- Paperback: 208 pages
- Publisher: St. Martin's Griffin; First Edition edition (July 1 2004)
- Language: English
- ISBN-10: 0312328052
- ISBN-13: 978-0312328054
- Product Dimensions: 21 x 14 x 1.7 cm
- Shipping Weight: 181 g
- Average Customer Review: 4.1 out of 5 stars See all reviews (7 customer reviews)
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: #326,817 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
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Product Details |
Product Description
From Booklist
*Starred Review* Jillette's the big, goggled guy with the wavy Steven Seagal do, who yaks a mile a minute while his ever-silent partner, Teller, performs illusions that make Houdini look like a duffer. He writes the way he talks, in a sort of blizzard of smart-alecky, philosophical wit, but adds a pop-song allusion to nearly every paragraph; perhaps the only thing like his style is Stephen King streaming the consciousness of one of his crazed, possessed lowlifes. Jillette's narrator in his first novel is something King could have created: a sock monkey named Dickie, the childhood doll of a now six-foot-six diver for the NYPD, who fishes stiffs out of the drink, and whom Dickie calls the Little Fool. When he dredges up the overstabbed corpse of the woman he loved, Nell, a stripper-lapdancer with an intellectual streak and bed skills for days, he determines to find her killer, who in short order reprises his act with four more women and two men. The Little Fool enlists Tommy, his and Nell's homosexual mutual friend, and the two launch an investigation, strictly illegal (the Little Fool's a diver-cop, not a detective), that culminates in a nail-biting, comical, gory, bittersweet showdown. The denouement, in which Dickie yields the floor and a moral is drawn (viz., Don't have faith! [Jillette's a nonbeliever, big-time]), rather stomps things flat, but until then, Sock is socko! Ray Olson
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved
Review
"[Jillette] writes the way he talks, in a sort of blizzard of smart-alecky, philosophical wit, but adds a pop-song allusion to nearly every paragraph; perhaps the only thing like his style is Stephen King streaming the consciousness of one of his crazed, possessed lowlifes...Sock is socko!"
- Booklist
- Booklist
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First Sentence
Bad monkey wammerjammer. Read the first page
Front Cover | Copyright | Excerpt | Back Cover
Bad monkey wammerjammer. Read the first page
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Front Cover | Copyright | Excerpt | Back Cover
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Most helpful customer reviews
5.0 out of 5 stars
penn jillette is awesome,
By
This review is from: Sock (Paperback)
...and so is this book. Seriously, buy it, read it, enjoy it. It is so great.
4.0 out of 5 stars
Sock it to me,
By "acidrain71" (North Vancouver, British Columbia Canada) - See all my reviews
This review is from: Sock (Paperback)
I found Jillette's (has anyone ever referred to him that way?) novel on a table of books marked "You CAN judge a book by its cover." The bookstore's attempt to be clever I assume. I read the back cover and was immediately intrigued. Having now finished reading it (a task accomplished in about a day and half), I can honestly tell you there is no way you can judge this book by its cover.The hyperkinetic style draws you in immediately. But it's more than just razzle-dazzle. Insight, wit and clever observations leap off every page. Jillette knows how he feels and he's not holding back. Nobody else with the possible exception of Michael Moore has cajones this big. If PC is your bag, this book is NOT for you. If you voted for W, this book is NOT for you. If you think there is too much sex and violence on TV, then put the book down, walk away and ask the nice man at the bookstore where the Danielle Steel novels are. If you think the world is pretty [expletive deleted] up and sometimes it makes you want to scream, then buy this book right now and savour every word. The book is told in the first person from the point of view of a sock monkey. The sock monkey is owned by an NYPD diver who pulls dead bodies out of a river. After he winds up fishing out his ex, he and a gay hairdresser friend take it upon themselves to solve catch the killer. It's an interesting story, though WHO dunnit is not what is most important here; what is important is why--and the journey along the way. If you can turn off your mind, relax and float down stream, then you might want to let Sock take you on that journey.
4.0 out of 5 stars
In a crossfire hurricane, wanting an axe to break the ice.,
By S Carlin - Sue Do Nym. (Australia.) - See all my reviews
This review is from: Sock (Paperback)
If you're reading this, most likely you're either a fan of the P&T show or linked to this from Teller's book "When I'm Dead...". The aggressive style and rock and roll references are possibly familiar to the show's audience or anyone who has read of Jillette's tastes in music, but the tale itself is almost defensively harsh - there's a lot of emotional pull to this story.The scattergun discourse of the main narrator comes from a sock-puppet called 'Dickie'(apparently this novel stems from a short story contributed to the anthology "Sock Monkeys: 200 out of 1,863"). This toy of sweat and blood, a 'predator monkey', doesn't shy away from telling the effect of death upon his owner, the 'Little Fool', a diver for the NY police. Many novels about murder almost glamorise the effect of death with long evocative passages about dead bodies, mourning relatives and stoic detectives. This has more of a sense of desperation about it, a narrative that rips up like a chainsaw and barrels through Little Fool's manic search for a killer whose pious gift of death means another love lost to a fool who has faced enough. This is obsession and revenge rage, not Cornwell or Rendell - if you can't handle the staccato, get out of the rhythm section. As another reviewer pointed out, it's difficult to get a handle of some of the peripheral characters - Nell, the murder victim doesn't come across as being particularly vital but that's possibly because to the empty-hearted sock monkey, she isn't important to him. Tommy, the gay hairdresser who was a friend of Nell's, comes across as a more likeable foil to the Little Fool's fixations. It's not an easy-put-down read with its short chapters and barrelling pace. The ending certainly doesn't hide the author's beliefs about rationalism in a godless universe. It's distinctly different and this may be it's best drawcard, if you don't know the history of the author.
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