SummaryMany 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.
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