What do you think?
Rate this book
With One Eye Open
Polly Frost's humor book, "With One Eye Open," brings together twenty-five of her funniest stories, essays and pieces. Her targets for delicious satire include blogaholism, fitness trends, gamers, sex writers, carbohydrate addicts, and friendship in the age of the internet and cellphones.
Polly's humor has been published in numerous magazines including The Atlantic, The New Yorker, Grin & Tonic and Narrative . Four of her humor pieces were selected for The New Yorker "best of" anthologies "Disquiet, Please!" and "Fierce Pajamas."
PRAISE
"Miss Polly Frost is so funny, so wildly intelligent, and so mean to the unfortunate half-wits who cross her path, she is the Edith Wharton of her generation." --E. Jean Carroll, Elle columnist and life advisor at AskEJean.com
"In these sharp and unsettling, and very, very funny pieces, Polly Frost shows us how inordinately pleased too many of us are with the way we live now." --Daniel Menaker, author of A Good The Story and Skill of Conversation
"Polly Frost captures in fabulous details, the absurdity of life. Laughing out loud often follows. Whether it's inventing an I-Dog (cross between a phone and a dog) or seminars to help repressed bloggers release their inner critic, it's all here. Her work mixes highly observational smarts with a little bit of sass. It comes back and bites you in the ass when you're not looking." --Laura Banks, author of Embracing Your Big Fat Ass
"Polly Frost makes it look easy. I hate her." --Larry Doyle, author of Go, Mutants! and I Love You, Beth Cooper
Polly's humor has been published in numerous magazines including The Atlantic, The New Yorker, Grin & Tonic and Narrative . Four of her humor pieces were selected for The New Yorker "best of" anthologies "Disquiet, Please!" and "Fierce Pajamas."
PRAISE
"Miss Polly Frost is so funny, so wildly intelligent, and so mean to the unfortunate half-wits who cross her path, she is the Edith Wharton of her generation." --E. Jean Carroll, Elle columnist and life advisor at AskEJean.com
"In these sharp and unsettling, and very, very funny pieces, Polly Frost shows us how inordinately pleased too many of us are with the way we live now." --Daniel Menaker, author of A Good The Story and Skill of Conversation
"Polly Frost captures in fabulous details, the absurdity of life. Laughing out loud often follows. Whether it's inventing an I-Dog (cross between a phone and a dog) or seminars to help repressed bloggers release their inner critic, it's all here. Her work mixes highly observational smarts with a little bit of sass. It comes back and bites you in the ass when you're not looking." --Laura Banks, author of Embracing Your Big Fat Ass
"Polly Frost makes it look easy. I hate her." --Larry Doyle, author of Go, Mutants! and I Love You, Beth Cooper
- GenresHumor
164 pages, Paperback
First published May 1, 2010
1 person is currently reading
4 people want to read
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews
May 21, 2018
Polly Frost reassures the reader that she has done her best to ensure that each and every one of the 25 humorous pieces in With One Eye Open is “entirely free of seriousness.” Whereas seventeen of the short pieces and stories were written in the last two years, she has included some earlier pieces as well, dated from 1985 onwards. That Frost takes humor seriously is clearly evident from her telling herself, in private, that her “mini-creations cover a Chekhovian range of subjects and embody a Dostoevskian variety of approaches.” Her use of self-parody and irony are clear in her wry consideration of herself in such a light (as we all know, the writings of both Chekhov and Dostoevsky are redolent with the dark despair of the Russian soul, whereas Frost’s text radiates the uptown blues ambience of New York, the city which, indubitably, first gave rise to the executive suite-bound angst of such literati as Woody Allen). Akin to her literary mentors, Frost is given to deep exploration of her own psyche, revealing her underlying introspective nature in her continuous undermining of self.
Not only does Frost go to great lengths to poke fun at herself and her own literary endeavors, but she also goes to inordinate lengths to explore the implicit falsifications of the urbane living in an urban society. Frost has come a long way from her first attempts at penning a fictional masterpiece, which, on her presentation to a creative writing class, she claims, only served to elicit an eruption of giggles, and advice from the workshop’s instructor that she focus on doing something funny instead. Rather than mincing off in high dudgeon, as many an erstwhile writer is prone to do, after some profound reflection Frost decided to take such sound advice to heart, and, rather than fight the laughter, to invite it instead. And, indeed, her invitation is most appealing…
The fixations of the Internet-obsessed, who wish only to boost their Amazon ratings in a vainglorious attempt to seize their Warholian 15 minutes of elusive fame, are upended in Frost’s opening piece, entitled “Reblock yourself the Polly Frost way,” in which she details the agenda of “The Polly Frost Boot Camp for Shutting You Up.” Some of Frost’s pieces are much shorter than others, a case in point being the two-page “Goodbye, I,” in which she compares herself to “the human equivalent of a Jack Russell terrier” (as a dog lover, I vehemently object to her use of such a metaphor—what is she trying to imply, that all Jack Russells are psychotic? [RAOFL!!!]). Her appreciation of the canine kind (and any reference to her as the feminine gender of such a species could not be further from the truth) is also revealed in her illustrated (think James Thurber-type cartoons) description of innovative hybrid pooches in “My Dog Breeds,” in which she expounds on the virtues of owning such outrageous breeds as the Bollywood terrier and the EcoDoodle (“a dog whose coat is 100 percent organic hemp…all shedding is guaranteed not just 100% recyclable but smokable too.”) Just a sample, but hopefully enough to titillate your taste buds…
Love it or leave it, Polly Frost’s collection of humorous pieces, 15 of which first appeared in The New Yorker or in Grin & Tonic on nook, the B&N e-Book reader, is inescapably witty and unavoidably wry. So why don’t you go ahead and give it a try? (And no, I have no aspirations to be the next Sylvia Plath, despite my penchant for derivative rhyme…)
Not only does Frost go to great lengths to poke fun at herself and her own literary endeavors, but she also goes to inordinate lengths to explore the implicit falsifications of the urbane living in an urban society. Frost has come a long way from her first attempts at penning a fictional masterpiece, which, on her presentation to a creative writing class, she claims, only served to elicit an eruption of giggles, and advice from the workshop’s instructor that she focus on doing something funny instead. Rather than mincing off in high dudgeon, as many an erstwhile writer is prone to do, after some profound reflection Frost decided to take such sound advice to heart, and, rather than fight the laughter, to invite it instead. And, indeed, her invitation is most appealing…
The fixations of the Internet-obsessed, who wish only to boost their Amazon ratings in a vainglorious attempt to seize their Warholian 15 minutes of elusive fame, are upended in Frost’s opening piece, entitled “Reblock yourself the Polly Frost way,” in which she details the agenda of “The Polly Frost Boot Camp for Shutting You Up.” Some of Frost’s pieces are much shorter than others, a case in point being the two-page “Goodbye, I,” in which she compares herself to “the human equivalent of a Jack Russell terrier” (as a dog lover, I vehemently object to her use of such a metaphor—what is she trying to imply, that all Jack Russells are psychotic? [RAOFL!!!]). Her appreciation of the canine kind (and any reference to her as the feminine gender of such a species could not be further from the truth) is also revealed in her illustrated (think James Thurber-type cartoons) description of innovative hybrid pooches in “My Dog Breeds,” in which she expounds on the virtues of owning such outrageous breeds as the Bollywood terrier and the EcoDoodle (“a dog whose coat is 100 percent organic hemp…all shedding is guaranteed not just 100% recyclable but smokable too.”) Just a sample, but hopefully enough to titillate your taste buds…
Love it or leave it, Polly Frost’s collection of humorous pieces, 15 of which first appeared in The New Yorker or in Grin & Tonic on nook, the B&N e-Book reader, is inescapably witty and unavoidably wry. So why don’t you go ahead and give it a try? (And no, I have no aspirations to be the next Sylvia Plath, despite my penchant for derivative rhyme…)
December 13, 2010
This was a tongue in cheek look at those situations in life that are best looked at through the eyes of a clown, unless of course they are the scray creepy variety and then let's just switch it back to an image of a fun house mirror. From diets to dreams, love and self diagnosis, there's at least one topic if not more that will have you chuckling, grinning, perhaps even guffawing for a few moments out of your day...and who couldn't use more smiles? There's even a one that addresses people like us...those afflicted with one or more wide spread "conditions"...perhaps you've heard of them? Blogaholism? Twitteritis? Status Update Disorder? (LOL.)
Recommended read for older teens through adults...there's a mention or two not quite for the younger set (not to mention an image or two created that are harder to erase than others...*shudders*). Certainly a good book to grab when you're looking for a break in your otherwise serious day...
Recommended read for older teens through adults...there's a mention or two not quite for the younger set (not to mention an image or two created that are harder to erase than others...*shudders*). Certainly a good book to grab when you're looking for a break in your otherwise serious day...
May 9, 2012
This is a series of sophisticated but hilarious sketches by Polly Frost about popular and Net culture. It's light and fun reading, poking fun at writers, Facebook, theatre, commercialism, dieting, celebritydom, software to write novels. These are obvious targets of satire, yes, and the humor is so topical and trendy that I wonder if it could have been written 6 months from now. Most take place under a Manhattan backdrop, with a love/hate relationship towards technology, publishing and the bohemian lifestyle. Among my favorite stories were "Final Paper You Want From Me" (a college girl dreams up new and crazy social networking sites), Reblock Yourself the Polly Frost Way (seminars to teach people to resist the impulse to write) and My Dog Breeds (an illustrated guide to dog breeds for today -- such as the iDog). Frost and her husband Ray Sawhill are the writers behind Sex Scenes, sexy audio stories about Hollywood.
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews