What do you think?
Rate this book
Love Monkey
Many men aim high; Tom Farrell dares to be average. While his friends accumulate wedding rings, mortgages, and even, alarmingly, babies, Tom still lives alone in his rented apartment with nothing but condiments and alcohol in his refrigerator. He spends Saturday mornings watching cartoons and eating Cocoa Puffs out of an Empire Strikes Back bowl, and devotes the rest of the weekend to his other favorite hobbies: sports and girls. His credo, to think and act like a thirteen-year-old boy at all times, has worked well enough to land him a decent job writing headlines for the New York Tabloid. But neither his personal life nor his professional life has any forward momentum; he's occupied the same cubicle since the first George Bush was president and is currently "between girlfriends." At thirty-two, it starts to occur to him: There's a fine line between picky and loser. Enter a sly, beautiful coworker named Julia. After a few torrid dates, Tom is hooked. "She's like cleaning behind my refrigerator. A once-in-a-lifetime thing." But the closer he gets to Julia, the more elusive she becomes. Frustrated, Tom seeks the dubious advice of his buddy Shooter, a shallow sexual gladiator, and wonders why he keeps getting into arguments with Bran, his smart, sarcastic "default date." But then tragedy strikes, and everyone's attitudes toward life and love change -- and even Tom begins to see himself in a new light. By turns riotous and tenderhearted, Kyle Smith's Love Monkey is the most candid and excruciatingly funny exploration of the male mind and libido since High Fidelity.
368 pages
First published January 1, 2004
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 30 of 132 reviews
Shelved as 'will-never-ever-read'
December 17, 2020I'll pass on this garbage book because I don't like to read garbage.
December 12, 2009
I picked up this book because it was hailed to be the next best thing after HIGH FIDELITY but it wasn't. Not really.
Sure, the loser-boy fumbles his way through several simultaneous relationships while in a dead-end job and with slacker friends who do nothing to inspire him, but Kyle Smith does not have the same sparkling wit as Nick Hornby does.
There were some highlights in the book: the peek view on men's view of relationships (we cheat on wonderful women because relationship for guys are like a buffet dinner to a starving man and he must have everything offered whether he likes it or not) to a guy's reluctant-to-admit-even-to-himself state of his job (I guess I will die in this cubicle if I keep doing what I have been doing) to a guy's commitment-phobic state of grace in the face of true love (I will always remember how she wanted to be with me--and that's all) even after he loses The One.
But, over all, it was less than HIGH FIDELITY. Not a bad attempt at lad-lit, but not the classic it was reported to be.
Sure, the loser-boy fumbles his way through several simultaneous relationships while in a dead-end job and with slacker friends who do nothing to inspire him, but Kyle Smith does not have the same sparkling wit as Nick Hornby does.
There were some highlights in the book: the peek view on men's view of relationships (we cheat on wonderful women because relationship for guys are like a buffet dinner to a starving man and he must have everything offered whether he likes it or not) to a guy's reluctant-to-admit-even-to-himself state of his job (I guess I will die in this cubicle if I keep doing what I have been doing) to a guy's commitment-phobic state of grace in the face of true love (I will always remember how she wanted to be with me--and that's all) even after he loses The One.
But, over all, it was less than HIGH FIDELITY. Not a bad attempt at lad-lit, but not the classic it was reported to be.
February 1, 2016
Ok, the writing of this book was funny and quirky and I liked it. However, I like books that have plots. This book had no plot- it went nowhere. It seemed that it was going somewhere but it just ended and nothing at all happened. The first half was good- the second half was only about calling multiple girls trying to find someone to have sex with to get over Julia which was so boring. I was over this book at like, page 200.
September 17, 2007
Accurately described as Bridget Jones as written by Nick Hornby, this is a quick read with some genuine laugh-out-loud moments. (Doesn't seem to have much in common with the short-lived TV show that was base on it, though.)
June 26, 2020
Rubbish and dull; narrated by a character you would never swerve to avoid.
April 5, 2016
I read this book because I was a big fan of the short-lived CBS/VH1 sitcom based on the book that aired a few years ago. However, it turns out that the characters and storylines from the sitcom were very, very loosely based on the novel.
March 5, 2017
I have had this book on my shelf for three years and I decided to pick it up out of boredom and bam! Like this book started hilarious and then post 9/11 it just took a wrong turn.
What is wrong with Tom Farrell really? That Manboy phase is actually stupid and Julia? My goodness, leave the b*tch.
What is wrong with Tom Farrell really? That Manboy phase is actually stupid and Julia? My goodness, leave the b*tch.
April 2, 2008
Sometimes I just need a lightweight that makes me laugh. Know what I mean? After a really heavy, gut-wrenching, life-changing book you sometimes just have to get a screamer to follow it or you'll never read again. Love Monkey is a screamer. I laughed out loud most of the way through it. Quips and one-liners are right up my alley, and the main character Tom is full of short, snappy observations about life, dating and relationships from the male point of view. Guess you could call it dick lit. And I envy his job writing headlines for a tabloid. Now excuse me, but I've got to go buy some white panties.
February 15, 2012
Bad bad bad! Dated, stagnant plot with an unlikable main character! This was advertised as "chick lit" for men, but this book must be the reason the genre never really took off. The was a really brief television series attempt as well. After reading the book, I'm not surprised it failed too. I soldiered on but really, should have put the book down halfway through.
March 10, 2009
Very funny.. I watched the show that they based on this book, with Tom Cavanaugh (lasted about 9 episodes a few years ago..) so I enjoyed it. Nothing to stretch your brain, but it's a good quick read.
June 14, 2010
Great guilty pleasure summer read. Loved it!
July 21, 2011
A snarky, fun beach read
June 27, 2016
I enjoyed this book, especially considering you are not supposed to like the character.
May 19, 2021
Really funny. He's a tabloid writer, madly in love with someone at last, only she loves someone else. And him. Or not. Meantime, he does have his other girlfriends/friends/old lovers to keep him busy. This is not mean spirited or cheating- it's dating.
The book had been made into a tv series which I also enjoyed, but this was, of course, much funnier.
The book had been made into a tv series which I also enjoyed, but this was, of course, much funnier.
September 27, 2018
One of my favorite comedies of all time. Smith is king of the one-liners.
October 25, 2019
samo ok
November 18, 2019
Stupid!
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
March 16, 2021
Not worth reading...
March 31, 2021
Awfully boring
Read
June 23, 2021Terrible, if you have a day job you’re best to stick to it.
March 25, 2023
Quirky book about a 32 year old man's life. The writing can be humorous!
May 25, 2023
For a man he sure does a lot of whining. This book was more of a journal because it doesn’t go anywhere. I wanted to scream grow a pair of balls and move on.
December 28, 2012
I've read reviews heralding author Kyle Smith as the new Nick Hornby or a male version of Helen Fielding, but I felt he had much more in common with one of my favorite writers, Bret Easton Ellis. Love Monkey was a bit like Ellis-lite, as it had a lot of machismo and depravity in New York, but not in such excess. It was more Ellis in the characters thought than their actions.
The narrative is told thought Tom Farrell, a thirty-two year old journalist, who exerts a great deal of energy just trying to get laid. His sexual exploits become muddled, when he fixates on a beautiful copy girl, Julia, who places him in the friends, occasionally with benefits, category.
The story is entertaining and a quick read. I found it to be highly relatable, I completely get Julia and know guys that are just like Tom.
SPOILERS BELOW
What's really well done is the way Smith highlights the differences in male and female thinking with regard to relationships. Julia is keeping Tom as a friend as she has multiple long term relationships with a few guys. She lets Tom take her out and they have the quasi-dates, but she keeps him at a distance while she is figuring things out with her various boyfriends. She is flirtatious with Tom, but always talks about her boyfriends. She consents to let Tom touch her, kiss her in a teasing way, but only when she is between guys. She knows Tom likes her and it gives her a sense of power.
Tom is different. He professes his love of Julia to all of his friends and even to Julia, but he freely dates other girls at the same time. He is not going to wait for Julia and sees absolutely nothing wrong with having sex as much as he is able, with whichever women he is able. He wines and dines women that would be a great match for him, but won't commit further, because he wants Julia.
He complains that Julia is dicking him around, but in turn, that's what he is doing to the other women that are interested in him. It's a vicious cycle.This book serves as a reminder of why men and women who have an attraction towards each other, really shouldn't be friends. Julia and Tom torment each other, as they constantly keep in each others lives, even though they are both getting emotionally screwed.
The narrative is told thought Tom Farrell, a thirty-two year old journalist, who exerts a great deal of energy just trying to get laid. His sexual exploits become muddled, when he fixates on a beautiful copy girl, Julia, who places him in the friends, occasionally with benefits, category.
The story is entertaining and a quick read. I found it to be highly relatable, I completely get Julia and know guys that are just like Tom.
SPOILERS BELOW
What's really well done is the way Smith highlights the differences in male and female thinking with regard to relationships. Julia is keeping Tom as a friend as she has multiple long term relationships with a few guys. She lets Tom take her out and they have the quasi-dates, but she keeps him at a distance while she is figuring things out with her various boyfriends. She is flirtatious with Tom, but always talks about her boyfriends. She consents to let Tom touch her, kiss her in a teasing way, but only when she is between guys. She knows Tom likes her and it gives her a sense of power.
Tom is different. He professes his love of Julia to all of his friends and even to Julia, but he freely dates other girls at the same time. He is not going to wait for Julia and sees absolutely nothing wrong with having sex as much as he is able, with whichever women he is able. He wines and dines women that would be a great match for him, but won't commit further, because he wants Julia.
He complains that Julia is dicking him around, but in turn, that's what he is doing to the other women that are interested in him. It's a vicious cycle.This book serves as a reminder of why men and women who have an attraction towards each other, really shouldn't be friends. Julia and Tom torment each other, as they constantly keep in each others lives, even though they are both getting emotionally screwed.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
October 10, 2007
Hmm... I had no idea this book was turned into a TV show. I guess it's already been canceled and too late to check it out now.
The main character, Tom, is a likeable enough guy. He pines for Julia, a younger coworker who already has a boyfriend. Tom is a popular fellow with many friends (even though he makes it seem like he's boring and has nothing to do, I wish I had 1/10th of the social life that he does).
His longing for Julia gets tired after a while, and I really started to hate Julia for stringing Tom along when she had a pseudo relationship with some guy named Duane/Dwayne, then come to find out she really was in love with an old boyfriend who lives in Wisconsin. Huh? Poor Tom.
Kyle Smith is very descriptive in telling us about Tom's world. Some of his pop culture references made me laugh out loud. Others, like the whole chapter devoted to Tom and his guy friends at the strip club, was so completely boring to me that I skipped over most of it.
I described this book as chick lit with a male lead as well. Plus it's set in New York City (of course!) and the main character works at a newspaper (of course!). I wish some authors, as well as television and movie producers, would realize that a whole vast world exists beyond New York City, Los Angeles, or London. It doesn't have to be the setting for everything these days, you know.
The main character, Tom, is a likeable enough guy. He pines for Julia, a younger coworker who already has a boyfriend. Tom is a popular fellow with many friends (even though he makes it seem like he's boring and has nothing to do, I wish I had 1/10th of the social life that he does).
His longing for Julia gets tired after a while, and I really started to hate Julia for stringing Tom along when she had a pseudo relationship with some guy named Duane/Dwayne, then come to find out she really was in love with an old boyfriend who lives in Wisconsin. Huh? Poor Tom.
Kyle Smith is very descriptive in telling us about Tom's world. Some of his pop culture references made me laugh out loud. Others, like the whole chapter devoted to Tom and his guy friends at the strip club, was so completely boring to me that I skipped over most of it.
I described this book as chick lit with a male lead as well. Plus it's set in New York City (of course!) and the main character works at a newspaper (of course!). I wish some authors, as well as television and movie producers, would realize that a whole vast world exists beyond New York City, Los Angeles, or London. It doesn't have to be the setting for everything these days, you know.
February 26, 2015
This book was touted as the "male Bridget Jones." I'm not sure why men needed an answer to Bridget Jones and I'm not sure this is it. Of course, it's been quite a few years since I've read "Bridget Jones" but I don't remember her having conversations with her vagina on how good a man's lips would look sucking on her. Did she do that? I also don't remember Bridget Jones trying to sleep with every man she saw; friends, co-workers, friends of friends. But, perhaps she did. Did Bridget try to get all of her dates drunk so she could trick them into coming back to her apartment so she could try to sleep with them, whether they wanted to or not? Did she?
Because Tom does all of these things and worst. He is effing horrible and I was not a fan of his constant sexualization of women. This book was disgusting. Oh, and **SPOILER ALERT** the back cover tries to make it seem as if he changes and becomes less of a douche after 9/11 but he doesn't. He just decides he's going to date one of his friends while pining for the woman he really "loves." If you don't love her, Tom, don't date her just because of 9/11. Dick.
Because Tom does all of these things and worst. He is effing horrible and I was not a fan of his constant sexualization of women. This book was disgusting. Oh, and **SPOILER ALERT** the back cover tries to make it seem as if he changes and becomes less of a douche after 9/11 but he doesn't. He just decides he's going to date one of his friends while pining for the woman he really "loves." If you don't love her, Tom, don't date her just because of 9/11. Dick.
October 19, 2009
I’m sure a lot of guys read or saw High Fidelity and thought—I could do that, it seems to easy. In fact, Love Monkey by Kyle Smith references this fact early on in the story with our narrator, Tom, saying that book was nothing more than top ten lists and a way to get girls’ phone numbers.
But the thing about Nik Hornby’s book is that it was so good, he made it look easy.
Not so much here.
Not that book isn’t good, but you never got the feeling Rob was as self-aware as Tom is.
Anyway, onto Love Monkey. Tom is in love with Julia, who he works with. Julia has a boyfriend who she may or may not be in the process of breaking up with. The story follows that romance as it were as well as Tom’s other conquests and attempts to get some action. There are times when the book is staggeringly funny and realized and times when Tom is too much a bore to garner much sympathy. The whole books reaches a crossroads with 9/11 and how those events shape our hero. Not sure it’s a great way to end a book.
But the thing about Nik Hornby’s book is that it was so good, he made it look easy.
Not so much here.
Not that book isn’t good, but you never got the feeling Rob was as self-aware as Tom is.
Anyway, onto Love Monkey. Tom is in love with Julia, who he works with. Julia has a boyfriend who she may or may not be in the process of breaking up with. The story follows that romance as it were as well as Tom’s other conquests and attempts to get some action. There are times when the book is staggeringly funny and realized and times when Tom is too much a bore to garner much sympathy. The whole books reaches a crossroads with 9/11 and how those events shape our hero. Not sure it’s a great way to end a book.
September 20, 2013
I waver between giving LOVE MONEY three and four stars - let's call it 3 1/2. Smith's doggedly comic look at a bachelor in New York City admittedly owes a lot to Nick Hornby's HIGH FIDELITY, but simply isn't as cleverly put together. Characters are dropped into play rather than introduced, the ex-girlfriend first appears as a not-there haunting presence but then that gimmick is put aside, never to be seen again, and the climactic 'all my current- and ex-girlfriends together at one time' moment is both missing the true love of the narrator's life, and isn't particularly funny, ending in a rather boring, and telegraphed, vomiting scene. But the narrator's heartache is made real yet still funny, the dialogue crackles and sparkles throughout, at least when it's not entirely internal, and the inclusion of the events of September 11 is done surprisingly well, in what still remains a funny book. It starts slow, and finishes a little light, but the meat in this sandwich is worth biting through the stale ends.
October 3, 2007
I was told this book was going to be really funny. After all, CBS has turned it into a sitcom. Truth is- it was kind of funny about once every...let's say...hmmm....50 pages, or so. For the most part, Love Monkey is the tale of a lame guy who can't seem to get the girl of his dreams. In between his efforts, the guy sleeps with random women and writes movie reviews for a tabloid in NYC. This book goes into excruciating detail, opening up the nonsensical and overwhelmingly perverted mind of a "monkey man." In this way, I will admit to finding quite a bit of reflective humor...every girl knows at least a dozen monkey men, after all. ;)
June 22, 2009
okay, so yes, kyle smith can be witty. but i have serious issues with this book. it was a quick read and i burned through it in a day but it left me wanting to chuck it across the room then take a shower to scrub the grimy feeling off. how can the entire book be about pining over this woman he obviously connects with only to have it end the way it did? and not with any real explanation, just some sort of half baked attempt in making the main character seem enlightened (calling it contrived would be a compliment). ultimately i felt that kyle smith's whole point was another tired version of 'all men are jerks and all women are crazy.' and fuck that noise.
August 25, 2007
I remembered reading this book at my neighborhood bookstore when I lived in San Francisco. I finished this book in 2 sittings and I loved it. At the time, they had come out with the TV version of it which actually didn't last a whole season. I was quite sad. This book is hilarious! I liked reading a man's perspective of things! A lot of people have said this book is a lot like High Fidelity. If you're a High Fidelity fan, you'll either like this book too or think it is a cop off. I hadn't seen or read high fidelity yet at the time but I really enjoyed this book for what it was.
Displaying 1 - 30 of 132 reviews