“Of course everyone’s heard of Fontaine Khaled, she’s sort of like a national institution, though not so old — around thirty-five I’d say, but even now I still don’t know the truth.”
Of course, most readers will never have heard of Fontaine Khaled until they get to about the tenth paragraph or so chapter one. Fontaine Khaled is one of those people for whom metaphorical description is usually all that’s necessary. Fabulously famous and wealthy, and—the reader had better hope—interesting, since the rest of the book is going to revolve around her.
“This one’s probably about the same age as Tony—only he’s got about as much sex appeal as a flea.”
The Stud is a novel obsessed with sex appeal. One might even say that the sex is its appeal. Everyone is having sex or thinking about sex or wanting to have or remembering or fantasizing about sex on nearly every page. The simile above is directed toward a young fellow who is pretty much indistinguishable from the main character Tony. In fact, the full thought expressed here is the observation of a similarity to Tony, only this guy is lacking Tony’s sexual appeal.
“It was some kiss, she was like a hungry animal”
Tony’s elevated appeal is made obvious here as he is the one making the metaphorical comparison. If you are wondering how Tony can be describing this primal sexual encounter with a woman here and also be the subject to which the above comparison is being made when both are written in the first person perspective, consider yourself clever. It would be a rather difficult thing to have both these examples of figurative comparison made by the same person and, indeed, they are not. The Stud is a novel written in the first person from multiple perspectives.
“He’s the king of the whole place”
Tony does not just have more sex appeal than a flea. That would hardly be high praise. No, indeed, Tony is the king of his domain. And what, exactly, is Tony’s domain of which he’s king? The whole place here refers to the place where he works as the deluxe head waiter. It’s a dishrags to stud story.
Tony Tony, Tony
Tony is actually many things. He’s a king, but he’s also “like a little boy.” In addition, he’s also “a cretinous bore” and “an idiot” and, of course, “the stud.” But above all else, it seems that he is “a sexy idiot stud” which to the women populating the world in which he moves seems to be more than enough to counter not just everything else that he is, but all that he is not.
