The Hippopotamus: Fry Stephen

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Part of the fun of realizing that a novel's narrator is unreliable is that the whole structure of the book becomes a puzzle—which are the bits that we ought to believe? Fry (or, I suppose, whoever the book's narrator is meant to be) insists from the beginning, however, that this is not the game that he's playing, claiming that "Not one word of the following is true." The characters are larger than life let's say, the best element for me was the acting of the ever wonderful Roger Allam. Wodehouse could not have written this, however. Not enough fun, and too much sex. Including all sorts of odd couplings, some of which are uncomfortable to think about. After losing his job at newspaper, Tedward's goddaughter engages him to spy on the family of Tedward's old army friend in Norfolk. Initially, there does not seem to be anything worth reporting to his goddaughter but as the story develops, Tedward becomes close to his godson who seems to be a bit of outcast and who also seems to be at the centre of some mysterious events. Perchance a three and a half rather than a four, slightly disappointing yet enjoyable, but I couldn't rightly give this just a middling three out of five.

Stephen Fry - Fantastic Fiction Stephen Fry - Fantastic Fiction

As it emerges that David has convinced the entire household of his “gifts,” the story pits Ted’s blunt pragmatism against the New Age wishful thinking of everybody else. The theme also plays out in a concise exchange between Ted and his godson, the latter subscribing to the romantic notion of writing as an expression of pure spirit, while the poet who hasn’t written a poem in nearly 30 years insists that literary output is the result of not just inspiration but hard work. The screenplay crystallizes this idea effectively, even amid the comic busyness — pratfalls, fellatio interruptus and equine molestation among the doings. But strange things have been going on at Swafford. Miracles. Healings. Phenomena beyond the comprehension of a mud-caked hippopotamus like Ted. Well, it's Stephen Fry. How can it be anything but delightful? I was pleasantly surprised to find an intriguing examination of how children come to believe things about themselves. The pace and humour are good, and the hero is perfectly smashed and detached. The weakness is in the supporting characters - not the performances, but their drama and the necessity of their presence. No great turns or lines, and I guess that's down to the original writing.And the dialogue in The Hippopotamus is of absolutely stellar quality. It is, we could say, la raison d'être of the film, in its role of merely a platform for Fry's masterful compositions of the English language. On that note, I agree with another reviewer in here that Stephen Fry could read aloud an IKEA instruction manual and I would probably still be enthralled. His language often strikes me as so much verbal bravado, underlined by his English public school pronunciation in the audio version, yet he can get away with it; in fact, I suppose that is his style, really. And it’s not just words. There are hundreds of facts, opinions and questions, all idiosyncratically Fry-esque, squeezed into the dialogue that I almost had to push the stop button a few times simply to digest something before moving on (just as I had to stop it once in a while when I didn’t catch what he was saying because I had started laughing).

THE HIPPOPOTAMUS by Stephen Fry Book Review – THE HIPPOPOTAMUS by Stephen Fry

What it helped me while I was reading this novel, was that I knew to understand the Laurie's style of commenting controvertial topics that while Fry's way isn't done is such effective same form than Laurie's, it did help me to understand that in several moments, you don't have to take him so seriously and so by-the-letter, since many comments are sarcastic and purposely out of tone. The moral, if there is one, is that it's okay to live life in any way you want to, so long as you remember there isn't anyone to save you or fix you but yourself. I also have a fondness for anti-heroes, but they have to be intelligent and/or witty and I must empathize with them. This book's protagonist, Ted Wallace, is a "sour, womanizing, cantankerous, whisky-sodden beast of a failed poet and drama critic" - what's not to love? Not everyone will relate to him. I think if you've spent enough time around writers, or are one yourself, you might have more compassion for him. But that's the kind of character I like, a messy and imperfect one. A young woman hires him to look into a miracle worker, who happens to be our hero's godson. While a dyed-in-the-wool skeptic, our man needs the money and take the job. It's also a trip to his past, and he has to cross bridges that were burned decades before. The book see-sawed between passages of elegance and delightful character sketches, and ludicrously over-the-top, effulgent even, caricatures. The story was slight, and reminded me of a bastardised PG Wodehouse in its archaic country house mannerisms, but rewarded the doggedly determined with an absurd ending which despite being delivered at the end of a particularly turgid stream-of-consciousness from the main character, seemed to make some sort of sense.

This book talks very easily about homo-erotic themes, which was refresing to me. I did not come across many books that take such sexual themes in the matter of fact way this book does yet. In my opinion the book handled those themes well. Ik lees Het Nijlpaard van Stephen Fry. IN VERTALING. De omvang van deze ramp dringt slechts langzaamaan tot mij door. Het betekent dat ik nooit, NOOIT meer deze orgie van schuttingtaal, grotesk cynisme en platte seks, deze in vitriool, drijfmest en tien jaar oude whisky gedrenkte bladzijden voor de volle 100% zal kunnen smaken in de oorspronkelijke taal. Ik moet onmiddellijk stoppen met lezen tot ik een Engelse versie heb. MAAR IK KAN NIET STOPPEN! Traugott, Maggie (9 April 1994). "Fry's funny: The hippopotamus by Stephen Fry". The Independent. Archived from the original on 18 June 2022 . Retrieved 1 February 2014. Indeed, so adept is he at so many things that Clive Anderson has even suggested that Fry would be able to turn his hand to football management. One can have no doubt that he would succeed. Stephen Fry is the epitome of the Renaissance Man and is fast becoming what we in Britain like to describe as a ‘national treasure.’ Possessed with a brilliant mind, a natural wit and an extraordinary verbal facility, Fry can never be ignored; he demands to be listened to, read and admired. A clapped out poet brings his powers of perception to an English country house acclaimed for its miraculous cures, and finds more than he bargained for ...

The Hippopotamus (2017) - IMDb The Hippopotamus (2017) - IMDb

The pompous arrogance and traits of Stephen Fry come blaring through at you this entire movie. The verbose lavatorial narrative was actually quite wearying and excessive to the point that it became irritating. The attempted 'humour' was dull and boring, I don't believe I was brought to laughter once. Fry's own slanted view of women and sex is brash to say the least, along with weak characters and dialogue, dare I go on.. Ted Wallaces’ rants about society figures and past acquaintances are delectably dark and razor sharp – the ferocity with which he deprecates others along with himself is awe-inspiring. The film is structured in the manner of the old Poirot films, with less focus on the mystery, and more on the interaction between the characters, and more importantly, class conflict, of which the film ... well, has some.He attended Queen’s College Cambridge from 1979, joining the Cambridge Footlights Dramatic Club where he met Hugh Laurie, with whom he forged a highly successful writing partnership. His first play, Latin! or Tobacco and Boys, written for Footlights, won a Fringe First at Edinburgh Festival in 1980. He wrote again for theatre in 1984 when he rewrote Noel Gay’s musical Me and My Girl (1990). This was nominated for a Tony Award in 1987. He has written for television and screen, and as a newspaper columnist – for the Literary Review, Daily Telegraph and The Listener. We have been christened by spunk inspired by Stephen Fry. Perhaps not miraculous. Perhaps always pompous. Perhaps always hilarious. Fry makes a big show of asking--and pointedly not answering--big questions about artifice and authenticity in society and human behavior...but guards himself always with the insinuation that he is only asking--and not answering--as a joke. The story is told from the point of view of Ted Wallace. He was once a promising poet but hasn’t written anything in years and is now old, cynical and grumpy. He drinks a lot. He also sounds exactly like Stephen Fry. As I read his words I just couldn’t help hearing Stephen Fry in my head. The other characters have their own distinct ‘voices’ too. I suppose if you don’t like Stephen Fry this might get irritating but I found it made me feel very sympathetic towards cantankerous Ted, despite his faults.