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The Hippopotamus: Fry Stephen

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The Hippopotamus is based on a novel written by our local boy Stephen Fry, and that should tell you a lot about it, but it probably won't. I find it fitting that I started my reading challenge with Mr. Fry and am closing it out with one of his books. For a debut novel this is remarkable but then again so is the man that wrote it. It is every bit as witty and charming as the man himself. Which to me reinforces the veiled autobiographical nature of it. Wiseman, Andreas (1 October 2015). "Stephen Fry's 'Hippopotamus' secures sales, distribution deal". Screendaily . Retrieved 4 June 2017. The title draws comparisons between the animal as described in the poem and the main character, Ted Wallace, a slovenly man who enjoys long baths. (Hence cover designs picturing an actual hippopotamus or Fry himself in a bathtub.) The title and epigraph imply as well one of the novel's themes: the practicality of poetry and how that helps Wallace, a poet, regard the "miracles" in the story with a sceptical eye. [3] Synopsis [ edit ] Ted Wallaces’ rants about society figures and past acquaintances are delectably dark and razor sharp – the ferocity with which he deprecates others along with himself is awe-inspiring.

Hippopotamus’ Review – The Hollywood Reporter ‘The Hippopotamus’ Review – The Hollywood Reporter

I found the writing style easy to read and the story entertaining. It was funny in some places, poignant in others. I particularly enjoyed the histories of the characters and the relationships between them. Some may say it’s contrived – I’d say well of course it is, the level and complexity of the contrivance is what makes it so hilarious! If you think that there is a discrepancy between giving a book 3 stars and placing it on the "disappointing" shelf, remember that the author is Stephen Fry, someone I think of as being awesomely smart and very funny. His intelligence is evident in this book, but much of the attempted humor falls flat. Perhaps it would be more accurate to say that much of it is the kind of humor that might have flown a generation ago (think Kingsley Amis, Wilt Sharpe, Roald Dahl), but is completely jarring in 2010. What puzzles me is that it would have been equally jarring in 1994, when this book was published, and Fry is smart enough to know this, so it's obviously a conscious choice that he made. It's unclear why he did so, because it detracts quite a bit from the enjoyment of the book. It's a toss-up which was more offputting - the incessant vulgar misogynistic musings of the splenetic, Kingsley Amis wannabe narrator or the paragraphs of ridiculously mincing poofter-talk inflicted on the reader. There is really no excuse for this: There is not a lot to this movie. Don't expect dramatic plot twists, edge of the seat action, moving performances or fire works of any kind. He spends too much of the book flexing his encyclopaedic knowledge to no point at all, which is great in the context of a show like QI, but when it’s interspersed with a story you’re struggling to engage with, the result feels like trying to watch a pirated film in the mid-2000’s while constantly swatting away unsolicited pop-up ads.The book see-sawed between passages of elegance and delightful character sketches, and ludicrously over-the-top, effulgent even, caricatures. The story was slight, and reminded me of a bastardised PG Wodehouse in its archaic country house mannerisms, but rewarded the doggedly determined with an absurd ending which despite being delivered at the end of a particularly turgid stream-of-consciousness from the main character, seemed to make some sort of sense. Ted Wallace is weary beyond all human capacity for weariness of the mindless pap that is served up under the guise of 21st century "culture", and can hardly be blamed for seeking refuge in a bottle of whisky, or rather a great many bottles of whisky. Then out of the blue he is suddenly presented with his very own hero's journey, which he embarks on with great reluctance and reservation, but ultimately manages to see clean through the dense haze of crap. A strange waking this morning. I thought at first that Vesta Vision was playing the giddy goat with me." This book was a total mess spanning more than one timeline, without making you feel as if you realized that, because you didn’t, or you did too late. And you realized too late that the idea behind it is much farther than the humour and the ‘game’. I tell you, this book is a chronic liar too. But strange things have been going on at Swafford. Miracles. Healings. Phenomena beyond the comprehension of a mud-caked hippopotamus like Ted.

THE HIPPOPOTAMUS by Stephen Fry Book Review – THE HIPPOPOTAMUS by Stephen Fry

We follow Ted Wallace, a 60-something has-been journalist-cum-poet, who is outwardly and verbally a cynical misogynist. He travels to a country house in an attempt to unravel some rather strange goings-on in a family and finds a bit more than he bargained for. He goes there because he is the godfather of a son of said family, though he had practically forgotten this fact, and because he has to help out a niece of said family, who is his goddaughter, which he had also more or less forgotten. You get the picture. I didn’t really like any of the characters for a long time, but that wasn’t necessary to enjoy the novel nor, I suppose, was I meant to. The reader’s feeling towards the narrator, Ted, change, however, and I enjoyed how this was done – the tone and story balancing strangely between sentimentality and cynicism. I love Stephen Fry. He’s a charming, funny TV man. Sadly, what makes him appealing on TV doesn’t translate well into literature. Part of the fun of realizing that a novel's narrator is unreliable is that the whole structure of the book becomes a puzzle—which are the bits that we ought to believe? Fry (or, I suppose, whoever the book's narrator is meant to be) insists from the beginning, however, that this is not the game that he's playing, claiming that "Not one word of the following is true." From the screening of "The Misfits" we will be leaving response slips out aroundthe hall for you to fill in. Of course you may still leave a response online also.If you spend your life on a moral hill-top, you see nothing but the mud below. If, like me, you live in the mud itself, you get a damned good view of clear blue sky and clean green hills above. There’s none so evil-minded as those with a moral mission, and none so pure in heart as the depraved.” Perchance a three and a half rather than a four, slightly disappointing yet enjoyable, but I couldn't rightly give this just a middling three out of five. This was actually only the first book from Stephen Fry that I actually read. I have several others waiting for me, because who doesn't love Stephen Fry? (Well, okay, probably quite a few people, but I think he is smart, funny and tends to make me learn new things, too.)

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