in others, and doesn't quite work as a whole.
"Mister Monkey" is a musical that has had many runs all over the world over the years, but probably should have been taken off the boards a while ago. The story of an orphaned chimpanzee who is adopted by a widower and his children, only to be surprised when the cheekily larcenous monkey is accused of stealing the wallet belonging to his father's girlfriend, the musical is a favorite of some and reviled by others, yet it lives on. (Even the author of the book on which the musical is based hates the stage adaptation.)
The cast of the latest production is in a bit of an uproar. Adam, the young gymnast who plays the title character, is in the throes of puberty, and his alternately lascivious and obnoxious behavior has nearly all of his fellow actors on edge. Margot, a once-promising actress who views this production as a true sign of her downfall, not only finds herself being preyed on by Adam, but mistreated by the director, who outfits her in a garish costume that makes her feel foolish. Lakshmi, the earnest young costume supervisor, doesn't quite understand her purpose in the show, but views it as fodder for the play she wishes to write.
Each of these characters is the focus of their own chapter, as are everyone from the show's director and the author of the original book, to an elderly grandfather who is in the audience the first day the wheels start to come off of the production, his grandson, his grandson's kindergarten teacher, and a waiter at a fancy restaurant who is given tickets to the show by the author. It's an interesting approach, one which seems to be used more frequently in books, and here it has mixed results.
I'll admit, I expected this book to focus on the show and those involved, and those chapters were the ones I enjoyed the most. I get what Prose was trying to do with the other chapters, both demonstrate the show's effect on audience members, the author, etc., and provide commentary about our culture, how children are raised these days, and so on, but I just didn't feel this worked as well as it could have.
Prose is one hell of a writer, however, and she has created a very memorable set of characters, as well as imagery that you truly can see in your mind's eye. (I could almost picture certain musical numbers she described, in all their dysfunctional glory.) I just wish this book didn't try to do too much, because when it focused on the musical itself and those involved, it was, shall we say, a hit?
See all of my reviews at http://itseithersadnessoreuphoria.blo....
I remember a number of times attending a local professional theater production that wasn't particularly good, and I wondered about those involved. Did the actors know it was bad, and if so, were they soldiering on for the sake of the audience, or were they so far gone in their own careers that this was the best they could do? It was an interesting, but somewhat sad thought.
"But the actors and presumably the director never expected that they would wind up doing that play—in that theater. Whatever they'd hoped to achieve in their careers certainly wasn't that."
Francine Prose's new novel reminded me a bit of those productions. The story of a very-far-off-Broadway production of a children's musical called "Mister Monkey," the book is both satire and commentary on many different aspects of our society. It's surprisingly sensitive and astute in some places, amusing in others, and doesn't quite work as a whole.
"Mister Monkey" is a musical that has had many runs all over the world over the years, but probably should have been taken off the boards a while ago. The story of an orphaned chimpanzee who is adopted by a widower and his children, only to be surprised when the cheekily larcenous monkey is accused of stealing the wallet belonging to his father's girlfriend, the musical is a favorite of some and reviled by others, yet it lives on. (Even the author of the book on which the musical is based hates the stage adaptation.)
The cast of the latest production is in a bit of an uproar. Adam, the young gymnast who plays the title character, is in the throes of puberty, and his alternately lascivious and obnoxious behavior has nearly all of his fellow actors on edge. Margot, a once-promising actress who views this production as a true sign of her downfall, not only finds herself being preyed on by Adam, but mistreated by the director, who outfits her in a garish costume that makes her feel foolish. Lakshmi, the earnest young costume supervisor, doesn't quite understand her purpose in the show, but views it as fodder for the play she wishes to write.
Each of these characters is the focus of their own chapter, as are everyone from the show's director and the author of the original book, to an elderly grandfather who is in the audience the first day the wheels start to come off of the production, his grandson, his grandson's kindergarten teacher, and a waiter at a fancy restaurant who is given tickets to the show by the author. It's an interesting approach, one which seems to be used more frequently in books, and here it has mixed results.
I'll admit, I expected this book to focus on the show and those involved, and those chapters were the ones I enjoyed the most. I get what Prose was trying to do with the other chapters, both demonstrate the show's effect on audience members, the author, etc., and provide commentary about our culture, how children are raised these days, and so on, but I just didn't feel this worked as well as it could have.
Prose is one hell of a writer, however, and she has created a very memorable set of characters, as well as imagery that you truly can see in your mind's eye. (I could almost picture certain musical numbers she described, in all their dysfunctional glory.) I just wish this book didn't try to do too much, because when it focused on the musical itself and those involved, it was, shall we say, a hit?
See all of my reviews at http://itseithersadnessoreuphoria.blo....
March 13, 2020
An addictive novel that may flat out amaze you. Splintered destinies all have their time in the spotlight; each story is more absorbing & complex than the last. With my tastes aligning all too neatly with musical theater--perhaps the most absorbing, mesmerizing of all the arts--the newest novel by Francine Prose could not have come to me at a better time.
Behold! The power of the omnipotent monkeygod!
Behold! The power of the omnipotent monkeygod!
November 26, 2016
I abandon a lot of books. Here are the lines that made me know I was going to read this book all the way through, even though I wasn’t hooked from the start:
Mister Monkey careens like a brakeless locomotive from the off-off-off-off Broadway performance of a terrible children’s musical of the same title, through the lives of all of the people connected to it. And the most daring thing about this book is that it is written in “monkey mind”—the Buddhist term for all the chatter our human brains spout 24 hours a day; every stray thought, every association to a stray thought, every memory evoked fills the connecting narrative. This could get exhausting, and during the first chapter, I thought it might. But not in the hands of Francine Prose. It works! Boy, does it work and sometimes it’s laugh-out-loud funny.
There is so much I can personally relate to—foremost that I’m a former actor who for a decade navigated the cesspool that is off-off-off-off Broadway—and I delighted in the exposure of its subtext. Also, I’m a fan of the Hindu monkey king Hanuman.
And here is Krishna Das singing the Hanuman Chalisa (to the Heart as Wide as the World melody)
You may enjoy this book more if you have some background in Eastern Wisdom Traditions, but I don't think it's critical. There is plenty of “outing” of the stuff behind our social performances, and what makes it so compelling is the final exposure of our quiet desperation and blundering attempts to live good lives. The book is both hilarious and poignant—my favorite combination.
She [a middle-aged actress] could have been a great Sonya [in Uncle Vanya] if she’d known what she knows now. That the thankless servitude Sonya describes, the life of lowered eyes and expectations, of unrelenting hard work, no love, no romance, no children, no reward, old age, then death—it is a real possibility! That life could happen to anyone! More likely it will. Sonya doesn’t believe it. She can’t. She’s too young. The irony is that you don’t believe it until you’re too old to play Sonya. (24)
Mister Monkey careens like a brakeless locomotive from the off-off-off-off Broadway performance of a terrible children’s musical of the same title, through the lives of all of the people connected to it. And the most daring thing about this book is that it is written in “monkey mind”—the Buddhist term for all the chatter our human brains spout 24 hours a day; every stray thought, every association to a stray thought, every memory evoked fills the connecting narrative. This could get exhausting, and during the first chapter, I thought it might. But not in the hands of Francine Prose. It works! Boy, does it work and sometimes it’s laugh-out-loud funny.
There is so much I can personally relate to—foremost that I’m a former actor who for a decade navigated the cesspool that is off-off-off-off Broadway—and I delighted in the exposure of its subtext. Also, I’m a fan of the Hindu monkey king Hanuman.
And here is Krishna Das singing the Hanuman Chalisa (to the Heart as Wide as the World melody)
You may enjoy this book more if you have some background in Eastern Wisdom Traditions, but I don't think it's critical. There is plenty of “outing” of the stuff behind our social performances, and what makes it so compelling is the final exposure of our quiet desperation and blundering attempts to live good lives. The book is both hilarious and poignant—my favorite combination.
September 10, 2016
If I had not been familiar with the author, I might have skipped this book, due to the descriptors such as “madcap,” screwball,” and “children’s musical.” However, I am a fan of Francine Prose’s offbeat, wily, and sardonic but penetrating novels, and I intuited that below the surface of the campy plot would be a scorching but serious look at our cultural customs and ruts, as well as a compassionate critique on isolation, loneliness, and artistic expression. And I was right. Only a fierce observer of humanity such as Prose could turn this preposterous plot of a motley theater group (and its audience members), struggling to breathe life into a stale children’s musical, into a poignant survey of urban life.
There are so many ironies in this book—and Prose is masterful with using the sense of the absurd to reveal the sobering but distorted biases. For example, the character of Mister Monkey, who is played by a twelve-year-old boy in a confining monkey suit, is an orphan monkey from Africa (parents killed by poachers). He comes to stay with a human family in America who become beloved to him. Subsequently, he is wrongly accused of stealing a family friend’s wallet (by the jealous friend), and the play then centers on the legal difficulties of trying to prove his innocence. In the meantime, Adam, the actor, has raging hormones, and has started playing MM with aggression, so that he alienates the other actors onstage and puzzles the audience. The parodies like that serve to illuminate the incongruous perceptions that exist.
The children’s play is also a vehicle that transports us from actor to actor, writer, director, and audience members. Many of the sacred cows of urban elitism are also revealed, such as Adam’s parents obsessed on which school he attends, but ignoring the fact that the dysfunction in the household has way more impact on his life. Moreover, some of the adult actors, who are getting a bit long in the tooth, express defeatism, discouraged by being stuck in a second-rate production, and dreaming of bigger things.
The author covers everything from cognitive dissonance; thinking errors about our culture; romance problems; talent; technology; isolation; philosophy; extinction; religious beliefs; childhood; ageism; and elitism, among other things. And what about evolution? If a monkey can evolve, can human beings? No character escapes the adversity of their own lives and the perceptions of themselves. The author exposes the fundamental dissatisfactions that lurk in mankind, often made worse by a nagging sense that our hopes are imperfect or hollow. But, Prose surmounts a toneless cynicism, by demonstrating that desire makes us vital, if only we can locate the optimism and connection to humanity, if only we can access our superpowers. We, too, can evolve.
There are so many ironies in this book—and Prose is masterful with using the sense of the absurd to reveal the sobering but distorted biases. For example, the character of Mister Monkey, who is played by a twelve-year-old boy in a confining monkey suit, is an orphan monkey from Africa (parents killed by poachers). He comes to stay with a human family in America who become beloved to him. Subsequently, he is wrongly accused of stealing a family friend’s wallet (by the jealous friend), and the play then centers on the legal difficulties of trying to prove his innocence. In the meantime, Adam, the actor, has raging hormones, and has started playing MM with aggression, so that he alienates the other actors onstage and puzzles the audience. The parodies like that serve to illuminate the incongruous perceptions that exist.
The children’s play is also a vehicle that transports us from actor to actor, writer, director, and audience members. Many of the sacred cows of urban elitism are also revealed, such as Adam’s parents obsessed on which school he attends, but ignoring the fact that the dysfunction in the household has way more impact on his life. Moreover, some of the adult actors, who are getting a bit long in the tooth, express defeatism, discouraged by being stuck in a second-rate production, and dreaming of bigger things.
The author covers everything from cognitive dissonance; thinking errors about our culture; romance problems; talent; technology; isolation; philosophy; extinction; religious beliefs; childhood; ageism; and elitism, among other things. And what about evolution? If a monkey can evolve, can human beings? No character escapes the adversity of their own lives and the perceptions of themselves. The author exposes the fundamental dissatisfactions that lurk in mankind, often made worse by a nagging sense that our hopes are imperfect or hollow. But, Prose surmounts a toneless cynicism, by demonstrating that desire makes us vital, if only we can locate the optimism and connection to humanity, if only we can access our superpowers. We, too, can evolve.
February 2, 2017
It started out fun, but devolved into crap (I can't think of a better way to say it). I switched to "hate-reading" about half way through.
On a positive note, I was worried I wouldn't have a book to root against in this year's Tournament of books. Found it.
On a positive note, I was worried I wouldn't have a book to root against in this year's Tournament of books. Found it.
December 22, 2019
Theater girls! Like toddlers in the china shops of our hearts. So relentlessly present! We could do with a few more of them here in the placid suburbs, buried as we are under strata of civility and self-awareness. One has so many encounters that are pleasant, and so few that are vital. We could use a little Margot: “Give everything. Self-doubt is lethal. Irony is poison.” They’re always looking into your eyes for too long. “It was their job to be theatrical, on and off stage.” It’s no one’s job, but bless. Listen, I’m a guitar boy: I’m attracted to theater girls like cats to paper bags. Every time one of them dumped me - and they always dumped me - I’d swear, no more theater girls. I meant it, but where have they even gone? We moved to houses and they stayed in flats, where the parties are still exhilarating and the couches ruined.
what happens when you google “Theater monkeys”
This is to say that I was so happy to see Margot. A theater girl is a wonderful way into the Middlemarch lesson - the difficult work of resigning yourself to a normal life. It’s a metaphor, that we think we’ll star in The Glass Menagerie but we end up in a humiliating silly children’s musical, the titular Mister Monkey that the book revolves around. The grace we find is that at least we’re playing.
what happens when you google “Graceful monkeys”
note: this is not a monkey
BUT THEN: The next chapter started, and it wasn’t about Margot at all! With sweating palms and darting eyes, we realized that we’d been suckered into that most dreaded whimsy of literary fiction: the linked short story. One character hands the baton off to another. Another actor. Then an audience member, asked mortifyingly loudly during the play: “Grandpa, are you interested in this?” (This exchange apparently happened to Prose herself, in the role of grandpa, inspiring the book.) Then that child’s kindergarten teacher.
“Changing monkeys”
Prose wants to talk about monkeys, is what’s going on here. The monkey who was kept as a pet and bit his owners face off. Bonobo sex habits. The ancient Chinese epic, Monkey: Journey to the West. Evolution. These things come up over and over. The humans try to make connections with each other. Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn’t. The twelve-year-old who plays Mister Monkey (also not a monkey) humps Margot onstage. Mister Monkey isn’t quite a stand-in for Curious George - he's namechecked here - but both not-monkeys go to jail. I’m not at all sure what she’s getting at. Haven’t we had enough monkey metaphors in our lives? I want to talk more about theater girls. Are you interested in this? I’m afraid I’m not terribly.
what happens when you google “Theater monkeys”
This is to say that I was so happy to see Margot. A theater girl is a wonderful way into the Middlemarch lesson - the difficult work of resigning yourself to a normal life. It’s a metaphor, that we think we’ll star in The Glass Menagerie but we end up in a humiliating silly children’s musical, the titular Mister Monkey that the book revolves around. The grace we find is that at least we’re playing.
what happens when you google “Graceful monkeys”
note: this is not a monkey
BUT THEN: The next chapter started, and it wasn’t about Margot at all! With sweating palms and darting eyes, we realized that we’d been suckered into that most dreaded whimsy of literary fiction: the linked short story. One character hands the baton off to another. Another actor. Then an audience member, asked mortifyingly loudly during the play: “Grandpa, are you interested in this?” (This exchange apparently happened to Prose herself, in the role of grandpa, inspiring the book.) Then that child’s kindergarten teacher.
“Changing monkeys”
Prose wants to talk about monkeys, is what’s going on here. The monkey who was kept as a pet and bit his owners face off. Bonobo sex habits. The ancient Chinese epic, Monkey: Journey to the West. Evolution. These things come up over and over. The humans try to make connections with each other. Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn’t. The twelve-year-old who plays Mister Monkey (also not a monkey) humps Margot onstage. Mister Monkey isn’t quite a stand-in for Curious George - he's namechecked here - but both not-monkeys go to jail. I’m not at all sure what she’s getting at. Haven’t we had enough monkey metaphors in our lives? I want to talk more about theater girls. Are you interested in this? I’m afraid I’m not terribly.
June 17, 2022
3.5 The only other Prose novel I've read is 'The Glorious Ones', which is similar in both style and subject matter. The earlier book detailed the semi-true story of a 17th Century commedia dell' arte troupe told in 7 chapters, each narrated by one of the characters. This one is about an awful off-Broadway production of a musical based on a beloved children's book, with each of the eleven chapters centering on one of the cast, crew or audience members. My problem with the earlier book is that the 7 narrators all sounded exactly the same; Prose sidesteps that issue here with the book being totally in third person. The story is interesting; sometimes poignant, sometimes humorous - but the chapters vary widely in quality and resonance. As someone who has spent a great deal of time in the theatre, I did appreciate the truthfulness of how the internecine relationships developed while working on a play can either help or hinder the production.
November 11, 2016
I love Francine Prose's work and I particularly savored MISTER MONKEY. On the surface, it's about the world's worst children's musical ever -- and that is a very high bar. And in that regard, the novel is a hoot. But on a deeper level, it's about the cast and the audience, the people who for different reasons are part of or witness to this disaster. And there the novel is insightful and wistful and deeply moving.
August 30, 2016
Most of us in our youth have been treated to some sort of Mister Monkey production – obvious and preachy, “full of improving lessons about race and class, honesty, justice, and some kind of…spirituality, for lack of a better word.”
THIS Mister Monkey children’s play is no exception. It’s a lot of drivel about a “smart, friendly, playful, super-cute baby chimpanzee” who was orphaned and later adopted by a nice upper-class family living in New York. One day, the father’s evil girlfriend accuses Mister Monkey of stealing her wallet and it’s almost curtains for the monkey until a committed lawyer fights for truth, justice and the American way.
But just as humans have evolved from monkeys, a cast of loosely connected characters evolve because of this monkey. Each successive chapter introduces a damaged character: the middle-aged Margot whose dream of acting on Broadway has been transformed into acting in this childish production…the pubescent Mister Monkey actor who is hostage to his raging hormones…the grieving widower and his young grandson, Edward, who interrupts the production by loudly asking, “Grandpa, are you interested?”…Ray Ortiz, the writer and veteran, who intended the play to be set in Vietnam…the pretentious director Roger…and so on.
Francine Prose uses her trademark razor-sharp satire to nail today’s society: upper middle class parents who want their kids to get into the most prestigious pre-school, the furor over mentioning Darwin to the sweet babes, the brave and underpaid actors who must soldier on with each performance, the horror of mismatched first Internet dates, the existential fear that young people share in an uncertain world. Sounds like a lot, but Francine Prose weaves it in seamlessly. Maybe a little too seamlessly; at times this most enjoyable narrative ran the risk of being overplotted.
As a result, I was going to give it 4 stars. But then, Francine Prose redeems her novel with an infusion of hope and grace that nearly brought tears to my eyes…because eventually, most of us come face-to-face with our own superpowers. 4.5, rounded up.
THIS Mister Monkey children’s play is no exception. It’s a lot of drivel about a “smart, friendly, playful, super-cute baby chimpanzee” who was orphaned and later adopted by a nice upper-class family living in New York. One day, the father’s evil girlfriend accuses Mister Monkey of stealing her wallet and it’s almost curtains for the monkey until a committed lawyer fights for truth, justice and the American way.
But just as humans have evolved from monkeys, a cast of loosely connected characters evolve because of this monkey. Each successive chapter introduces a damaged character: the middle-aged Margot whose dream of acting on Broadway has been transformed into acting in this childish production…the pubescent Mister Monkey actor who is hostage to his raging hormones…the grieving widower and his young grandson, Edward, who interrupts the production by loudly asking, “Grandpa, are you interested?”…Ray Ortiz, the writer and veteran, who intended the play to be set in Vietnam…the pretentious director Roger…and so on.
Francine Prose uses her trademark razor-sharp satire to nail today’s society: upper middle class parents who want their kids to get into the most prestigious pre-school, the furor over mentioning Darwin to the sweet babes, the brave and underpaid actors who must soldier on with each performance, the horror of mismatched first Internet dates, the existential fear that young people share in an uncertain world. Sounds like a lot, but Francine Prose weaves it in seamlessly. Maybe a little too seamlessly; at times this most enjoyable narrative ran the risk of being overplotted.
As a result, I was going to give it 4 stars. But then, Francine Prose redeems her novel with an infusion of hope and grace that nearly brought tears to my eyes…because eventually, most of us come face-to-face with our own superpowers. 4.5, rounded up.
October 17, 2016
Francine Prose is still monkeying around. Thirty years ago, she wrote a zany novel called “Bigfoot Dreams” about a tabloid journalist enchanted by Sasquatch. This time around, she’s swinging with a smaller simian, but her ambition is bigger.
“Mister Monkey” revolves around an off-Broadway production of a “cheesy but mysteriously durable musical” based on a beloved children’s book called “Mister Monkey.” Everybody involved in the show loathes it and with good reason. It sounds dreadful — something like “Curious George” tarted up with brassy song-and-dance numbers. “Monkey Tango,” the opening, “is more like a square dance and just about as sexy,” but the director insists all the actors sing “as if their heads are about to explode from sheer simian. . .
To read the rest of this review, go to The Washington Post:
https://www.washingtonpost.com/entert...
“Mister Monkey” revolves around an off-Broadway production of a “cheesy but mysteriously durable musical” based on a beloved children’s book called “Mister Monkey.” Everybody involved in the show loathes it and with good reason. It sounds dreadful — something like “Curious George” tarted up with brassy song-and-dance numbers. “Monkey Tango,” the opening, “is more like a square dance and just about as sexy,” but the director insists all the actors sing “as if their heads are about to explode from sheer simian. . .
To read the rest of this review, go to The Washington Post:
https://www.washingtonpost.com/entert...
November 20, 2017
Mister Monkey? More like Mister Sucky!
November 5, 2017
I usually love Francine Prose. Just saying
SPOILER
This is promoted as a funny book, and since I'd published a short story with a similar conceit—each POV character handing off to the next—I was curious how Prose would use this in a book. It is supposed to be funny, and perhaps it is for most readers. I recognized the ridiculousness of the situations, but also their realism, and I knew I was supposed to laugh at these people, but I just couldn't find them funny. Their hopeless yearning hurt. She picks up characters and tosses them.
I won't read it again and I will not recommend it and I would give it 1 star if I were more honest. I did not enjoy it, despite excellent writing (I was not rewriting her sentences as I read). However, though I have not checked the reviews before posting this, I think it is safe to assume that many people will love this novel and give it a high rating. I found it cynical, slick, and too pathetic. The author clearly knows and loves New York, but she has too little pity for her people to appeal to me.
Maybe in a different mood or if I were younger or . . . something, I would like it fine. But I didn't.
SPOILER
This is promoted as a funny book, and since I'd published a short story with a similar conceit—each POV character handing off to the next—I was curious how Prose would use this in a book. It is supposed to be funny, and perhaps it is for most readers. I recognized the ridiculousness of the situations, but also their realism, and I knew I was supposed to laugh at these people, but I just couldn't find them funny. Their hopeless yearning hurt. She picks up characters and tosses them.
I won't read it again and I will not recommend it and I would give it 1 star if I were more honest. I did not enjoy it, despite excellent writing (I was not rewriting her sentences as I read). However, though I have not checked the reviews before posting this, I think it is safe to assume that many people will love this novel and give it a high rating. I found it cynical, slick, and too pathetic. The author clearly knows and loves New York, but she has too little pity for her people to appeal to me.
Maybe in a different mood or if I were younger or . . . something, I would like it fine. But I didn't.
February 8, 2017
Thoughts to come but enjoyed this one more than I thought I was going to.
March 5, 2017
As far as I can tell (which means as far my creaky brain remembers), I haven't read Francine Prose before, so I had no preconceptions going into this book. My first thought (having just finished reading We Love You Charlie Freeman) was "another chimp book?" Although there are no actual chimp characters, the book is an interlocking set of short stories all centered around a rather terrible children's musical called Mr. Monkey, which follows the adventures of a chimp raised in a human family. That makes it the 3rd novel in a year I've read on that theme (Charlie Freeman and We Are All Completely Beside Ourselves being the others) and while all 3 books are very different, they do each in their own way explore the boundary between humans and other animals, as the chimps function as disruptive forces of physical energy/sexuality. Anyway, I'll leave it to someone else to decide why chimps, why now (oh yes, there was also Me Cheeta, a few years ago...), but it does seem to be a mini-genre.
While this book was very slight in some ways, it was also very charming. Perhaps my very favorite chapters were the grandfather and Ray Ortiz, two sides of the aging card but both tenderly done. But overall, Prose creates a cast of imperfect but very human characters that you end up caring about, in all their fragility and diversity. The prose (urgh!) is for the most part lightly deft, but occasionally veers into surprisingly meaningful, and also on occasion, surprisingly comedic territory that hint at a greater talent at work.
Worth a read - it doesn't take long, and the book becomes better and better the further it spins out from the (intentionally) terrible musical that anchors it.
While this book was very slight in some ways, it was also very charming. Perhaps my very favorite chapters were the grandfather and Ray Ortiz, two sides of the aging card but both tenderly done. But overall, Prose creates a cast of imperfect but very human characters that you end up caring about, in all their fragility and diversity. The prose (urgh!) is for the most part lightly deft, but occasionally veers into surprisingly meaningful, and also on occasion, surprisingly comedic territory that hint at a greater talent at work.
Worth a read - it doesn't take long, and the book becomes better and better the further it spins out from the (intentionally) terrible musical that anchors it.
August 22, 2016
Take a children's musical about a monkey, center the plot around a specific performance that goes awry, use the various actors and audience members as discrete points of view, add a dash of the Rashamon affect and you have, "Mister Monkey", the new novel by Francine Prose!
Don’t be put off by the title, the cover art or the premise; trust me this is an absolute gem! I enjoyed every single page.
Part of what I consider the huge success of this novel is its structure; each chapter is told from the point of view of either someone connected to that pivotal performance of “Mister Monkey”, or connected to the play in some way, and each chapter is a stand-alone story, which still manages to propel the plot. Prose is an amazingly skilled writer and each of these stories are beautifully written; there is pathos and humor, and even suspense. Additionally, Prose weaves through these character studies wonderful and weird coincidences; you'll recognize an exact meal served to two disparate characters, a seemingly coincidental seating arrangement in a restaurant, and somewhat arcane references to Chekov’s, “Uncle Vanya”. These narrative "tricks" delighted me, and also served to endear each and every character.
The first character we are introduced to is sad Margot, an aging actress who is mourning her never-a-star career, and her lost youth. Her part in this rather ridiculous children’s musical is not the direction she hoped her career would take. She notes; "Nothing can disarm the angel with the fiery sword guarding the gate to the garden where the ingénues frolic, the pretty young girls unaware of the outer darkness." Margo’s ingénue days are long over. It is something unspeakable that the tween, Adam, in the monkey suit, does to Margot during a performance that sets of a chain reaction.
No story about a monkey can be without reference to Darwin, Natural Selection, and Evolution vs Creationism. A lesser writer might have put too little or too much emphasis on these topics, but Prose is master and in her hands we are happily swept away. Threading through the stories is both gloom and hope for the future with just the right balance, to leave the reader better for having embarked on this journey.
Don’t be put off by the title, the cover art or the premise; trust me this is an absolute gem! I enjoyed every single page.
Part of what I consider the huge success of this novel is its structure; each chapter is told from the point of view of either someone connected to that pivotal performance of “Mister Monkey”, or connected to the play in some way, and each chapter is a stand-alone story, which still manages to propel the plot. Prose is an amazingly skilled writer and each of these stories are beautifully written; there is pathos and humor, and even suspense. Additionally, Prose weaves through these character studies wonderful and weird coincidences; you'll recognize an exact meal served to two disparate characters, a seemingly coincidental seating arrangement in a restaurant, and somewhat arcane references to Chekov’s, “Uncle Vanya”. These narrative "tricks" delighted me, and also served to endear each and every character.
The first character we are introduced to is sad Margot, an aging actress who is mourning her never-a-star career, and her lost youth. Her part in this rather ridiculous children’s musical is not the direction she hoped her career would take. She notes; "Nothing can disarm the angel with the fiery sword guarding the gate to the garden where the ingénues frolic, the pretty young girls unaware of the outer darkness." Margo’s ingénue days are long over. It is something unspeakable that the tween, Adam, in the monkey suit, does to Margot during a performance that sets of a chain reaction.
No story about a monkey can be without reference to Darwin, Natural Selection, and Evolution vs Creationism. A lesser writer might have put too little or too much emphasis on these topics, but Prose is master and in her hands we are happily swept away. Threading through the stories is both gloom and hope for the future with just the right balance, to leave the reader better for having embarked on this journey.
February 2, 2025
this is such an amazingly good book! i don't remember when i last loved a book this much and was so grateful that it was written and that i had the chance to find and read it!
i loved everything about it - the setting, around a small production of mister monkey the musical in an off-off-off-off broadway theater where at times it becomes difficult to still believe in theater and art... and still, so much happens starting from here, told in exquisitely carved story-chapters from different point of views, in masterly prose... that in the end you deeply understand the meaning of it all and can't stop being grateful that this fantastic author had the inspiration, talent and power to reveal it.
i loved everything about it - the setting, around a small production of mister monkey the musical in an off-off-off-off broadway theater where at times it becomes difficult to still believe in theater and art... and still, so much happens starting from here, told in exquisitely carved story-chapters from different point of views, in masterly prose... that in the end you deeply understand the meaning of it all and can't stop being grateful that this fantastic author had the inspiration, talent and power to reveal it.
July 18, 2021
Unspirited and inconsistent. There were some funny moments, but most of the book recounts the somewhat dysfunctional life of actors in a crappy play. Not recommended.
February 6, 2017
В центре сюжета -- роман с одноименным названием, где мать большого семейства уехала в Африку изучать обезьян, там подружилась с другим большим семейством, только обезьяньим, а потом пришли браконьеры и убили всех, кроме одного малыша, и теперь он живет в Нью-Йорке с первым большим семейством, а у папы новая жена, а она гадина и обвиняет бедного обезьянина во всех грехах. Ну и бла-бла-бла, дальше у нас есть пьеса по этому роману, и актриса в пьесе, и мальчик, играющий обезьяну, и дедушка-зритель, и мальчик-зритель, и мальчикова училка, и любовник училки, и автор романа, и Вьетнам, автор был во Вьетнаме!
Невыносимо.
В последнее время стали заметно популярны романы, где вместо единой повествовательной линии автор рассказывает об одном и том же событии, но либо глазами разных героев, либо с разных точек зрения, либо дает к нему приквел, сиквел и хуиквел. У меня даже есть теория, что виной этому мельтешению – современное клиповое сознание. Авторы догадываются, что современный читатель не может и трех страниц прочесть, чтобы не сбежать от них в википедию, фейсбук или полистать фоточки. А потом возвращается и такой, так бишь, о чем мы? Ах, ну да, обезьяны. Вьетнам. Поехали.
Возможно, большинству писателей тупо лень делать research (тут позвольте напомнить, что Донна Тартт пишет романы по десять лет, и где, спрашивается, сто лет назад обещанный роман Байетт про психоаналитиков). Им "нет времени объяснять": развивать характеры, строить их взаимоотношения, описывать ленты на шляпках и пыль на комодах, видеть героев взрослыми и изменившимися. Надо быть Джонатаном Коу, чтобы такое лодырничество тебе сошло с рук, и уметь из небольшого эпизода из жизни каждого героя сделать самостоятельное, законченное повествование.
Франсин Проуз, короче, ни разу не Джонатан Коу, хотя иногда даже было заметно, как она старается.
Невыносимо.
В последнее время стали заметно популярны романы, где вместо единой повествовательной линии автор рассказывает об одном и том же событии, но либо глазами разных героев, либо с разных точек зрения, либо дает к нему приквел, сиквел и хуиквел. У меня даже есть теория, что виной этому мельтешению – современное клиповое сознание. Авторы догадываются, что современный читатель не может и трех страниц прочесть, чтобы не сбежать от них в википедию, фейсбук или полистать фоточки. А потом возвращается и такой, так бишь, о чем мы? Ах, ну да, обезьяны. Вьетнам. Поехали.
Возможно, большинству писателей тупо лень делать research (тут позвольте напомнить, что Донна Тартт пишет романы по десять лет, и где, спрашивается, сто лет назад обещанный роман Байетт про психоаналитиков). Им "нет времени объяснять": развивать характеры, строить их взаимоотношения, описывать ленты на шляпках и пыль на комодах, видеть героев взрослыми и изменившимися. Надо быть Джонатаном Коу, чтобы такое лодырничество тебе сошло с рук, и уметь из небольшого эпизода из жизни каждого героя сделать самостоятельное, законченное повествование.
Франсин Проуз, короче, ни разу не Джонатан Коу, хотя иногда даже было заметно, как она старается.
October 11, 2016
Pretty random story. I liked it okay, enough to finish it, but I don't think I got anything out of it that I'll carry with me in the long-term. I'm not even going to detail the plot because the summary on Goodreads is spot-on. If you're on the fence about whether to read it or not, I'd say skip it. People who might like it: thespians/theatre-lovers (which I am- that helped me appreciate the story), or those who like a carousel of interconnected stories where (virtual) strangers affect each others' lives (each chapter is a different character's voice and links pretty seamlessly from one to the next). Ironically enough, I don't think this book will do it for you if you're really into monkeys. I just didn't find Mister Monkey to be all that funny, or melancholy, or even artful. I think it was intended to be a hybrid of those three things, but... three strikes, three misses. The more I try to describe it, the more meh I'm feeling about it. Favorite part (spoiler):
February 9, 2017
I read Mister Monkey for an on-line discussion group. I have always meant to read Francine Prose but somehow never have. Now she has entranced me and I will read more.
I was one of the few participants in the discussion who liked the book. I think because for me it was about people with unfulfilled dreams, one of my obsessions as I get older and look back at the dreams I had.
Mister Monkey is a children's musical adapted from a novel written by a Vietnam vet with PTSD. Said novel was converted by an editor into what became a bestselling picture book for kids, along the lines of Curious George. Now the author is rich but he hates the musical because it makes a travesty of his original story.
Mister Monkey, the novel by Francine Prose (quite erroneously described as "madcap" by whoever wrote the dust jacket copy) uses the musical as a framework to take readers into the lives and souls of various people connected to an off-off-off-off-Broadway production of a tired old show. Included are several of the actors, the director, the costume designer, a grandfather, and Ray, the original author of the children's book. Each chapter features one of them but in circling around begins to connect them all in interesting and surprising ways.
I am not much of a theater goer but one of my sons spent a year of college being a set builder and one of his daughters acts in every play she can at high school. In fact, I have always liked novels set in the theater, so here I was again enmeshed in all the tacky backstage interpersonal trauma of actors, directors, playwrights, and support crew. Ms Prose must have some theater experience because she crafts those scenes so perfectly.
Ultimately though, this is a story about people of all ages and different walks of life who are mildly unhappy but looking for joy wherever they can find it. I could not put it down.
I was one of the few participants in the discussion who liked the book. I think because for me it was about people with unfulfilled dreams, one of my obsessions as I get older and look back at the dreams I had.
Mister Monkey is a children's musical adapted from a novel written by a Vietnam vet with PTSD. Said novel was converted by an editor into what became a bestselling picture book for kids, along the lines of Curious George. Now the author is rich but he hates the musical because it makes a travesty of his original story.
Mister Monkey, the novel by Francine Prose (quite erroneously described as "madcap" by whoever wrote the dust jacket copy) uses the musical as a framework to take readers into the lives and souls of various people connected to an off-off-off-off-Broadway production of a tired old show. Included are several of the actors, the director, the costume designer, a grandfather, and Ray, the original author of the children's book. Each chapter features one of them but in circling around begins to connect them all in interesting and surprising ways.
I am not much of a theater goer but one of my sons spent a year of college being a set builder and one of his daughters acts in every play she can at high school. In fact, I have always liked novels set in the theater, so here I was again enmeshed in all the tacky backstage interpersonal trauma of actors, directors, playwrights, and support crew. Ms Prose must have some theater experience because she crafts those scenes so perfectly.
Ultimately though, this is a story about people of all ages and different walks of life who are mildly unhappy but looking for joy wherever they can find it. I could not put it down.
Read
October 19, 2016This is Prose at her wittiest and most playful yet. Mister Monkey is about, er, Mister Monkey, an off-Broadway children’s musical, and also a production where dreams go to die. Most of the people involved once had grand Broadway dreams but are now reduced to acting in a ridiculous musical for kids. Told in multiple viewpoints, Mister Monkey is a brilliant, bizarre, and biting look at dashed dreams and more. Two opposable thumbs up.
Backlist bump: Blue Angel by Francine Prose
Tune in to our weekly podcast dedicated to all things new books, All The Books: http://bookriot.com/listen/shows/allt...
Backlist bump: Blue Angel by Francine Prose
Tune in to our weekly podcast dedicated to all things new books, All The Books: http://bookriot.com/listen/shows/allt...
November 14, 2016
Within the last year I have read three books that belong to a genre that is new to me, which I am calling "Connected Stories Novels" until I find out that someone has some up with a better name. (The other two books were A Visit from the Goon Squad and The Tsar of Love and Techno - I'm interested in starting a collection, so let me know if you can think of any more!) The premise is that each chapter of the book presents the point of view of a different character, and is often a stand-alone short story, and the stories are all connected, even if the link has to be discovered later. Mister Monkey is an exemplar of that genre, and while I didn't enjoy it as much as the others I have read, my reasons for that are personal and can't reasonably be blamed on the author.
Mister Monkey is the title of a children's book-turned-musical being performed off-off-Broadway in a singularly abysmal production. As a person who has participated in a few abysmal off-off-Broadway productions, I got the impression from multiple reviews of this book that it would be funny, in a Waiting for Guffman kind of way. That's not what I found. While the book is well-written, intriguing, and often beautiful, I thought it was mostly depressing. Basically everyone in this book, from the aging actress stuck playing a monkey's lawyer, to the kindergarten teacher of the boy who interrupts the play one fateful day, to the waiter witnessing the kindergarten teacher's terrible first date, is having an existential crisis. As you get towards the end you get some hope of redemption for these miserable people, but the first two-thirds of the book can feel like a slog through the personal traumas of yet more self-obsessed New Yorkers. (I live in New York and I and most of my friends ARE self-obsessed New Yorkers, and most of us work in theatre too, so this book is the opposite of escapist.) Nonetheless, it is interesting to watch the characters unravel and occasionally patch up their lives, and there is real satisfaction in solving the mysteries that have stumped one character when you see the point of view of another. Altogether I thought it was a good book, despite the fact that if it was supposed to be funny, I didn't get the joke.
Mister Monkey is the title of a children's book-turned-musical being performed off-off-Broadway in a singularly abysmal production. As a person who has participated in a few abysmal off-off-Broadway productions, I got the impression from multiple reviews of this book that it would be funny, in a Waiting for Guffman kind of way. That's not what I found. While the book is well-written, intriguing, and often beautiful, I thought it was mostly depressing. Basically everyone in this book, from the aging actress stuck playing a monkey's lawyer, to the kindergarten teacher of the boy who interrupts the play one fateful day, to the waiter witnessing the kindergarten teacher's terrible first date, is having an existential crisis. As you get towards the end you get some hope of redemption for these miserable people, but the first two-thirds of the book can feel like a slog through the personal traumas of yet more self-obsessed New Yorkers. (I live in New York and I and most of my friends ARE self-obsessed New Yorkers, and most of us work in theatre too, so this book is the opposite of escapist.) Nonetheless, it is interesting to watch the characters unravel and occasionally patch up their lives, and there is real satisfaction in solving the mysteries that have stumped one character when you see the point of view of another. Altogether I thought it was a good book, despite the fact that if it was supposed to be funny, I didn't get the joke.
March 15, 2017
Don’t let the illustrated cover fool you, this is no comic romp but rather a dark existential look at the tenuously connected lives surrounding a low-rent, off-off Broadway musical called Mister Monkey.
It’s a clinic in people watching written by a master author. As people exit the theatre and gather outside, someone is concocting stories for the middle-aged actress smiling through gritted teeth, another wandering home still wearing the police uniform she wore during the production, the surly boy and his doting, hippie mother, the long faced man standing alone outside.
There isn’t a happy one in the lot either as Prose devotes a chapter to each. They suffer over failed first dates, the persistent fear of the end of the world, thwarted ambition, self-doubt, self-loathing, unrequited love. Wonderfully written and piercingly thoughtful it was, nonetheless, far too dour for my current reading state of mind.
It’s a clinic in people watching written by a master author. As people exit the theatre and gather outside, someone is concocting stories for the middle-aged actress smiling through gritted teeth, another wandering home still wearing the police uniform she wore during the production, the surly boy and his doting, hippie mother, the long faced man standing alone outside.
There isn’t a happy one in the lot either as Prose devotes a chapter to each. They suffer over failed first dates, the persistent fear of the end of the world, thwarted ambition, self-doubt, self-loathing, unrequited love. Wonderfully written and piercingly thoughtful it was, nonetheless, far too dour for my current reading state of mind.
August 20, 2016
This "Prose-light" novel, more of a daisy chain of linked stories, doesn't go as deeply into any one subject as her other, more incisive works. I enjoyed it, however, because it dealt with two of my favorite things -- New York and (to a lesser extent) theater. I love stories that deal with cross sections of the NY population, and this one goes deep into inner lives with each episode that follows Roshomon like on its predecessor. Centered around a moth-eaten production of an off-off-off-Broadway musical based on a dated children's beloved book, several of the actors and the lives they touch are examined with bits of monkey lore thrown in for color.
February 5, 2017
An enchanting little book about a subject which I thought had been exhausted - neurotic New Yorkers. The title refers to a ghastly children's musical to which all the characters are connected, and how even a the most saccharine art can have profound echoes of real tragedy. Too slight to win many prizes, but gorgeous nonetheless.
March 28, 2017
I think I have found my next author crush.
March 1, 2017
I like how the chapters connected.
December 17, 2017
Mister Monkey is the story of a group of actors in a off, off, off, way off broadway play of a children's play called Mister Monkey written by a Vietnam Vet. Filled with various people like Margot the the middle aged actress in a career going no where, Adam the adolescent actor/monkey who is abandoned by his father and terrified by his fears of the end of the world, Edward's grandfather who misses his deceased wife and loves his grandson and is alone in his old age, Edward the child who is mature for his age and just wants to go to school and feels bad for his teacher Sonya, Ray who wrote the play, Mario the waiter who goes to the theater every chance he gets, Lakshmi the Indian orphan costume designer wanna be playwright, Eleanor the full time register nurse and part time actress, and Roger the director. All great characters but I really loved the grandfather and Eleanor the nurse.
"Failures and disappointments make time go by so fast that you fail to notice your real life, and the past when I was so free seems to belong to someone else, not myself." from letter to Maxim Gorkey, by Chekhov. This really sums up the book which is consists of interconnected stories about how individual lives in their isolation, mediocrity, age, failure and alienation touch each other without awareness giving them a chance at a real life.
I really liked this book and glad that it made it through the first round of Tournament of Books.
While interconnected stories are not new to literature I felt that Francine did something fresh with her use of the play as the center of all their lives. I liked the plot/theme and the characters. It was not overly filled with political correctness in an artificial way or pushing an agenda, it had some swearing but it was minimal, some sexual content but it fit the story and did not feel gratuitous or deplorable.
Rating 4.125
"Failures and disappointments make time go by so fast that you fail to notice your real life, and the past when I was so free seems to belong to someone else, not myself." from letter to Maxim Gorkey, by Chekhov. This really sums up the book which is consists of interconnected stories about how individual lives in their isolation, mediocrity, age, failure and alienation touch each other without awareness giving them a chance at a real life.
I really liked this book and glad that it made it through the first round of Tournament of Books.
While interconnected stories are not new to literature I felt that Francine did something fresh with her use of the play as the center of all their lives. I liked the plot/theme and the characters. It was not overly filled with political correctness in an artificial way or pushing an agenda, it had some swearing but it was minimal, some sexual content but it fit the story and did not feel gratuitous or deplorable.
Rating 4.125
March 11, 2017
It is really refreshing when, at times, you read books and know you are in the hands of a real master, a John Updike, Joyce Carol Oates, Philip Roth, Ian McKuen, Iris Murdoch--I could go on and on. Obviously, to me, Francine Prose in is this class. And this book was a good as it gets from her.
Actually, I expected the book to be more of a farce than it was, more in line with a book like Moo by Jane Smiley. And although there were farcical moments throughout (it is about a ridiculous musical about a chimpanzee being falsely accused of stealing), there is an intricate and wonderfully conceived plot and much pathos and intelligent thinking throughout. Each chapter features a different main character with scenes intertwined from chapter to chapter, sort of a multiple viewpoint effect. However, the novel moves ahead in linear time, with events overlapping. The structure mirrors one of overlapping interconnected stories (Jennifer Egan meets David Mitchell), which the author uses extremely well. The reader gets the idea that the concept is very well thought out, and I found it very clever and fascinating. She weaves in some other topics, such as emerging adolescence, evolution, global warming, and human's overall destruction of the planet and their disregard for species other than their own.
So a great plot, fascinating and varied characters, some political ruminating, and lots of clever humor, and there you have it.
Actually, I expected the book to be more of a farce than it was, more in line with a book like Moo by Jane Smiley. And although there were farcical moments throughout (it is about a ridiculous musical about a chimpanzee being falsely accused of stealing), there is an intricate and wonderfully conceived plot and much pathos and intelligent thinking throughout. Each chapter features a different main character with scenes intertwined from chapter to chapter, sort of a multiple viewpoint effect. However, the novel moves ahead in linear time, with events overlapping. The structure mirrors one of overlapping interconnected stories (Jennifer Egan meets David Mitchell), which the author uses extremely well. The reader gets the idea that the concept is very well thought out, and I found it very clever and fascinating. She weaves in some other topics, such as emerging adolescence, evolution, global warming, and human's overall destruction of the planet and their disregard for species other than their own.
So a great plot, fascinating and varied characters, some political ruminating, and lots of clever humor, and there you have it.
February 6, 2017
What starts off as something slight and silly (Mister Monkey is a creaky children's musical about a domesticated monkey who goes on trial) reveals depths that the cover and its flap-copy could never have hinted at. As Prose hops through narrators, spinning out a daisy chain of connections across the untiring and tiresome city, she captures the universal in the individual and highlights the individual in what we might've otherwise considered universal. It is full of love, hope, philosophy, and the small emotions that color our day for the moments that we feel them but then otherwise float away into our history. An unexpected delight, one I might never've read were it not for the Tournament of Books.
More at RB: http://ragingbiblioholism.com/2017/01...
More at RB: http://ragingbiblioholism.com/2017/01...
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