Kyle Smith
Encyclopedia
Kyle Smith is an American critic
, novelist and essay
ist. He is a staff film critic for the New York Post
. His film reviewing style has been called "an exercise in hilarious hostility" by Entertainment Weekly
.
He has also contributed to The Wall Street Journal
, People magazine, New York magazine, The New York Times
, and The Weekly Standard
.
, and is a former U.S. Army lieutenant
and veteran
of the Persian Gulf War
. From 1996 to 2005 he worked at People magazine, where he was the editor of the book and music reviews.
, a comic novel about a cynical, self-deprecating journalist named Tom Farrell and his romantic tribulations in New York City, was published by William Morrow
in 2004. A New York Times article cast the book as a guys' version of such popular novels as Bridget Jones's Diary
and Melissa Bank
's, The Girls' Guide to Hunting and Fishing and cited Nick Hornby
's books About a Boy
and High Fidelity
as inspiration for Love Monkey. Times critic Janet Maslin
called the book "hilarious".
Entertainment Weekly called the book "relentlessly cynical" and concluded that "'Monkey,' like the paper Tom writes for, is loud and brash, but a helluva lot of fun". Time magazine said, "You couldn't ask for a more entertaining drinking buddy--watch out for a memorable strip-club meltdown scene--but there's a deep, dark subway of despair running underneath his riffs, and that's what makes the book more than a standup routine....'Love Monkey' nails it."
The New Yorker
: "In this chronicle of four and a half months in the life of a hapless, single city-dweller, Smith blends hilarity and cynicism in order to adapt the Bridget Jones
formula to a male perspective. A brief detour into a post-9/11 subplot somewhat arrests the comic flow, but it is actually one of the book's most interesting sections, and imparts to the hectic seduction games a nagging sense of unease, along with some genuine insight into the dilemmas of daily journalism."
The San Francisco Chronicle said of Love Monkey that "Kyle Smith's exceedingly readable and wickedly funny romantic comedy reads sort of like a 'chick flick' for guys but should be required reading for young women, too, with the peek it gives into the male psyche....Smith...is a natural storyteller with an extraordinarily keen ear for dialogue that is real, hip and witty without being too much so - no small feat. His fresh metaphors are laced with funny pop culture references and his characterization is so good I felt as if I was reading about my own friends, as well as myself, at times. One of the most surprising delights of the book is how completely Smith gets women—what they want, what they're sensitive about, what turns them on, and more. And in getting these things he also reveals many of the female sex's hypocrisies—how we are often guilty of the very superficialities we accuse men of."
CNN
wrote of Love Monkey, "Watch out guys, someone is spilling our secrets...'Love Monkey' has been called a male version of Sex and the City
and an American version of Nick Hornby
's High Fidelity
. It is an achingly accurate depiction of a thirty-something single man....an engaging romp through the mind of a single guy—at times laugh-out-loud funny, at times endearingly touching. The first-time author...understands the life his protagonist is leading and pulls no punches as he exposes the inner life of the 21st-century single guy."
On NPRs "Fresh Air", critic Maureen Corrigan
said, "What's hippest about 'Love Monkey is the deft way it resurrects and updates the Dorothy Parker
style of talking about New York: brittle, shrewd, self-deprecating, and oh-so-witty. Smith's ruthless humor knows no bounds".
On January 17, 2006, a one-hour CBS
TV series based on the book debuted; it was a dramedy also called Love Monkey
. It starred Tom Cavanagh
, Judy Greer
, Jason Priestley
and Larenz Tate
. The show aired on CBS in January–February 2006 and on VH1
in April–May 2006.
....Mr. Smith takes Dickens' old, familiar tale and stuffs it into a woman straight out of The Devil Wears Prada".
Critic
A critic is anyone who expresses a value judgement. Informally, criticism is a common aspect of all human expression and need not necessarily imply skilled or accurate expressions of judgement. Critical judgements, good or bad, may be positive , negative , or balanced...
, novelist and essay
Essay
An essay is a piece of writing which is often written from an author's personal point of view. Essays can consist of a number of elements, including: literary criticism, political manifestos, learned arguments, observations of daily life, recollections, and reflections of the author. The definition...
ist. He is a staff film critic for the New York Post
New York Post
The New York Post is the 13th-oldest newspaper published in the United States and is generally acknowledged as the oldest to have been published continuously as a daily, although – as is the case with most other papers – its publication has been periodically interrupted by labor actions...
. His film reviewing style has been called "an exercise in hilarious hostility" by Entertainment Weekly
Entertainment Weekly
Entertainment Weekly is an American magazine, published by the Time division of Time Warner, that covers film, television, music, broadway theatre, books and popular culture...
.
He has also contributed to The Wall Street Journal
The Wall Street Journal
The Wall Street Journal is an American English-language international daily newspaper. It is published in New York City by Dow Jones & Company, a division of News Corporation, along with the Asian and European editions of the Journal....
, People magazine, New York magazine, The New York Times
The New York Times
The New York Times is an American daily newspaper founded and continuously published in New York City since 1851. The New York Times has won 106 Pulitzer Prizes, the most of any news organization...
, and The Weekly Standard
The Weekly Standard
The Weekly Standard is an American neoconservative opinion magazine published 48 times per year. Its founding publisher, News Corporation, debuted the title September 18, 1995. Currently edited by founder William Kristol and Fred Barnes, the Standard has been described as a "redoubt of...
.
Education
Smith was graduated from East Longmeadow (Massachusetts) High School in 1984. Following that, he was graduated summa cum laude and Phi Beta Kappa from Yale UniversityYale University
Yale University is a private, Ivy League university located in New Haven, Connecticut, United States. Founded in 1701 in the Colony of Connecticut, the university is the third-oldest institution of higher education in the United States...
, and is a former U.S. Army lieutenant
Lieutenant
A lieutenant is a junior commissioned officer in many nations' armed forces. Typically, the rank of lieutenant in naval usage, while still a junior officer rank, is senior to the army rank...
and veteran
Veteran
A veteran is a person who has had long service or experience in a particular occupation or field; " A veteran of ..."...
of the Persian Gulf War
Gulf War
The Persian Gulf War , commonly referred to as simply the Gulf War, was a war waged by a U.N.-authorized coalition force from 34 nations led by the United States, against Iraq in response to Iraq's invasion and annexation of Kuwait.The war is also known under other names, such as the First Gulf...
. From 1996 to 2005 he worked at People magazine, where he was the editor of the book and music reviews.
Publications
Kyle Smith has published two books in addition to criticism, newspaper and magazine features and essays.Love Monkey
His first book, Love MonkeyLove Monkey (novel)
Love Monkey is a comic novel by Kyle Smith published in 2004. It is the basis for the 2006 CBS television series of the same name. Love Monkey is Kyle Smith's first novel. Smith is a music review editor at People magazine...
, a comic novel about a cynical, self-deprecating journalist named Tom Farrell and his romantic tribulations in New York City, was published by William Morrow
William Morrow and Company
William Morrow and Company is an American publishing company founded by William Morrow in 1926. The company was acquired by Scott Foresman in 1967, and sold to Hearst Corporation in 1981. It was sold along to the News Corporation in 1999...
in 2004. A New York Times article cast the book as a guys' version of such popular novels as Bridget Jones's Diary
Bridget Jones's Diary
Bridget Jones's Diary is a 1996 novel by Helen Fielding. Written in the form of a personal diary, the novel chronicles a year in the life of Bridget Jones, a thirty-something single working woman living in London. She writes about her career, self-image, vices, family, friends, and romantic...
and Melissa Bank
Melissa Bank
Melissa Bank is an American author. Along with English author Helen Fielding, Bank is credited with giving rise to the Chick Lit genre. She has published two novels, The Girls' Guide to Hunting and Fishing and The Wonder Spot, which have been translated into over thirty languages...
's, The Girls' Guide to Hunting and Fishing and cited Nick Hornby
Nick Hornby
Nick Hornby is an English novelist, essayist and screenwriter. He is best known for the novels High Fidelity, About a Boy, and for the football memoir Fever Pitch. His work frequently touches upon music, sport, and the aimless and obsessive natures of his protagonists.-Life and career:Hornby was...
's books About a Boy
About a Boy
About a Boy is a 1998 novel by British writer Nick Hornby. It was adapted into a film of the same name in 2002.-Plot summary:The novel is about Will Freeman, a 36-year-old bachelor, and Marcus, an introverted, bullied 12-year-old who lives alone with his suicidal mother, Fiona...
and High Fidelity
High Fidelity (novel)
High Fidelity is a 1995 British novel by Nick Hornby. It was adapted into a 2000 film directed by Stephen Frears and starring John Cusack. It also served as the basis for a 2006 Broadway musical of the same name.-Plot summary:...
as inspiration for Love Monkey. Times critic Janet Maslin
Janet Maslin
Janet Maslin is an American journalist, best known as a film and literary critic for The New York Times. She served as the Times film critic from 1977–1999.- Biography :...
called the book "hilarious".
Entertainment Weekly called the book "relentlessly cynical" and concluded that "'Monkey,' like the paper Tom writes for, is loud and brash, but a helluva lot of fun". Time magazine said, "You couldn't ask for a more entertaining drinking buddy--watch out for a memorable strip-club meltdown scene--but there's a deep, dark subway of despair running underneath his riffs, and that's what makes the book more than a standup routine....'Love Monkey' nails it."
Reception and critical acclaim
The New Yorker
The New Yorker
The New Yorker is an American magazine of reportage, commentary, criticism, essays, fiction, satire, cartoons and poetry published by Condé Nast...
: "In this chronicle of four and a half months in the life of a hapless, single city-dweller, Smith blends hilarity and cynicism in order to adapt the Bridget Jones
Bridget Jones
Bridget Jones is a franchise based on the fictional character with the same name. English writer Helen Fielding started her Bridget Jones's Diary column in The Independent in 1995, chronicling the life of Bridget Jones as a thirtysomething single woman in London as she tries to make sense of life...
formula to a male perspective. A brief detour into a post-9/11 subplot somewhat arrests the comic flow, but it is actually one of the book's most interesting sections, and imparts to the hectic seduction games a nagging sense of unease, along with some genuine insight into the dilemmas of daily journalism."
The San Francisco Chronicle said of Love Monkey that "Kyle Smith's exceedingly readable and wickedly funny romantic comedy reads sort of like a 'chick flick' for guys but should be required reading for young women, too, with the peek it gives into the male psyche....Smith...is a natural storyteller with an extraordinarily keen ear for dialogue that is real, hip and witty without being too much so - no small feat. His fresh metaphors are laced with funny pop culture references and his characterization is so good I felt as if I was reading about my own friends, as well as myself, at times. One of the most surprising delights of the book is how completely Smith gets women—what they want, what they're sensitive about, what turns them on, and more. And in getting these things he also reveals many of the female sex's hypocrisies—how we are often guilty of the very superficialities we accuse men of."
CNN
CNN
Cable News Network is a U.S. cable news channel founded in 1980 by Ted Turner. Upon its launch, CNN was the first channel to provide 24-hour television news coverage, and the first all-news television channel in the United States...
wrote of Love Monkey, "Watch out guys, someone is spilling our secrets...'Love Monkey' has been called a male version of Sex and the City
Sex and the City
Sex and the City is an American television comedy-drama series created by Darren Star and produced by HBO. Broadcast from 1998 until 2004, the original run of the show had a total of ninety-four episodes...
and an American version of Nick Hornby
Nick Hornby
Nick Hornby is an English novelist, essayist and screenwriter. He is best known for the novels High Fidelity, About a Boy, and for the football memoir Fever Pitch. His work frequently touches upon music, sport, and the aimless and obsessive natures of his protagonists.-Life and career:Hornby was...
's High Fidelity
High Fidelity (novel)
High Fidelity is a 1995 British novel by Nick Hornby. It was adapted into a 2000 film directed by Stephen Frears and starring John Cusack. It also served as the basis for a 2006 Broadway musical of the same name.-Plot summary:...
. It is an achingly accurate depiction of a thirty-something single man....an engaging romp through the mind of a single guy—at times laugh-out-loud funny, at times endearingly touching. The first-time author...understands the life his protagonist is leading and pulls no punches as he exposes the inner life of the 21st-century single guy."
On NPRs "Fresh Air", critic Maureen Corrigan
Maureen Corrigan
Maureen Corrigan is an American journalist, author and literary critic. She writes for the "Book World" section of The Washington Post, and is a book critic on the NPR radio program Fresh Air. In 2005, she published a literary memoir, Leave Me Alone, I'm Reading: Finding and Losing Myself in...
said, "What's hippest about 'Love Monkey is the deft way it resurrects and updates the Dorothy Parker
Dorothy Parker
Dorothy Parker was an American poet, short story writer, critic and satirist, best known for her wit, wisecracks, and eye for 20th century urban foibles....
style of talking about New York: brittle, shrewd, self-deprecating, and oh-so-witty. Smith's ruthless humor knows no bounds".
TV adaptation
On January 17, 2006, a one-hour CBS
CBS
CBS Broadcasting Inc. is a major US commercial broadcasting television network, which started as a radio network. The name is derived from the initials of the network's former name, Columbia Broadcasting System. The network is sometimes referred to as the "Eye Network" in reference to the shape of...
TV series based on the book debuted; it was a dramedy also called Love Monkey
Love Monkey
Love Monkey is a television series created by Michael Rauch and based on a book of the same name, by Kyle Smith. It starred Tom Cavanagh as a 30-something, single, record executive who navigated the tumultuous and highly amusing waters of work and dating in New York City.Its first episode aired on...
. It starred Tom Cavanagh
Tom Cavanagh
Thomas "Tom" Cavanagh is a Canadian actor.-Early life:Cavanagh was born in Ottawa, Ontario. He is of Irish descent and was raised in a large Roman Catholic family. Cavanagh moved with his family to Winneba, a small city in Ghana, when he was seven years old. In his teens, the family moved to...
, Judy Greer
Judy Greer
Judy Greer is an American actress, known for portraying a string of supporting female characters, including Kitty Sanchez on the Fox series Arrested Development and Cheryl on the animated comedy series Archer...
, Jason Priestley
Jason Priestley
Jason Bradford Priestley is a Canadian-American actor and director. He is best known as the virtuous Brandon Walsh on the television series Beverly Hills, 90210, a role which catapulted him to recognition in the early 1990s....
and Larenz Tate
Larenz Tate
Larenz Tate is an American film and television actor.-Early life:Tate was born on the west side of Chicago, Illinois, the son of Peggy and Larry Tate. He is the youngest of three siblings whose family moved to California when he was nine years old...
. The show aired on CBS in January–February 2006 and on VH1
VH1
VH1 or Vh1 is an American cable television network based in New York City. Launched on January 1, 1985 in the old space of Turner Broadcasting's short-lived Cable Music Channel, the original purpose of the channel was to build on the success of MTV by playing music videos, but targeting a slightly...
in April–May 2006.
A Christmas Caroline
His second novel, A Christmas Caroline, was published in 2006, also by William Morrow. Writing in The Wall Street Journal, critic Joseph Bottum said, "For those who prefer their sentimentality seasoned with a dash of cynical wit, Kyle Smith's A Christmas Caroline may be a good selection. Mr. Smith...turns in a quick, enjoyable read about a selfish woman at a fashion magazine who is taught the true meaning of Christmas by three spooky visitors. From the moment you meet Caroline's assistant—a devious redhead named Ursula Heep—you know you're at play in the fields of Charles DickensCharles Dickens
Charles John Huffam Dickens was an English novelist, generally considered the greatest of the Victorian period. Dickens enjoyed a wider popularity and fame than had any previous author during his lifetime, and he remains popular, having been responsible for some of English literature's most iconic...
....Mr. Smith takes Dickens' old, familiar tale and stuffs it into a woman straight out of The Devil Wears Prada".