Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #43484 in Books
• Published on: 1998-03-05
• Original language: English
• Binding: Paperback
• 224 pages

Customer Reviews

Wolverhampton Libraries LGBT Reading Group Review
As people tend not to suspect that their ornaments might be watching, they will do all sorts of things right in front of them... this is the extraordinary premise on which this story begins. This ancient Sumerian bowl is an observant narrator with metamorphic powers and an irrepressible ability to catalogue absolutely everything about everyone he (is the bowl a he?) has ever met or been owned by over many, many years.

The bowl's present owner is the lonely Rosa who allows her friend, the calculating Nikki, to stay at hers for a while. The ensuing story of theft, prostitution, an obese angel, a kidnapped agony-aunt, more theft and several assassins is intertwined with historical tales from the bowl's vast back-catalogue, as well as a bit of mischievous shape-shifting.

Although a couple of readers felt that Fischer simply invented words to suit his purpose (you might need a dictionary at hand!), different types of effective word-play reoccur throughout the book. Despite this title not officially having an LGBT theme, there are a couple of unanticipated moments that can be counted! This was a very unusual book and, although it might take a few chapters to get into, is well worth a go.

Don't Judge a Book by its Blurb
Tibor Fischer's "Under the Frog" is my favourite book of all time...so when I picked this up and read the blurb, I though "He is *never*, in a million years, going to be able to pull this one off." But he does. Brilliant, witty and laugh-til-you-cry funny.

Unbelievable author
This author has written many fabulous books, each equally as brilliant as the next and this one is no exception. Buy it!