Freddy and Fredericka

By: Mark Helprin

Narrated by: Robert Ian Mackenzie

Length: 25 hrs and 29 mins

Publisher's summary

Best-selling, critically acclaimed author Mark Helprin's work has drawn favorable comparisons to an elite group of literary legends, including James Joyce, Franz Kafka, Edgar Allan Poe, and Thomas Mann. Helprin's sheer comic brilliance shines in this ingenious farce.

Freddy is the bright but aloof Prince of Wales. Fredericka is his blonde, beautiful, and beloved wife. When they stumble into a public relations nightmare with no easy solution, they must make amends by serving an unusual penance. Literally dropped from a plane into a mysterious place called Hoboken, New Jersey, Freddy and Fredericka are given one task. They must reconquer America!

A thinly veiled satire of what might have happened if Princess Diana had survived, Freddy and Fredericka is an imaginative gem full of clever wordplay and wicked political jabs.

©2005 Mark Helprin (P)2005 Recorded Books, LLC

Critic reviews

"Helprin's entertaining new novel [is] a rollicking picaresque saga that reads as though Evelyn Waugh had put the movies Roman Holiday and Duck Soup into a blender along with some old copies of People magazine and a couple of Mark Twain's travelogues, and seasoned the resulting confection with generous helpings of his own black comedy....Mr. Helprin has constructed a perfect showcase for his heretofore underused gift of humor, and in doing so he has produced a delightful romp of a book." (The New York Times)
"Irresistibly mischievous." (Booklist)
"Wildly imaginative, adventure-filled, clever." (Publishers Weekly)
"[Mark Helprin] frequently astounds with the freshness of voice and the oddly soaring majesty of this...comic call for greatness in a mediocre era." (Kirkus Reviews)

Too far fetched...

Frustrating because it was a long book. Once I start a book I have to finish...it was a waste of a lot of time!

Silly farce

The funniest thing about this book is that the British narrator doesn't even try to do American accents. A large portion of the book takes place in New Jersey, but everyone has upper class British accents, including a bunch of guys in a New Jersey motorcycle gang! That's a hoot but the rest is mostly silly and tiresome.

Tantamount to torture

If you love giving birth or having your teeth drilled without the aid of any pain relief, then this is the book for you. I asked myself over and over during the last 10 hours of listening, "Why are you doing this?" I decided it was a form of self-flagellation in punishment for whatever... I've read and enjoyed this author, but this book bears little resemblance to his other works. It's 10 times longer than it should be, filled with nonsense ("Who's On First" is hilarious, but trying to do the same kind of word play ad nauseam throughout the book: not so much.) The pompous nature of the characters is sometimes funny, but mostly exhausting. The reader's strained voice for Fredericka is grating AF. Just don't.

Disappointing

I think the killer of this audiobook is the narrator, who cannot do a simple American accent let alone the variety of regional accents needed to do justice to the cast of characters. Members of New Jersey motorcycle 'clubs' do not speak with British/Cockney accents. A good narrator can make --or break-- a book. The story itself is funny, clever in places, absurd even -- but just too long for one joke.

Like a Marathon

This book is the literary equivilent of a sleeping pill. A third of it could have been removed without any loss to the story. It just seemed to go on and on and on in a kind of literary montotone. I cant imagine how it received the accolades that it did, which was the reason I downloaded it. There are a few laugh out loud moments, but they are miniscule desert islands in a seemingly enless sea of nothing much. Totally putdownable, and a great idea wasted.

ug

The narration is very good. The story is dull and inane. Don't waste your book credit.

editor was absent

This fine book could have been even better with a competent editor. Slurs such as "soul brothers" and the tired and embarrassing American Indian-speak were distracting and disappointing.
Supposed slapstick moments were often too slowed-down to enjoy without completing the scene ahead of the narrator; others were so cliche or repetitive (such as the running gag of double-meanings misinterpreted) that they cheapened the book.
Combined with beautiful sentiments about man's relationship with his world, the duty of royals, and the beauty of life lived for others, the result was a jumble of impressive passages and others where you wondered if the editor skipped over whole chunks of the book in an effort to coax the author to finish.

Dreadful

I seriously considered not burning the discs for the second part of this book. I did - and found that the story started to redeem itself. The end, however, was just as dreadful as the beginning.

If you are enamored with royalty - and aristocratic snobbery - this is the book for you. Otherwise - you will find better use for your credits!!

Bad, Worse, Freddy

Grotesque or bizarre doesn't begin to describe it.....

Somebody Abridge This Book

Normally I hate abridged books, but Mark Helprin's Freddy and Fredericka could have used a lot of cutting, preferably with a machete.

I chose this title because the New York Times gave it an ecstatic review and because I enjoy fiction with humor. Instead of a comic novel, I listened to what sounded like a first draft manuscript. It rambled off in all directions and made side trips that had nothing to do with the story or the characters. The book was 25 1/2 hours long!

Much of the comedy in this book came from hopelessly contrived, heavy handed situations. For example, Prince Frederick goes through a village calling for his wife's dog, Far Q. These silly verbal misunderstandings cropped up every few pages. Instead of making me laugh, they frustrated me because the characters should have been intelligent enough to reason their way out of them.

This brings me to another complaint. Were Freddy and Fredericka intelligent or not? Instead of giving them believable intellects, the author yanked them around like marionettes. One moment Freddy stupidly sets up shop as a dentist despite the fact that he knows nothing about dentistry. The next moment's he's on Night Line, dazzling Ted Koppel with his brilliance. One moment Fredericka has never read a book, the next she?s spouting Shakespeare.

To be fair, Mr. Helprin?s a gifted writer and there were wonderful moments. When Craig-Vyvyan took flight, the book soared with him. The Prince and Princess? escape from the forest fire was memorable. But these passages were too few and the un-funny comedy set pieces were too frequent.

This is one book I would not recommend to my friends.