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mrsdragon's review against another edition
3.0
Read this one for bookclub. I felt like there were two stories here. The nominal story was about "The Little Fool" solving the mystery of an ex-flame's death. That story was engaging and funny.
It was nearly drowned under the weight of Penn's personality. Over-the-top swagger and political opinions ranged from eye-rolling to irritating to genuinely upsetting--and I pretty much agree with the guy!
The tone of the book was musical--calling to mind rap battles and clearly demonstrating Penn's showmanship. Littered with song lyrics and pop culture references, I found that I rarely "got" them, more of I just understood that there was a reference, but not what it was.
It was nearly drowned under the weight of Penn's personality. Over-the-top swagger and political opinions ranged from eye-rolling to irritating to genuinely upsetting--and I pretty much agree with the guy!
The tone of the book was musical--calling to mind rap battles and clearly demonstrating Penn's showmanship. Littered with song lyrics and pop culture references, I found that I rarely "got" them, more of I just understood that there was a reference, but not what it was.
penguin_horowitz's review against another edition
2.0
What begins as a potentially interesting, Gothic romp through the mind of a terrible sock monkey in the midst of a murder mystery devolves into an all-out attack on religion. It's depressing to watch a novel with a lot of dark, intriguing ideas become a simple delivery vessel for Jillette's pure hatred of religion. I can't go below 2 stars here, because the writing's solid, and this book had me thinking and flipping pages pretty fast, but it's final on-the-nose "message" undercuts what makes the book work in the first place--humanity's bizarre imagination and the beautifully absurd notion that a eveb music-obsessed foul-mouthed sock puppet can tell a story. Sock puppets are not a gateway drug to violent religious extremism, and the fact that this book seems to seriously think that they are hurts the integrity of what could have been a great novel.
theonionboy's review against another edition
3.0
I fully knew what I was getting into when I started this book, thanks to so many reviews on sites like this. But I am having a hard time putting my thoughts into words for this book, or even picking a rating. I liked that it was so different from other books. It was dark, but at times I wondered if the author was doing so for shock value. I didn't understand the point of the pop culture reference at the end of almost every paragraph. Few of them contributed much to the story.
The ending seemed a little anti-climatic in the sense that the motivation of the killer was less complex that it should have been, given the story that led up to it. It felt like the author was using the story as a chance to vent some of his frustrations with organized religion more than just completing the story.
Having said all that, my opinion of the book is not as bad as it may sound. I just wanted to point a few things that bothered me a bit. Overall I enjoyed the book as something off the beaten path, and I felt the author did a good job.
The ending seemed a little anti-climatic in the sense that the motivation of the killer was less complex that it should have been, given the story that led up to it. It felt like the author was using the story as a chance to vent some of his frustrations with organized religion more than just completing the story.
Having said all that, my opinion of the book is not as bad as it may sound. I just wanted to point a few things that bothered me a bit. Overall I enjoyed the book as something off the beaten path, and I felt the author did a good job.
pattieod's review against another edition
4.0
Very funny and absolutely original. Penn enjoys shocking people, and he succeeds.
jaeden's review against another edition
dark
emotional
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
4.75
brokenweed's review against another edition
1.0
The worst movie I have ever seen was Penn and Teller Get Killed. It was written by Penn and Teller. I should have known better that garb a book by Penn Jillette. Their Bullshit! show is good, and Penn has written some good essays and articles. This book sucks.
The premise is a sort of buddy cop story. A NYC diver and his sock monkey. It is told from the point of view of the sock monkey. The monkey is not very bright or Penn just forgot how to write interesting stuff. I knew the book would be a challenge to finish when I pulled a bookmark out from the third chapter. The last reader only made it seven pages. I wanted to quit after the first page. The bookmark was an info card on ovarian cancer. Cancer is one of the few things that is worse than this book.
Penn/Sock Monkey try to be culturally hip. Just because you can quote "Faster Pussy Cat Kill Kill" and "Last Train to Clarksville" does not make you hip. It means you ran out things to write and are letting The Byrds and Cody Simpson write for you.
Now my dilemna is whether to return this book to one of the Little Libraries in the neighborhood or toss it in the recycle bin. Some people rated this book with 4 or 5 stars. Some people also liked "Gigli."
The premise is a sort of buddy cop story. A NYC diver and his sock monkey. It is told from the point of view of the sock monkey. The monkey is not very bright or Penn just forgot how to write interesting stuff. I knew the book would be a challenge to finish when I pulled a bookmark out from the third chapter. The last reader only made it seven pages. I wanted to quit after the first page. The bookmark was an info card on ovarian cancer. Cancer is one of the few things that is worse than this book.
Penn/Sock Monkey try to be culturally hip. Just because you can quote "Faster Pussy Cat Kill Kill" and "Last Train to Clarksville" does not make you hip. It means you ran out things to write and are letting The Byrds and Cody Simpson write for you.
Now my dilemna is whether to return this book to one of the Little Libraries in the neighborhood or toss it in the recycle bin. Some people rated this book with 4 or 5 stars. Some people also liked "Gigli."
toastx2's review against another edition
1.0
Penn Jillette.. The louder half of Penn and Teller.
Penn wrote a book back in 2004. When i saw it in the book store, i said to myself, that looks awesome! The story is narrated by the sock monkey of a NYC Police Diver. Said diver runs across the body of an ex-girlfriend and spends the rest of the book determined to locate the killer and take him down. Did i mention it was narrated by a sock monkey?
The book (aptly named “Sock”) was one of the lousiest reads i have ever mucked through. The story was interesting. the characters kept me interested as the story progressed, i was surprised by the ending. the problem was the damn sock monkey. as far as narrators go, he was the most annoying, hard to follow story teller i have ever run across. i slogged through the book determined to find out who the killer was, but everytime someone asked me about the book i would tell them i hated it. it was annoying and painful to read.
I was not lying.
The monkey is overly descriptive, worse than Anne Rice, and we all know that she can describe a room for 50 pages with no difficulty. The monkey was full of itself and held itself up as if it were the worst thing ever created. it would tell stories and jokes. It would say dirty things and then put itself down for being dirty… and we are really talking 7th grade humor here.. so far from being truly dirty that it was once again annoying.
The monkey spent a fair amount of time in the past listening to the radio by itself. The damn monkey was written so that it would end nearly every paragraph with the lyrics of a song. You may think i am exaggerating, and i am, but not much. You would find odd paragraphs with no song reference, but most paragraphs… LYRICS. Just when you think you can get past the asinine phrases and buggy bits of the narrator character, he tosses out lyrics to a song. You compulsively stop what you are reading, make a mental check mark as to if you know where the lyrics come from , then continue. The continuation is painful. You FEEL the interruption.
The lyrics were occasionally witty in their placement, but more often than not they appear to have been part of a list Penn was trying to get through. A prefabricated list that if he didnt find a way to use completely, he would have felt as if his “Magic Trick” had failed. In this case, the magic trick being that Penn actually got people to finish this poorly written novel of junk phrases and decent ideas.
To be honest, though i finished it and enjoyed the core story, it took until page 112 out of 228 for it to begin to become passable. HALF the book… It became passable when the monkey got cut out a bit and we started reading text written by the killer. THOSE were fantastic passages. Kill the monkey narration by the killer. This would have been incredible.
Up until page 112, there was only one memorable paragraph.. I marked it in my book.
My honest opinion, post rant… DO NOT READ THIS BOOK. If you do, ask me for the good paragraph and then pick up on page 112. If the text gets sloppy, skip it. The pain is not worth it. I rarely hate books, but the damn sock monkey ruined this one for me. I finished it for story alone and hated the experience.
--
xpost RawBlurb.com
Penn wrote a book back in 2004. When i saw it in the book store, i said to myself, that looks awesome! The story is narrated by the sock monkey of a NYC Police Diver. Said diver runs across the body of an ex-girlfriend and spends the rest of the book determined to locate the killer and take him down. Did i mention it was narrated by a sock monkey?
The book (aptly named “Sock”) was one of the lousiest reads i have ever mucked through. The story was interesting. the characters kept me interested as the story progressed, i was surprised by the ending. the problem was the damn sock monkey. as far as narrators go, he was the most annoying, hard to follow story teller i have ever run across. i slogged through the book determined to find out who the killer was, but everytime someone asked me about the book i would tell them i hated it. it was annoying and painful to read.
I was not lying.
The monkey is overly descriptive, worse than Anne Rice, and we all know that she can describe a room for 50 pages with no difficulty. The monkey was full of itself and held itself up as if it were the worst thing ever created. it would tell stories and jokes. It would say dirty things and then put itself down for being dirty… and we are really talking 7th grade humor here.. so far from being truly dirty that it was once again annoying.
The monkey spent a fair amount of time in the past listening to the radio by itself. The damn monkey was written so that it would end nearly every paragraph with the lyrics of a song. You may think i am exaggerating, and i am, but not much. You would find odd paragraphs with no song reference, but most paragraphs… LYRICS. Just when you think you can get past the asinine phrases and buggy bits of the narrator character, he tosses out lyrics to a song. You compulsively stop what you are reading, make a mental check mark as to if you know where the lyrics come from , then continue. The continuation is painful. You FEEL the interruption.
The lyrics were occasionally witty in their placement, but more often than not they appear to have been part of a list Penn was trying to get through. A prefabricated list that if he didnt find a way to use completely, he would have felt as if his “Magic Trick” had failed. In this case, the magic trick being that Penn actually got people to finish this poorly written novel of junk phrases and decent ideas.
To be honest, though i finished it and enjoyed the core story, it took until page 112 out of 228 for it to begin to become passable. HALF the book… It became passable when the monkey got cut out a bit and we started reading text written by the killer. THOSE were fantastic passages. Kill the monkey narration by the killer. This would have been incredible.
Up until page 112, there was only one memorable paragraph.. I marked it in my book.
My honest opinion, post rant… DO NOT READ THIS BOOK. If you do, ask me for the good paragraph and then pick up on page 112. If the text gets sloppy, skip it. The pain is not worth it. I rarely hate books, but the damn sock monkey ruined this one for me. I finished it for story alone and hated the experience.
--
xpost RawBlurb.com
jpbehrens's review against another edition
2.0
While at times interesting, I didn't feel that the book was all that well written. The pop culture references were amusing at times for their "Where's Waldo?" discovery moments, but needless. When you end every paragraph with a line from a song or movie to "set the tone," it becomes tedious. The plot was lacking and served as only a thinly veiled attempt at writing a book about his Atheist beliefs. Something he's done much better in his non-fiction attempts at writing. The book had an interesting concept and theme. It's unfortunate that Penn Jillette couldn't deliver on that promise.
hobbes199's review against another edition
3.0
This is a difficult novel to review, especially if you are a fan of Jillette not only in his roll as bullshit bashing magician, but as a social commentator. Penn tells it like it is-constantly. And that is the problem with Sock.
As a debut novel it is brave, clever, insightful and raw. Unfortunately,if you've read any of his other works as I had with God,No! http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/8495145-god-no, read any of his work online, or seen Penn & Teller:Bullshit, it's all old and just comes across as preachy ranting.
Don't get me wrong, I loved the first 100 pages or so, and using 'The Little Fool's' childhood sock monkey as the central voice is an inspired move. After that, it does tend to become a chore, making the 'broken fourth wall' trick just tiresome and annoying; so much so, that in the end you're praying for another voice to come through. Annoyingly, when that 'voice' does come through, it's just and even louder, shoutier version of what's preceded it.
Like other reviewers, I'm split on the song lyrics gimmick. At times they're clever, but there are instances where it takes you out of the story while you sit there running said lyric through your head.
If you're new to Penn and his ways then go for it. If you're experienced, then don't get your expectations up.
As a debut novel it is brave, clever, insightful and raw. Unfortunately,if you've read any of his other works as I had with God,No! http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/8495145-god-no, read any of his work online, or seen Penn & Teller:Bullshit, it's all old and just comes across as preachy ranting.
Don't get me wrong, I loved the first 100 pages or so, and using 'The Little Fool's' childhood sock monkey as the central voice is an inspired move. After that, it does tend to become a chore, making the 'broken fourth wall' trick just tiresome and annoying; so much so, that in the end you're praying for another voice to come through. Annoyingly, when that 'voice' does come through, it's just and even louder, shoutier version of what's preceded it.
Like other reviewers, I'm split on the song lyrics gimmick. At times they're clever, but there are instances where it takes you out of the story while you sit there running said lyric through your head.
If you're new to Penn and his ways then go for it. If you're experienced, then don't get your expectations up.
kalinichta's review against another edition
3.0
The first chapter is five-star material, but the book loosened from there, and I missed Dickie's crazy-eyed Beat rhythm. Still, a sock monkey is a great vehicle for some id-powered stream-of-consciousness storytelling. A quick, addictive, fast-paced, pop culture-dotted, kind-hearted read.