I WAS going to write about other things… But I checked an old website and found 21 questions answered by Daniel Handler (in the role of Lemony Snicket). The answer to question four made me want to write about A Series Of Unfortunate Events.
I seem to have a thing for children’s books. Alice in Wonderland, Harry Potter, fairytales in general… Most of the stuff I read isn’t written in the childish way most books for kids are. And that certainly goes for A Series of Unfortunate Events (ASoUE).
The writing is brilliant. ‘Lemony Snicket’ describes everything in detail and the main characters really get to you. Violet, Klaus and Sunny go through horrible things and DO some horrible things yet you still, well, love them, and certainly understand why they do it. There’s tons of mystery and as always in a good book of this type, there’s more questions asked than answered leaving you wondering for a long time after you finish it. It’s not a children’s book really, not with all the murder and negativity and such. Plus, Daniel Handler is a bloody poet, lookit this:
“A rolling stone gathers moss. A stitch in time doesn’t save nine. The knowledge that you have been a fool hurts just as much, is just as hard to admit to yourself if you are young as when you are old. Every error that people make is repeated over and over again, ad infinitum, ad nauseum, as if they know what they are doing and cannot help themselves. The curtain goes up night after night on the same play, and if the audience weeps, it is because the hero always arrives at the abandoned sawmill in the nick of time, the heroine never gives in to the dictates of her heart and marries the man with the black mustache. There is not only a second chance, there are a thousand chances to speak up, to act bravely for once, to face the fact that sooner or later must be faced. If there is really no more time, it can be faced hurriedly. Otherwise, it can be examined at leisure. The result is in either case the same. Windows that have been nailed shut for years are suddenly pried open, letting air in, letting love in, and hope. Cause is revealed to be, after all, nothing but effect. And the long, slow, dreadful working out of the consequences of any given mistake is arrested the very moment you accept the idea that for you (and for your most beautiful bride, who with garlands is crowned, whose lightness and brightness doth shine in such splendor) there is an end.”
Awesome, right? In the books he goes off on tangents like this randomly about quite a few subjects and some of them are even of importance to the storyline directly. Brilliant. Fine, he explains ‘difficult’ words constantly as it IS directed at children but the way it’s done is incredibly funny. If you need something melancholic, dramatic, intense and hilarious to read, this is it.
Right, that’s my lecture done.
