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Freddy and Fredericka  By  cover art

Freddy and Fredericka

By: Mark Helprin
Narrated by: Robert Ian Mackenzie
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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)

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What listeners say about Freddy and Fredericka

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  • Overall
    1 out of 5 stars

Argh - Can I have my credit back please?!?!?

After listening to another british comedy fiction (In Your Dreams) which was very funny and enjoyable to listen to, I bought Freddy and Fredericka. Okay, now imagine Monty Python only the actors aren't funny and they think they're being serious dramatic actors.

Inane banter over ear-size, estate names, and other worthless topics dominate the story. I've got a pretty good tolerance for silly humor (I do like Monty Python) but this was just dumb...

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7 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    2 out of 5 stars

Couldn't finish it

I loved Winters Tale by Helprin and was willing to take on another 20+ hours with him. Perhaps it is my state of mind, but Freddy, Fredericka and I just didn't click. After a many minutes long exchange on the word "bosom," I had to bail. Maybe another time and place, but for now, whew, it was too much work.

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5 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    2 out of 5 stars

heartbreakingly disappointing

Mark Helprin wrote three of the greatest novels of the last 25 years: Winter's Tale, Refiner's Fire, and Soldier of the Great War. They all alternately sublime, hilarious, wrenching, but mostly, beautiful.

But F & F is a severe disappointment. There are a few beautiful passages, and some funny moments, but it is as if Mr Helprin has consulted a 11-year-old nephew for his jokes. The Prince of Wales is videotaped while chasing through a village after the Princess' dog, shouting its name, which is--are you ready?--"Fah Cue". Get it? Get it?

Mr Helprin, we respectfully beg you to bring us more miracles like "Swan Lake." Trust us to fly with you again. Don't leave us with the taste of this treacley mess on our palates too long.

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  • Overall
    1 out of 5 stars
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    2 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    1 out of 5 stars

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.

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