The Cheese Monkeys

A Novel in Two Semesters

By: Chip Kidd

Narrated by: Bronson Pinchot

Length: 5 hrs and 48 mins

Publisher's summary

Chip Kidd's witty and effervescent coming-of-age novel can only be described as a portrait of the designer as a young man. It's 1957, long before computers have replaced the skillful eye and hand, and our narrator at State U is determined to major in Art. After several risible false starts, he ends up by accident in a new class called "Introduction to Graphic Design," taught by the enigmatic professor-guru Winter Sorbeck - equal parts genius, seducer, and sadist. Sorbeck is a bitter yet fascinating man whose assignments hurl his charges through a gauntlet of humiliation and heartache, shame and triumph, ego-bashing and enlightenment. By the end of The Cheese Monkeys, the members of Art 127 will never see the world the same way again. And, thanks to Chip Kidd's insights into the secrets of graphic design, neither will you.

©2001 Charles Kidd (P)2009 Blackstone Audio, Inc.

Critic reviews

"The Cheese Monkeys is a wonderfully witty book that trafficks in both well observed commentary and outrageous shenanigans and antics." (Newsday)
"Sorbeck shines in three dimensions on the page....a fascinating, funny, and wonderfully written novel...." (Booklist)

Good book horrible narration

The voicing of any female character is borderline insulting. I read this book years ago finding it memorable for the Himillsy character in particular but this narration makes her sound ridiculous.

Very Different!

Very unique. Great narration. There were some parts that made me uncomfortable but overall very unique.

This was a fun listen!

The narration was fun. Maybe it was because of my short stint as an art student at an important art school that I could relate to the story and the narration brought it home. Many laughs of recognition.

sentimental depravity

Here's how I describe this to my friends: 'A Christmas Story' meets 'Animal House' meets 'Art School Confidential.'

This is a highly entertaining story about an artist's freshman year in the late 50's. The humor takes on its own personality through the performance of Bronson Pinchot. For some reason, one of the main female characters, the narrator's quasi-love-interest, is characterized with an odd Mr. Howell voice (that's Mr Howell of Gilligan's Island).

I recommend this story to anyone who enjoys depraved, oddball comedy, and who enjoys a story about an artist learning to challenge everything he's ever been taught.

Recommended

Wow! Too good to turn away. Quick read and hilarious! Great! Love it! What's next?

Irreverent, funny, and serious with A+ narration

I absolutely loved this book and the narration. It alternates between being serious, sad, funny, and downright irreverent to the point where I found myself laughing out loud off and on. I believe it takes a special kind of listener to appreciate the story and narration, and I'm not saying that because I'm narcissistic. It's just true. In my opinion, this novel is either going to connect with the reader or not. In other words, either you "get" this story, the characters, and its outcome or you don't. I found that it was an excellent study in the lives of the off-beat students and teachers and thought that the narrator brought out the best in each, allowing me to visualize things exactly as I was meant to when I listened.

Awful

A soulless cynical shallow nothing of a book. It’s clearly designed to be an IP optioned for a Hollywood payout.
Flat characters, shallow plot and Ill concieved narrative.
The auther clearly though his college stories were a riot and would make a genius work he could sell the movie rights too.
Bronson Pinchot is decent at injecting a bit of life into this piece of marketing dept crap that would otherwise be intorable garbage

voice acting on this is too distracting

the book seemed interesting, but the narrator made this absolutely unpalatable with his obnoxious, over-exaggerated voice acting with dialogues. even though the book was started to get interesting after an hour, i just had to stop listening before i stuck an icepick in my ear. i think i'll just finish this on hard copy.

Narrator was so distracting!

Story was ok but the narrator was so awful it took away from the book itself

Terrible, I hated every moment

The narrator was incredibly annoying, the story was terrible. I struggled to finish, and wish I hadn't bothered