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ederwin's review
3.0
Some of the sock monkeys in this collection will not haunt your dreams. It is the others you need to worry about!
Some say that a photographer should try to make their subject comfortable. None of these monkeys looks comfortable, yet the photographs are amazing, seeming to capture the soul of each and every one. Not sure that it is wise to capture a sock-monkey soul, though.
The included short stories are very short, never more than a page, and none very interesting. I somewhat like the one by Penn (of Penn and Teller) but that is faint praise. Neil Gaiman completists, you can skip this one. Really. His story here is uninteresting, and a touch trans-phobic.
Some say that a photographer should try to make their subject comfortable. None of these monkeys looks comfortable, yet the photographs are amazing, seeming to capture the soul of each and every one. Not sure that it is wise to capture a sock-monkey soul, though.
The included short stories are very short, never more than a page, and none very interesting. I somewhat like the one by Penn (of Penn and Teller) but that is faint praise. Neil Gaiman completists, you can skip this one. Really. His story here is uninteresting, and a touch trans-phobic.
xterminal's review
4.0
Arne Svenson and Ron Warren, Sock Monkeys (200 out of 1,863) (Ideal World, 2002)
Ron Warren collects sock monkeys. And like any obsessive collector, when he sinks his teeth into something, he does it right. At the time this book was printed seven years ago, Warren had collected 1,863 sock monkeys (and I've no doublt that number has grown in the half-again-as-long time he's had since to continue). Arne Svenson conceived of a project that would have him photographing the monkeys in classic portrait style, and every once in a while grabbing a famous person to tell a particular monkey's tale. It's a fun little conceit, and I have to say it works. Especially when the writers you tab are folks like Neil Gaiman, Penn and Teller (each get a separate monkey), Isaac Mizrachi, and others along those lines. The monkeys range from comforting to disturbing (and having Neil Gaiman or Penn Jillette writing about them will not help you overcome the latter by any means), but Svenson treats them all with equal dignity. Svenson's introduction makes it sound as if this is the first in a series that will eventually encompass all of Warren's collection; I sincerely hope that is the case, because this first book is pure gold for sock monkey fans. *** ½
Ron Warren collects sock monkeys. And like any obsessive collector, when he sinks his teeth into something, he does it right. At the time this book was printed seven years ago, Warren had collected 1,863 sock monkeys (and I've no doublt that number has grown in the half-again-as-long time he's had since to continue). Arne Svenson conceived of a project that would have him photographing the monkeys in classic portrait style, and every once in a while grabbing a famous person to tell a particular monkey's tale. It's a fun little conceit, and I have to say it works. Especially when the writers you tab are folks like Neil Gaiman, Penn and Teller (each get a separate monkey), Isaac Mizrachi, and others along those lines. The monkeys range from comforting to disturbing (and having Neil Gaiman or Penn Jillette writing about them will not help you overcome the latter by any means), but Svenson treats them all with equal dignity. Svenson's introduction makes it sound as if this is the first in a series that will eventually encompass all of Warren's collection; I sincerely hope that is the case, because this first book is pure gold for sock monkey fans. *** ½
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