Synopses & Reviews
Twisting the buddy cop story upside down and inside out, Penn Jillette has created the most distinctive narrator to come along in fiction in many years: a sock monkey called Dickie. The sock monkey belongs to a New York City police diver who discovers the body of an old lover in the murky waters of the Hudson River and sets off with her best friend to find her killer. The story of their quest swerves and veers, takes off into philosophical riffs, occasionally stops to tell a side story, and references a treasure trove of 1970's and 1980's pop culture.
Sock is a surprising, intense, fascinating piece of work.
Review
"[Jillette] writes the way he talks, in a sort of blizzard of smart-alecky, philosophical wit, but adds a pop-song allusion to nearly every paragraph; perhaps the only thing like his style is Stephen King....Sock is socko!" Booklist (Starred Review)
Review
"[S]omething of a philosophical sex/murder whodunit....Originality plus. But a hard read." Kirkus Reviews
Review
"Fun and funny hip, it is a stream-of-consciousness meditation on life, death, love, sex, friendship, and the dangers of loneliness....Fans of [Penn & Teller] and their warped sense of humor will line up to read the book." Library Journal
Synopsis
When a woman is found dead in the waters off New York City, the police diver known as Little Fool who finds her body turns out to be an old lover of hers. When he sees her, he realizes she was the love of his life, so he sets off to find her killer along with her best friend, a gay hairdresser. But that's just's a thumbnail plot of a novel that is a very interesting ride indeed the sock monkey of the title narrates a story that swerves and veers, takes off into philosophical riffs, occasionally stops to tell a side story, and references everything from pop culture of the 1970s and 80s to what it feels like to be a killer, to be gay, to be a victim.
Synopsis
When a police diver finds the body of his ex-lover in the waters off New York City, he realizes she was the love of his life, so he sets off to find her killer along with her best friend, a gay hairdresser.
Synopsis
"Penn has written a strange, sometimes still, sometimes thunderous novel that is unlike anything I've ever read...Reading Penn's novel was joyfully exhausting, which is how we should feel when we've been in the presence of such seriously good writing."
- Kaye Gibbons, author of Ellen Foster and Divining Women
About the Author
Penn Jillette has been the larger, louder half of the performing team Penn & Teller since 1975. Penn's articles has appeared in
The New York Times,
Playboy and other publications. This is his first novel. He lives in Las Vegas, NV.