SATA
ENTRY TYPE:
WORK TITLE: Poison for Breakfast
WORK NOTES: Common Sense Media
PSEUDONYM(S):
BIRTHDATE:
WEBSITE: http://www.danielhandler.com/
CITY: San Francisco
STATE:
COUNTRY: United States
NATIONALITY: American
LAST VOLUME: SATA 328
http://www.lemonysnicket.com/ https://www.commonsensemedia.org/book-reviews/poison-for-breakfast
RESEARCHER NOTES:
PERSONAL
Born February 28, 1970, in San Francisco, CA; married Lisa Brown (an art director); children: Otto.
EDUCATION:Wesleyan University, B.A., 1992.
ADDRESS
CAREER
Author, poet, and “studied expert in rhetorical analysis.” Comedy writer, The House of Blues Radio Hour, San Francisco, CA; freelance book and movie reviewer. Founder of magazine American Chickens!, with wife Lisa Brown, and of independent publisher Per Diem Press; part-time accordionist for band the Magnetic Fields.
AWARDS:Academy of American Poets Prize, 1990; Olin fellowship, 1992; Quill Award, 2006, for The Penultimate Peril; Michael L. Printz Honor Book selection, YALSA/American Library Association, 2012, for Why We Broke Up illustrated by Maira Kalman; Charlotte Zolotow Award, 2013, for The Dark illustrated by Jon Klassen.
WRITINGS
Screenwriter for independent films Rick, 2003, and Kill the Poor, 2006. Author of introductions to The Bears’ Famous Invasion of Sicily, by Dino Buzzati, HarperTrophy (New York, NY), 2005; Nonsense Novels, by Stephen Leacock, New York Review Books (New York, NY), 2005; (and contributor, under pseudonym Lemony Snicket) Noisy Outlaws, Unfriendly Blobs and Some Other Things That Aren’t as Scary, Maybe, Depending on How You Feel About Lost Lands, Stray Cellphones, Creatures from the Sky, Parents Who Disappear in Peru, a Man Named Lars Farf and One Other Story We Couldn’t Quite Finish, So Maybe You Could Help Us Out, edited by Ted Thompson and Eli Horowitz, McSweeney’s (San Francisco, CA), 2005; and The Hour: A Cocktail Manifesto, by Bernard DeVoto, Tin House Books (New York, NY), 2010. Author of column “What the Swedes Read,” Believer, and contributor to periodicals, including New York Times, Newsday, San Francisco Chronicle, and Wall Street Journal. Works under Snicket pseudonym have been published in forty languages.
The Basic Eight was optioned for film by New Regency. A Series of Unfortunate Events was adapted for film, Paramount Pictures, 2004, and for audiobook. “A Series of Unfortunate Events” was adapted for a series on Netflix.
SIDELIGHTS
Best known to young readers by his nom de plume Lemony Snicket, Daniel Handler is responsible for the wildly popular “A Series of Unfortunate Events” series, a grim chronicle of the misadventures of three orphans that has delighted fans due to its mix of irony, intelligent silliness, and over-the-top melodrama. Handler’s Snicket pseudonym also emblazons the covers of the holiday-themed tales The Latke Who Couldn’t Stop Screaming: A Christmas Story and The Lump of Coal, an unsettling guide to orchestral music titled The Composer Is Dead, and the multivolume middle-grade mystery that plays out in his “All the Wrong Questions” novels. While his books for children are often compared to those of Roald Dahl, a British writer he cites among his influences, Handler has also written works of adult fiction as well as collaborating with artist Maira Kalman on the award-winning young-adult novel Why We Broke Up.
Handler was born and raised in San Francisco, the son of an accountant and a college dean. [open new]He once told PEN America that at age six, in response to the classic question from his parents about what he wanted to be when he grew up, he remarked that he “wanted to be an old man who lived at the top of a mountain giving advice. If this story is true—and my parents are unreliable narrators—then there was a time in my life when I did not want to be a writer. But I do not remember such a time. … All I have ever wanted was to be in the company of literature.”[suspend new] Although presenting himself as “a bright and obvious person,” he revealed to Publishers Weekly interviewer Sally Lodge that he secretly “wanted to be a dark, mysterious person” and preferred stories “in which mysterious and creepy things happen” over those “where everyone joined the softball team and had a grand time or found true love on a picnic.” In addition to his affinity for the dark humor of Dahl, Handler enjoyed the works of author/illustrator Edward Gorey, and the first book he bought with his own money was Gorey’s The Blue Aspic.
A student of San Francisco’s prestigious and demanding Lowell High School, Handler graduated in 1988 and was ranked as “Best Personality” within his graduating class. Published eleven years later, his adult novel The Basic Eight would be set at a fictionalized Lowell High in which students are “pushed to the limit academically, socially and athletically,” as he explained to Lodge. Meanwhile, Handler attended Wesleyan University, winning a prize from the Academy of American Poets in 1990. His love for poetry eventually gave way to a passion for novels, and after graduation an Olin fellowship provided the financial support he needed to focus on his writing. A stint writing comedy sketches for the nationally syndicated The House of Blues Radio Hour during the mid-1990s ended with Handler’s move to New York City, where he established himself as a freelance movie and book critic and completed his first novel. When The Basic Eight was published in 1999, it earned respectable reviews and marked his start as a published author. Focusing on a teenage murderer, The Basic Eight also hit bookstore shelves only weeks before the tragic shootings at Colorado’s Columbine High School focused national attention on teen violence.
In The Basic Eight student journalist Flannery Culp recounts the events of her senior year at Roewer High from a prison cell where she is serving time for the murder of a teacher and a fellow student. Reviled by the media as the leader of a Satanic cult, Flan attempts to set the record straight about her role in the tragicomic series of events that landed her in prison instead of at an Ivy League college. Flan and seven longtime friends—“Queen Bee” Kate, lovely Natasha, chef-in-the-making Gabriel, absinthe-fan Douglas, Jennifer Rose Milton, and “V” (whose name is withheld to spare her wealthy family)—are known at school as the Basic Eight. Their childhood games turn increasingly serious when drugs enter the picture during their teen years, and club loyalties eventually provoke one member to poison a biology teacher. When Flan’s romantic overture to classmate Adam State is rebuffed, it results in Adam’s murder by croquet mallet. Ginned up by the media, the Basic Eight quickly morph from members of a privileged high-school clique to devil worshippers.
In Publishers Weekly a critic observed of The Basic Eight that “Handler’s confident satire is not only cheeky but packed with downright lovable characters whose youthful misadventures keep the novel neatly balanced between absurdity and poignancy.” In Booklist Stephanie Zvirin called the book “part horror story, part black comedy,” noting that The Basic Eight shows what can happen to “smart, privileged, cynical teens with too few rules, too much to drink, too little supervision, and boundless imagination.”
While The Basic Eight was written for adults, Handler deliberately addresses teen readers in Why We Broke Up, which focuses on the relationship between Minerva “Min” Green and Ed Slaterton. Although they are dating, the teens do not seem to be right for each other: Min is artistic while Ed is a sports fanatic. As a Kirkus Reviews contributor noted, “On the exterior he’s a gorgeous basketball-jock douchebag; she’s an outspoken, outsider, romantic-movie buff with frizzy hair.” In Min’s narration, she describes tossing a box of mementos on Ed’s front door and reflecting on their one-month romance. Each item in the box brings back a memory: a movie ticket from their first date; a cookbook; a comb found in a motel room. Interspersed among the teen’s narrative, Kalman contributes “almost totemic still lifes of each nostalgic item,” according to a Publishers Weekly contributor.
“Filled with long, lovely riffs of language … , exquisite scenes of teenage life and the sad souvenirs of one high school relationship, Why We Broke Up is a silken, bittersweet tale of adolescent heartache,” wrote Monica Edinger in appraising the story for the New York Times Book Review. Calling Handler’s prose “real and compelling,” Voice of Youth Advocates contributor Laura Woodruff asserted that “almost everyone can relate to Min’s heartbreak.”
The birth of Lemony Snicket came about when Handler was offered the chance to pen books he might have enjoyed reading as a child. Taking up the Snicket moniker—which he already employed to keep off junk-mail lists—he decided to revamp the notion of what constitutes an appropriate novel for juveniles. The result was The Bad Beginning, the first of over a dozen volumes chronicling the adventures of the Baudelaire orphans. As the “A Series of Unfortunate Events” saga unfolds, siblings Violet, Klaus, and Sunny Baudelaire not only lose their parents but are relentlessly hounded by the vile Count Olaf, who is determined to bilk the children out of their fortune. The Baudelaire brood is led by inventive fourteen-year-old Violet and bookish twelve-year-old Klaus follows her lead. Toddler Sunny, who has incredibly sharp teeth, employs a baby argot that speaks volumes. Steering clear of magic, Handler imbues his young characters with survival skills of a practical nature, relating their efforts to survive a sinister cornucopia of hurled knives, falling lamps, storms, snakes, leeches, and just plain rotten folks in a deadpan, sophisticated text that has its tongue firmly planted in cheek.
As readers join them in The Bad Beginning, the three Baudelaire children are mourning the death of their parents in a fire. Through the oversight of their guardian, Mr. Poe, they become the wards of Count Olaf, a distant cousin. While ordering the siblings to labor in his house, Olaf sets in motion several schemes to confiscate their inheritance, but the children survive these attacks with spunk, initiative, and, in the case of Sunny, sharp teeth. Handler/Snicket “uses formal, Latinate language and intrusive commentary to hilarious effect,” noted a reviewer in Publishers Weekly, and in The Bad Beginning he “paints the satire with such broad strokes that most readers will view it from a safe distance.”
In The Reptile Room the orphans hope their luck has changed when they are sent to live with Dr. Montgomery Montgomery, a “very fun, but fatally naïve herpetologist,” according to Ron Charles in the Christian Science Monitor. Unfortunately, their sense of safety ends with the arrival of the oafish Olaf. Susan Dove Lempke, reviewing the first two Baudelaire novels in Booklist, noted that while Handler’s “old-fashioned storytelling style” and “droll humor … will be lost on some children,” many will “laugh at the over-the-top satire; hiss at the creepy nefarious villains; and root for the intelligent, courageous, unfortunate Baudelaire orphans.” In School Library Journal Linda Bindner maintained that, “while the misfortunes hover on the edge of being ridiculous, Snicket’s energetic blend of humor, dramatic irony, and literary flair makes it all perfectly believable.”
The Wide Window finds the orphans living with elderly Aunt Josephine, who resides in a house on stilts overlooking Lake Lachrymose. Olaf tricks Josephine into believing he is a sailboat captain, but when she stumbles onto his true identity, he pushes her into leech-infested waters and leaves the peripatetic children to find a new protector. A trip to Paltryville yields another guardian in The Miserable Mill, as the orphans work in the Lucky Smells Lumbermill and survive on gum for lunch and casserole for dinner. The Miserable Mill “is deliciously mock-Victorian and self-mockingly melodramatic,” noted Booklist reviewer Carolyn Phelan, the critic citing the effective pairing of Brett Helquist’s amusing artwork and Handler’s “many asides to the reader.”
The Baudelaires’ saga continues to play out in The Austere Academy and The Ersatz Elevator. In the former, the children are consigned to a shack at the Prufrock Preparatory School where they face snapping crabs, strict punishments, dripping fungus, and the evils of the metric system, while the latter finds them under the thumb of guardians Jerome and Esme Squalor while trying to save two friends from the clutches of Count Olaf. “Series fans will enjoy the quick pace, entertaining authorial asides, and over-the-top characterizations,” Phelan noted of The Ersatz Elevator, and “Helquist’s droll pencil drawings will add to their reading pleasure.”
In The Vile Village the Baudelaires are adopted by residents of a town in which arbitrary rules regulate all aspects of life, and a false accusation of murder prompts them to escape rather than be burned at the stake. The orphans volunteer their services at Heimlich Hospital in The Hostile Hospital, but Count Olaf and his cohorts derail their humanitarian efforts by threatening Violet with a cranioectomy. The Carnivorous Carnival finds the children disguised as circus freaks in order to investigate Madame Lulu, a fortune teller whose crystal ball seems to be fueling Olaf’s evil plans, and the older siblings must scale several mountains to rescue young Sunny from the clutches of the count in The Slippery Slope. “The humor is as sharp as ever,” Heather Dieffenbach commented in reviewing The Carnivorous Carnival for School Library Journal, and Entertainment Weekly critic Alynda Wheat dubbed The Slippery Slope “as delightfully dark as ever.”
While searching for a vitally important sugar bowl in The Grim Grotto, the Baudelaire children make a new ally in submarine captain Widdershins, who helps them battle Olaf and his unpleasant colleagues Esme Squalor and Carmelita Spats. Snicket/Handler’s “villains remain deliciously villainous, and the long-suffering Baudelaires still accept struggle without complaint,” Zvirin stated of this series installment. In the aptly titled The Penultimate Peril the children arrive at the Hotel Denouement, a residence organized according to the Dewey decimal classification and where they meet several characters from earlier series installments. As Zvirin noted, “this inventive go-round seems more dizzying … than usual.”
Adrift in the open seas with Count Olaf in The End, the Baudelaires are washed ashore and welcomed by friendly islanders. Not surprisingly to fans of the series, this haven does not remain safe for long. As Henry Alford remarked in the New York Times Book Review, Handler’s conclusion offers an unconventional reading experience: “Where, in the end … does the ‘Unfortunate Events’ series leave us? It leaves us reminded of what an interesting and offbeat educator Handler is.” For Horn Book reviewer Claire E. Gross, the volume demonstrates that “where Snicket excels … is in balancing the expectation of happy ending against his own repeated declarations that none exists.”
“Oh, Lemony Snicket. How you confound us,” proclaimed Ilene Cooper in her review of Handler’s first “All the Wrong Questions” novel. Narrated by twelve-year-old Lemony, who has bravely escaped (during tea time? from his parents?) in order to begin training as a private investigator, “Who Could That Be at This Hour?” starts readers on an unusual journey that continues to play out in “When Did You See Her Last?” and “Shouldn’t You Be in School?,” while File Under: 13 Suspicious Incidents logs over a dozen sideline investigations that test Lemony’s still-developing talent for deduction. Salted with clues (or are they red herrings?) and references to hardboiled detective novels, the series opener finds the preteen narrator sent to Stain’d-by-the-Sea, his mission to locate a stolen statue (which is not stolen). As his tutelage continues in “When Did You See Her Last?,” Lemony remains under the inept mentorship of S. Theodora Markson. While searching for the kidnapped daughter of a prosperous businessman, the young sleuth encounters characters that will be familiar to fans of the “A Series of Unfortunate Events” stories.
Illustrated with woodcuts by Seth, the first “All the Wrong Questions” episode “is full of Snicket’s characteristic wit and wordplay,” noted Bethany Martin in Voice of Youth Advocates. A Kirkus Reviews writer remarked on the “gothic wackiness, linguistic play and literary allusions” on display in “Who Could That Be at This Hour?,” and in Horn Book Sarah Ellis described the text as “equal parts deadpan and just plain nutty.” While the Kirkus Reviews writer asserted that even those unfamiliar with the Baudelaires’ saga “will have no problem enjoying this weird and witty” series, Cooper dubbed the second installment “more sly noir for preteens.”
In addition to his longer prose works, Handler continues to dabble in the picture-book format, employing his Snicket pseudonym while teaming up with Kalman to create Thirteen Words, joining wife Lisa Brown on 29 Myths on the Swinster Pharmacy, and collaborating with Jon Klassen on The Dark. Characteristically “peculiar,” according to Booklist contributor Thom Barthelmess, 29 Myths on the Swinster Pharmacy shares the speculations of two young siblings and their dog as they attempt to deduce the hidden truth surrounding an apothecary in a neighboring town. In her art, Brown captures the children’s curiosity by rendering them in tones of vibrant yellow and red against a foggy gray backdrop. While effectively capturing “the slightly awkward, odd syntax of children” in his accompanying text, Handler/Snicket adds a sinister edge to “the compelling, unexplained goings-on at the Swinster Pharmacy,” according to a Kirkus Reviews writer.
Considered one of Handler’s most successful stories for younger children, The Dark finds young Laszlo hopeful that he can keep the Dark out of his bedroom, even at night. Opting for a conciliatory approach, he decides to visit the Dark at home, which he deduces must be the cellar of the old house where he lives. When the Dark responds to his overtures with an invitation to visit, Laszlo bravely descends with flashlight in hand, leading to what Resource Links critic Linda Ludke dubbed a “surprising climax [that] adds a gentle touch to the story.” Handler’s “atmospheric narrative personifies the dark with indelible character,” noted Barthelmess in Booklist, while in Horn Book Cynthia K. Ritter praised the use of “language, tone, and pacing” in crafting “the perfect antidote to a universal fear.” Making special note of Klassen’s multimedia digital art, which deftly employs “inky black,” a Kirkus Reviews writer praised The Dark as an imaginative “offering about a common childhood fear,” and a Publishers Weekly critic dubbed it “an ingenious introduction to horror move-style catharsis, and a memorable ride on the emotional roller coaster that great storytelling creates.”
In an interview with a contributor to the Masters Review website, Handler discussed his 2015 novel We Are Pirates. He stated: “We Are Pirates is about some teenage girls and some old people in a retirement home who would both like to get away from the surveillance of their very narrowed and surveilled worlds; they’d like to escape and they’d like to escape somewhere off the map and do something forbidden. And they do and it’s terrible. The moral is: there is no place outside the world. We’re all in it. So you can escape from your own circumstances, but then you’re invading someone else’s.” A critic in Kirkus Reviews described the novel as “affecting, lively and expertly told. Just the sort of thing to make grown-ups and teenagers alike want to unfurl the black flag.” “Handler has some stylish moments and seems to be trying to express something meaningful, but his point is obfuscated,” remarked Christine Perkins in Library Journal. A Publishers Weekly reviewer called the book “a jaunty and occasionally jolting, and honest take on the discomforts of youth, midlife, and old age.”
Girls Standing on Lawns, Hurry Up and Wait, and Weather, Weather are collaborative efforts from Handler and Maira Kalman, an illustrator, in which Kalman offers her take on works of fine art, and Handler provides commentary. Of the first, Jessica Atherton, reviewer in Voice of Youth Advocates, wrote: “A tiny gem, this lighthearted book is a joy to read.” A Kirkus Reviews contributor called it “an intriguing painting-and-prose response to a selection of photographs.” “Handler adds alternately wry, pithy, poignant—and always succinct—commentary to most spreads,” asserted Cindy Dobrez in Booklist. Billy Parrott, a writer in School Library Journal, suggested: “There is a thought-provoking complexity present that will appeal to teens and adults.” School Library Journal critic Jane Miller described Weather, Weather as “a thoughtfully executed introduction to weather in art.”
All the Dirty Parts is another novel by Handler for young adults. Cole, a teenager, is overwhelmed by his sexual urges. His experiences with a male friend and a female Portuguese exchange student help him reevaluate his ideas on sexuality. Biz Hyzy, a contributor to Booklist, described All the Dirty Parts as “amusing yet genuine, lustful yet sensitive.” A Kirkus Reviews writer called it “a disarming cautionary tale that’s just naughty enough to be kept from Handler’s ‘Lemony Snicket’ fans but real enough to spark genuine conversations about sex and its consequences.”
In the picture book Goldfish Ghost, the title character starts in a kid’s fishbowl and then travels to the shore looking for friends. Finally, he finds companions in a lighthouse. Sarah Ellis, writing in Horn Book, commented: “In the field of pet bereavement narratives, this one stands out for tenderness, originality, and subtlety.” A Kirkus Reviews writer called the book “a lovely, untrammeled look at a pet’s afterlife.” “Can a book about death and the afterlife be refreshing and funny? In the hands of Snicket and Brown, indeed it can,” asserted Kiera Parrott in School Library Journal.
The Bad Mood and the Stick is written under the Lemony Snicket pseudonym and illustrated by Matthew Forsythe. A bad mood transfers between family members and other townspeople. The first to have the bad mood is a little girl named Curly. After the girl pokes her brother with a stick, her mother contracts the bad mood. “Snicket’s fans will love this book, but readers need never have read a single word by the author to appreciate the wonderfully presented universality,” asserted a Kirkus Reviews contributor. A reviewer in Publishers Weekly commented: “Snicket’s quirky narrative voice and observations of events both great and lowly make this a fine read-aloud.” Sarah Stone, a critic in School Library Journal, described the book as “a cheerfully wacky read-aloud sure to brighten listeners’ moods.”
[resume new]Hurled tomatoes and hurly-burly bees add up to community chaos in the Lemony Snicket picture book Swarm of Bees. A boy with a wagon full of tomatoes is already setting the plot in motion with the front endpapers and title page, striking a beehive with a thrown tomato. As the anxious narrator tries to dissuade the bees from being so angry, they swarm around town stinging innocent people going about their day. The boy, in turn, starts throwing tomatoes at people, who start chasing him. Just as a beekeeper appears to calm and collect the bees, the boy’s parent, a chef, emerges to recognize the boy’s anger and, rather than scolding him, give him a hug to help him feel better.
In Horn Book, Martha V. Parravano admired the book’s message that “It’s okay to feel like a swarm of bees sometimes as long as you express your anger less destructively; and sometimes you need a little help to let it go.” School Librarian reviewer Janet Sims found Swarm of Bees to offer an “unusual and challenging approach to storytelling with purpose”—an approach that proves “ attractive as a straight picture book” as well as helpful for children “tackling anger and behaviour management.”
Opening with the author’s assertion that the book is about bewilderment is Poison for Breakfast, which Handler has affirmed to be written for readers of all ages. Lemony narrates as he sits down for a quaint breakfast featuring tea, honey, toast, cheese, a pear, and an egg. He then finds a note slipped under his door informing him that he just consumed poison. He thus sets about investigating the sources of his food, visiting curious locales including a tea shop, a honey farm, and a park where goats graze. Although he manages to deduce little, he has time to meditate on things like his friendship with a neighbor and the craft of writing. Upon visiting a library, Snicket is finally able to get to the quirky bottom of things.
In School Library Journal, Sarah Reid declared that Poison for Breakfast offers readers the “sort of pleasant bewilderment that comes from letting your mind wander down unfamiliar paths.” Reid noted that while the plot includes little action and the narrative tends toward the “cerebral,” the book is “full of Snicket’s trademark clever whimsy.” A Publishers Weekly reviewer likewise enjoyed how the author “laces the narrative with his trademark word definitions … and ominous hints at past tragedies” and affirmed that Poison for Breakfast “will delight fans of Snicket’s singular storytelling.”[close new]
BIOCRIT
PERIODICALS
ALAN Review, winter, 2001, Linda Broughton, review of The Miserable Mill, p. 35.
Book, July, 2001, Kathleen Odean, review of The Ersatz Elevator, p. 81.
Booklist, March 15, 1999, Stephanie Zvirin, review of The Basic Eight, p. 1289; December 1, 1999, Susan Dove Lempke, review of The Bad Beginning, p. 707; February 1, 2000, Susan Dove Lempke, review of The Wide Window, p. 1024; May 1, 2000, Carolyn Phelan, review of The Miserable Mill, p. 1670; June 1, 2000, Ted Leventhal, review of Watch Your Mouth, p. 1857; October 15, 2000, Susan Dove Lempke, review of The Austere Academy, p. 439; August, 2001, Carolyn Phelan, reviews of The Ersatz Elevator and The Vile Village, both p. 2122; October 15, 2001, Carolyn Phelan, review of The Hostile Hospital, p. 392; June 1, 2002, review of Lemony Snicket: The Unauthorized Autobiography, p. 1725; December 15, 2002, Susan Dove Lempke, review of The Carnivorous Carnival, p. 761; November 15, 2004, Stephanie Zvirin, review of The Grim Grotto, p. 586; December 1, 2005, Stephanie Zvirin, review of The Penultimate Peril, p. 47; February 15, 2006, Allison Block, review of Adverbs, p. 5; October 15, 2006, Stephanie Zvirin, review of The End, p. 48; November 1, 2008, Ian Chipman, review of The Composer Is Dead, p. 56; September 1, 2010, Ian Chipman, review of Thirteen Words, p. 110; November 1, 2011, Daniel Kraus, review of Why We Broke Up, p. 61; September 15, 2012, Ilene Cooper, review of “Who Could That Be at This Hour?,” p. 72; March 1, 2013, Thom Barthelmess, review of The Dark, p. 58; July 1, 2013, Ilene Cooper, review of “When Did You See Her Last?,” p. 75; February 1, 2014, Thom Barthelmess, review of 29 Myths on the Swinster Pharmacy, p. 69; May 15, 2014, Cindy Dobrez, review of Girls Standing on Lawns, p. 54; March 1, 2017, Sarah Hunter, review of Goldfish Ghost, p. 73; July 1, 2017, Biz Hyzy, review of All the Dirty Parts, p. 15.
Bookseller, May 19, 2006, Caroline Horn, “Lemony Snicket—A Happy Ending?,” p. 32.
Bulletin of the Center for Children’s Books, December, 2012, Kate Quealy-Gainer, review of “Who Could That Be at This Hour?,” p. 219.
Christian Science Monitor, August 12, 1999, Ron Charles, reviews of The Bad Beginning and The Reptile Room, both p. 21.
Guardian (London, England), June 7, 2006, Tim De Lisle, interview with Handler.
Horn Book, March, 2001, Christine Heppermann, “Angel Wings and Hard Knocks,” p. 239; January-February, 2007, Claire E. Gross, review of The End, p. 73; November-December, 2008, Elissa Gershowitz, review of The Lump of Coal, p. 653; January-February, 2013, Sarah Ellis, review of “Who Could That Be at This Hour?,” p. 90; March-April, 2013, Cynthia K. Ritter, review of The Dark, p. 91; May-June, 2017, Sarah Ellis, review of Goldfish Ghost, p. 82; November-December, 2017, Susan Dove Lempke, review of The Bad Mood and the Stick, p. 89; March-April, 2019, Martha V. Parravano, review of Swarm of Bees, p. 69.
Kirkus Reviews, November 1, 2008, review of The Lump of Coal; January 15, 2009, review of The Composer Is Dead; October 1, 2010, review of Thirteen Words; November 15, 2011, review of Why We Broke Up; September 1, 2012, review of “Who Could That Be at This Hour?”; February 15, 2013, review of The Dark; August 15, 2013, review of “When Did You See Her Last?”; January 15, 2015, review of 29 Myths on the Swinster Pharmacy; April 1, 2014, review of File Under; April 15, 2014, review of Girls Standing on Lawns; December 1, 2014, review of We Are Pirates: A Novel; March 1, 2017, review of Goldfish Ghost; June 15, 2017, review of All the Dirty Parts; September 1, 2017, review of The Bad Mood and the Stick; August 15, 2019, review of Bottle Grove.
Library Journal, March 15, 1999, Rebecca Kelm, review of The Basic Eight, p. 108; June 1, 2000, Rebecca Kelm, review of Watch Your Mouth, p. 196; October 15, 2014, Christine Perkins, review of We Are Pirates, p. 80.
New Yorker, June 21, 1999, review of The Basic Eight.
New York Times, October 20, 2001, Daniel Handler, “Frightening News: The Importance of Scary Stories,” p. A17.
New York Times Book Review, October 22, 2006, Henry Alford, reviews of The End and The Beatrice Letters, both p. 18; December 21, 2008, Julie Just, review of The Lump of Coal, p. 13; December 18, 2011, Monica Edinger, review of Why We Broke Up, p. 21.
New York Times Magazine, April 29, 2001, Daphne Merkin, “Lemony Snicket Says, ‘Don’t Read My Books!’”
Publishers Weekly, March 1, 1999, review of The Basic Eight, p. 59; September 6, 1999, review of The Bad Beginning, p. 104; May 29, 2000, Sally Lodge, “Oh, Sweet Misery,” p. 42; June 19, 2000, review of Watch Your Mouth, p. 60; October 6, 2003, review of The Slippery Slope, p. 86; October 18, 2004, review of The Grim Grotto, p. 66; January 30, 2006, review of Adverbs, p. 36; October 29, 2007, review of The Latke Who Couldn’t Stop Screaming: A Christmas Story, p. 56; December 22, 2008, review of The Composer Is Dead, p. 51; October 18, 2010, review of Thirteen Words, p. 42; November 14, 2011, review of Why We Broke Up, p. 55; August 27, 2012, review of “Who Could That Be at This Hour?,” p. 76; January 14, 2013, review of The Dark, p. 65; November 25, 2013, review of 29 Myths on the Swinster Pharmacy, p. 56; February 10, 2014, Clare Swanson, review of File Under, p. 18; February 24, 2014, review of Girls Standing on Lawns, p. 185; September 22, 2014, review of We Are Pirates, p. 45; February 9, 2015, review of Hurry Up and Wait, p. 65; March 13, 2017, review of Goldfish Ghost, p. 82; August 28, 2017, review of The Bad Mood and the Stick, p. 125; June 3, 2019, review of Bottle Grove, p. 35; June 28, 2021, review of Poison for Breakfast, p. 44;
Resource Links, June, 2013, Linda Ludke, review of The Dark, p. 9.
School Librarian, winter, 2019, Janet Sims, review of Swarm of Bees, p. 224.
School Library Journal, November, 1999, Linda Bindner, review of The Bad Beginning, p. 165; July, 2000, Sharon R. Pearce, review of The Miserable Mill, p. 110; October, 2000, Ann Cook, review of The Austere Academy, p. 171; August, 2001, Farida S. Dowler, reviews of The Ersatz Elevator and The Vile Village, both pp. 188-189; November, 2001, Jean Gaffney, review of The Hostile Hospital, p. 164; January, 2003, Heather Dieffenbach, review of The Carnivorous Carnival, p. 144; January, 2004, Krista Tokarz, review of The Slippery Slope, p. 134; October, 2008, Linda Israelson, review of The Lump of Coal, p. 98; February, 2009, Wendy Lukehart, review of The Composer Is Dead, p. 86; April, 2014, Billy Parrott, review of Girls Standing on Lawns, p. 188; January, 2017, Jane Miller, review of Weather, Weather, p. 118; April, 2017, Kiera Parrott, review of Goldfish Ghost, p. 133; October, 2017, Sarah Stone, review of The Bad Mood and the Stick, p. 84; August, 2021, Sarah Reid, review of Poison for Breakfast, p. 79.
Voice of Youth Advocates, December, 2011, Laura Woodruff, review of Why We Broke Up, p. 492; December, 2012, Bethany Martin, review of “Who Could That Be at This Hour?,” p. 476; June, 2014, Jessica Atherton, review of Girls Standing on Lawns, p. 90.
Washington Post, August 30, 2019, Ian Shapira, “Silicon Valley Is a Popular Target for Writers: How Does Daniel Handler’s ‘Bottle Grove’ Hold Up?”
Xpress Reviews, August 11, 2017, Michael Pucci, review of All the Dirty Parts.
ONLINE
American Theatre, http://www.americantheatre.org/ (September 20, 2017), Shoshana Greenberg, author interview.
Bookstr, https://bookstr.com/ (October 15, 2018), author interview.
Daniel Handler website, http://www.danielhandler.com (April 22, 2022).
Entertainment Weekly Online, http://ew.com/ (January 11, 2017), Marc Snetiker, author interview.
iNews, https://inews.co.uk/ (December 20, 2019), Nick Duerden, “Lemony Snicket Author Daniel Handler on Accusations of Racism and Sexism: ‘Um, It’s Hard to Navigate.’”
Kill Your Darlings, https://www.killyourdarlings.com.au/ (August 25, 2015), Kate Harper, author interview.
Lemony Snicket website, http://www.lemonysnicket.com (April 22, 2022).
Lowell Online, http://www.thelowell.org/ (February 15, 1999), Philana Woo, “Author Reflects on High School Life.”
Masters Review, https://mastersreview.com/ (January 27, 2018), author interview.
NPR website, https://www.npr.org/ (January 13, 2017), Terry Gross, “The Man behind Lemony Snicket Talks about Writing for Kids and His Childhood Fears.”
Newsweek Online, http://www.newsweek.com/ (May 31, 2017), Julia Glum, author interview.
Orange County Register Online, https://www.ocregister.com/ (June 23, 2021), Samantha Dunn, “A Series of Unfortunate Events’ Daniel Handler, aka Lemony Snicket, has ‘Poison for Breakfast.’”
Parade Online, https://parade.com/ (August 21, 2021), Michael Giltz, “Daniel Handler, Author of the ‘A Series of Unfortunate Events’ Books, Reveals Why His New Book Is So Different.”
PEN America website, https://pen.org/ (May 27, 2014), “The PEN Ten with Daniel Handler.”
Salon, http://www.salonmag.com/ (August 17, 2000), Amy Benfer, “The Mysterious Mr. Snicket.”*
DANIEL HANDLER is the author of seven novels, including Why We Broke Up, We Are Pirates, All The Dirty Parts and, most recently, Bottle Grove.
As Lemony Snicket, he is responsible for numerous books for children, including the thirteen-volume A Series of Unfortunate Events, the four-volume All the Wrong Questions, and The Dark, which won the Charlotte Zolotow Award.
Mr. Snicket’s first book for readers of all ages, Poison for Breakfast, will be published by Liveright/W.W. Norton on August 31, 2021.
Handler has received commissions from the San Francisco Symphony, Berkeley Reperatory Theater and the Royal Shakespeare Company, and has collaborated with artist Maira Kalman on a series of books for the Museum of Modern Art in New York, and with musicians Stephin Merritt (of the Magnetic Fields), Benjamin Gibbard (of Death Cab for Cutie), Colin Meloy (of the Decemberists) and Torquil Campbell (of Stars).
His books have sold more than 70 million copies and have been translated into 40 languages, and have been adapted for film, stage and television, including the recent adaptation of A Series of Unfortunate Events for which he was awarded both the Peabody and the Writers Guild of America awards.
He lives in San Francisco with the illustrator Lisa Brown, to whom he is married and with whom he has collaborated on several books and one son.
No bio.
Daniel Handler, Author of the A Series Of Unfortunate Events Books, Reveals Why His New Book Is So Different
AUGUST 21, 2021 – 5:00 AM – 2 COMMENTS
7
Michael Giltz
By MICHAEL GILTZ
danielhandler
(Meredith Heuer)
Daniel Handler—aka Lemony Snicket, author of the blockbuster A Series Of Unfortunate Events books—returns with Poison for Breakfast (August 31, Liveright), a stand-alone adventure filled with mystery, musings on life and an apparent culinary crime. In what’s passed off as a true tale, Snicket tells the story of finding a note claiming he’s eaten poison for breakfast, and what follows is a fantastical quest to discover who did the dastardly deed. “It’s the kind of book that might provide you solace when your life is exciting rather than the kind of book that provides you excitement when your life is dull,” Handler says. Here, we catch up with the author, who, not surprisingly, had a childhood penchant for Agatha Christie.
Related: Children’s Book Series 9/11 Courage and Tributes Aims to Help Teach Kids About Sept. 11, 2001—Read an Excerpt Here
You’re known for picture books, young adult novels, literary fiction and especially the Gothic thrills of A Series of Unfortunate Events. What prompted this change of pace?
When my son was younger, he was most interested in reading nonfiction. Which was quite expected in some ways, since he’s the child of someone who makes a lot of picture books [mom Lisa Brown] and someone who writes novels for young people. So, of course, he would choose the one thing that we didn’t do or have around the house. But that got me interested in nonfiction for young people, which is often either of the Rosa Parks biography or lizards of North America variety, and God bless everything, but I thought it would be interesting to write a book of nonfiction that was a change of pace from the breathless melodrama of so many Snicket books.
Poison for Breakfast is a mystery of sorts, where the mystery is almost beside the point. You must have had a mystery phase as a kid. Sherlock Holmes? The Hardy Boys?
It was definitely Agatha Christie. What I really liked when I was maybe 11 or 12, when I was starting to read them, was the list of characters in the front. I thought that was just fantastic.
What’s your own reading routine?
I’m usually reading five or six books at a time in different rooms: a novel, a book of poetry, someone’s letters or diary and a book for whatever it is that I’m researching. And then usually one more that just came into my house and was so good that I had to start reading it—I keep that one on my kitchen counter.
If you had to choose: library or a bookstore?
One of the delights of my life is that I really don’t have to choose. But I like a library because you can really take anything off the shelves and look at it. To make a huge, messy pile of books that not only are you not wanting to purchase, but you’re not even going to read all of them. And you’re certainly not gonna read all of all of them! When some idea has taken hold of you, you can begin to explore it and serendipity can guide you. So I think I would have to choose a library. But I really love not choosing.
You’ve talked about arranging a club to read Proust together in dive bars. Has that happened yet?
No, but during the pandemic, I did have a two-person Reading Out Loud Epic Poetry Whilst Drinking Whiskey on Zoom Club. We started with Emily Wilson‘s translation of The Odyssey. We also read the Seamus Heaney Beowulf, Gilgamesh, Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, Rime of the Ancient Mariner and Louis MacNeice‘s Autumn Journal. Now we are embarking on The Tale of the Heike, which is so long that we hope it will take us until Emily Wilson finishes her translation of The Iliad.
What I like about poetry is that booksellers can’t decide if it’s fiction or nonfiction. Poetry is just … poetry.
Well, it’s interesting that you would say that, because when my son was interested in reading nonfiction, he would ask all the time, “Is this nonfiction or fiction?” And once, he came upon me reading a book of poetry in the living room. And he said, “Is that fiction, or nonfiction?” Without answering I said, “It’s neither,” which had never occurred to either of us. And we both sat there, silent, in this kind of amazed moment. I said, if you want to try poetry, here’s where the poetry is in our house. You can read any book you want. And he took down Lunch Poems [by Frank O’Hara], I think because of the size of the book that you can grab it. I really don’t think he understood a word of it, but he just liked the idea that there was something that wasn’t either fiction or nonfiction.
You’ve said that the first book you bought was The Blue Aspic by Edward Gorey, which is set in the world of the opera. Were you already singing when you bought that?
Yes, I was. In fact, I bought that book on a break from an opera rehearsal. We walked up to A Clean Well-Lighted Place for Books [in San Francisco], which was just a couple of blocks from where we rehearsed.
Were you good enough a singer to say, “Should I become a castrato?”
My parents used to joke that they considered castration to extend my career. But in the long run I’m grateful for my secondary sex characteristics.
You said you bought the Edward Gorey, a major influence of yours, with your own money. But you were only 8 years old! Where did the money come from?
That’s more like a family joke. We would get an allowance and then we would say, “Hey, I’m buying this with my own money.” My parents never liked to tie specific chores to a specific allowance. The idea was that when they asked us to do something, we should do it. Tremendously unfair. And of course, it’s exactly how I’m raising my own child.
What are you reading now?
I’m reading Dead Souls by Sam Riviere; Dorothea Lasky‘s book Animal, which is about writing a little bit; and Hilary Leichter‘s Temporary. And it’s kind of a reread, but I’m reading the selected poems of James Schuyler. He’s a good walking-around poet.
What is Lemony Snicket reading right now?
What is Mr. Snicket reading? Well, I’m working on another Snicket project [for the stage, although it’s not a theatrical adaptation of A Series Of Unfortunate Events], and for that I’m using this chap book by Magdalena Zurawski, which is called Being Human Is an Occult Practice.
What books are you recommending right now?
The Kids of Cattywampus Street [Anne Schwartz Books, by Lisa Jahn-Clough, following the mischievous adventures of kids who live on the same street]. This is probably the last middle grade book I read that I really, really loved.
Jackpot [Ember, by Nic Stone, in which a high school senior juggles school, work and caring for her younger brother]. In terms of [young adult fiction], I think the author doing the best job right now is Nic Stone—the way that she talks about class is really interesting.
A Swim in a Pond in the Rain [Random House, a collection of essays and Russian short stories by George Saunders]. I don’t know why I haven’t bought it yet. I’ve picked it up in various bookstores and put it back down. I always feel the book smirking at me, like, “OK, not today, but you’re obviously taking me home.”
You share your passion for everything from the poetry of Elizabeth Bishop to the children’s book The Long Secret by Louise Fitzhugh. Have you always loved recommending things to others?
It can be tricky. When I lived in New York, I used to go to a record store; I think it was House of Records on the way to Film Forum. There was a man who ran it, and I would say, “So what’s good?” He would offer me something, and if it wasn’t up my alley, he took it very hard if I put it down. Oftentimes, it would be a box set of psychedelic rock from the ’70s or something. I have wide tastes, but not universal tastes. It would be difficult to say to him, “But I don’t think I want this Soft Machine live album. I’m sorry.”
Daniel Handler
USA flag (b.1970)
aka Lemony Snicket
Daniel Handler is an American author, screenwriter and accordionist. He is best known for his work under the pen name Lemony Snicket.
Genres: Young Adult Fiction
Novels
The Basic Eight (1999)
Watch Your Mouth (2000)
Adverbs (2006)
Why We Broke Up (2011)
We Are Pirates (2015)
All the Dirty Parts (2017)
Bottle Grove (2019)
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Chapbooks
How to Dress for Every Occasion by the Pope (2005)
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Picture Books
Girls Standing on Lawns (2014)
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Non fiction
Weather, Weather (2016) (with Maira Kalman)
The Man Behind Lemony Snicket Talks About Writing For Kids And His Childhood Fears
January 13, 20171:21 PM ET
Heard on Fresh Air
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Lemony Snicket, AKA Daniel Handler, wrote the children's book series, A Series of Unfortunate Events. Handler spoke to Terry Gross in 2001 and in 2012, when he brought his accordion to the studio.
Hear The 2012 Interview
Lemony Snicket Dons A Trenchcoat
AUTHOR INTERVIEWS
Lemony Snicket Dons A Trenchcoat
(SOUNDBITE OF TV SHOW, "A SERIES OF UNFORTUNATE EVENTS")
NEIL PATRICK HARRIS: (As Count Olaf, singing) Look away. Look away. Look away. Look away. The show will wreck your evening, your home life and your day. Every single episode is nothing but dismay so look away. Look away. Look away. Three children lose their home and go to live with someone awful. He tries to steal their fortune with a plot that's not quite lawful. It's hard to fathom how the orphans managed to live through it, but how a decent person like yourself would even want to view it - just look away. Look away...
DAVE DAVIES, HOST:
A new TV version of "A Series Of Unfortunate Events" premieres today on Netflix. It's based on a series of satirical gothic novels for children by Lemony Snicket, the pen name of Daniel Handler. They tell the tales of three unlucky orphans who live lives filled with misery and woe. Terry Gross interviewed Daniel Handler in 2001.
(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED BROADCAST)
TERRY GROSS, HOST:
Now, your book, as we heard, starts with a warning that readers might be better off with a more cheerful book. Why did you decide to start your book that way?
DANIEL HANDLER: Well, it seemed only fair to warn anyone who was seeking cheerfulness. And also I - when I sat down to just start writing for children, I really had no bearing in children's literature. I hadn't read a book for children since I was a youngster. And - but I remembered this overwhelmingly moralistic tone in all of my least favorite books, so I thought it might be good to sort of mock that from the outset and warn children away from a story instead of the sort of typical treacly beginning which is, you know, this is a very charming story, and you're just going to love the adorable hero.
GROSS: Now, why do you want to constantly create misery - comic misery (laughter), but misery in your books? I mean, the poor Baudelaire children - it's just like one horrible thing after another. And this is the eighth book, and they're still going through misery.
HANDLER: Oh, yes. Well, it really only gets worse as the books go on. It - that just seems more interesting to me. When I'm confronted with a blank page, and I want to think of something happening it just tends to be something terrible which I guess has a long tradition in literature. I mean, I'm always at a loss to think of a book in which only happy things happen - "Maybe Happy All The Time" by Laurie Colwin. But most books, it seems to me, have at least the threat of something dastardly happen. So that it just seems entirely natural to me that if you want a plot to be interesting, then terrible things have to be on the horizon.
GROSS: What are some of the terrible things that have happened to these orphans?
HANDLER: Well, I mean, it's such a depressing list. I hate to think of drivers listening to NPR driving off the road as I list them all. I mean, they meet Count Olaf who is a distant relative, who is only after the fortune that their parents have left behind. He's a terrible person who tries to marry the eldest Baudelaire, Violet, and locks up the baby in a bird cage and dangles it outside of his tower window.
They go to stay with their kindly Uncle Monty who is murdered. They go to stay with their Aunt Josephine who throws herself out of a window or at least so it appears. They're forced to work in a lumber mill. They've got a school. That's always a terrible thing. They stay with rich people and find themselves falling down an elevator shaft. They're driven out of town by an angry mob with, you know, with torches and barking dogs and then in the most recent volume, they find themselves prepared for unnecessary surgery in the hospital, so it's really quite a cornucopia of terrible things.
GROSS: It was a lot of literary jokes like little in references that only adult readers would get or at least teenage readers, you know, like the orphans are named the Baudelaire children. Their first names are Klaus and Sunny - two of them. You want to name some of the other, like, little references?
HANDLER: (Laughter) Well, they're cared for by Mr. Poe. They're - at one point, they're - they fall into the household of Jerome and Esme Squalor who are named after J.D. Salinger's story "For Esme With Love And Squalor." They attend Prufrock Preparatory School after the poem by T.S. Eliot. Yeah. They're pretty much surrounded by the world of books. I liked the idea of a universe that was governed entirely by books. The Baudelaires find the solutions or what appear to be the solution to their problems in libraries in each volume, and so there are sort of some heavy-handed or I hope mock heavy-handed propaganda saying that all of life's difficulties can be solved within the pages of the right book.
GROSS: Well, another thing you do in your books is you use kind of big words and then you define them for your readers. Let me read an example. This comes from the last page of your first Lemony Snicket book and the sentence is (reading) the car drove farther and farther away until Justice Strauss was merely a speck in the darkness. And it seemed to the children that they were moving in an aberant - the word aberant here means very, very wrong and causing much grief - into an aberant direction.
HANDLER: It makes me very happy to know that now - I mean, there are sort of millions of fourth graders who know what the word ersatz means and that's - or know what the expression casing the joint or understand dramatic irony - that really excites me. So I don't sit around pedagogically and think, well, what can I teach the little nippers? But I just love these words, and I just wanted to put them in my books. They're not enough books that have the word corpulent in my opinion.
GROSS: (Laughter) The Baudelaire children are orphans. Did you worry about becoming orphaned when you were a kid? Did you worry something terrible had happened to your parents?
HANDLER: I don't think it was really a worry (laughter). I think it was more just a basic fantasy that I think nearly every child and probably most adults have which is what if I were all alone in the world? From that very first moment that you're maybe at the zoo and you take your mother's hand and you look up and it's not your mother; it's just some other tall person, and you suddenly have this sense of what if I were all alone and what if no one was taking care of me?
GROSS: Were there are adults in your life you perceived as villains who you were afraid would take control of your life?
HANDLER: I suppose so. There are certainly a number of scary adults and, you know, vile teacher - yelling teachers and, you know, suspicious looking janitors, and, you know, of course, doctors - anyone in a doctor's office always seemed very sinister to me. I could never figure out why anybody would want to sit around in an office all day with a sharp needle just waiting for sick children to walk in so they can make them more miserable.
So that was definitely a concern of mine. And even the adults who were very nice, I think they're - I had a sense that the world was not in my control, that decisions were being made on my behalf by people much taller than me who are unlikely to pay attention no matter how many times I repeated my question. And I think that I'm not alone in that perception, and that's why there's so many evil and - and/or inept adults in my books.
DAVIES: We're listening to Terry's interview with Daniel Handler also known as Lemony Snicket. "A Series Of Unfortunate Events" based on his popular satirical children's novels premieres today on Netflix. We'll hear more after a break. This is FRESH AIR.
(SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC)
DAVIES: This is FRESH AIR. Let's get back to Terry's interview with Daniel Handler, aka Lemony Snicket. A new TV series based on his satirical children's books "A Series Of Unfortunate Events" premieres today on Netflix.
(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED BROADCAST)
GROSS: Now, you write your "Series Of Unfortunate Events" novels under the pseudonym of Lemony Snicket. How did you come up with that name?
HANDLER: Well, first off, I should say that I'm not sure pseudonym name is exactly right because the character of Lemony Snicket, this man who speaks directly to the reader and also who is tangentially involved in the stories that he's telling is really more of a character. We just thought it would be fun to publish the books under the name of this character. But the name Lemony Snicket I actually had lying around before I had any desire to write for children. I was researching the first of two novels that I've published under my own name - the first novel, "The Basic Eight" - and I needed to contact for research purposes some right-wing political organizations and religious groups. And I wanted material mailed to me. But I didn't want to be on their mailing list for obvious reasons.
And so someone asked me, so what is your name? And I opened my mouth, and out popped the words Lemony Snicket. And it became among all of my friends, then, a joke. We would write letters to the paper and sign them Lemony Snicket, hoping they would be published, and reserve tables in restaurants under the name Lemony Snicket and all sorts of things like that. And so, for a small, select group of the population, the idea that the name Lemony Snicket has risen to such notoriety is particularly shocking.
GROSS: Have you run into any parents, teachers or librarians who object to either the tone or the content of your books?
HANDLER: Not nearly as many as I thought I would. I really (laughter) thought that there would just be an overwhelming wave of outrage. And instead, there've just been a few isolated complaints that I've heard. We were banned in one school district in Decatur, Ga. I'll always have that.
GROSS: (Laughter).
HANDLER: They can't take that away from me.
GROSS: On what grounds were you banned?
HANDLER: Well, I hate to get too catty about Decatur, Ga. But they were very concerned in "The Bad Beginning" that Count Olaf wants to marry Violet, who is a distant relative. And this strikes me as something that, without being too stereotypical about the South - that perhaps Decatur, Ga., has heard of before, let's just say.
And, also, I'm at a loss for how to construct a villain who isn't doing villainous things. If Count Olaf were only doing things that no one would object to, then he really wouldn't be much of a villain. So I'm somewhat nonplussed by that kind of criticism - that, boy, Count Olaf is sure a terrible person. And so I always have to write back and say, well, yes. Yes, he is (laughter). He sure is. Let's catch him.
GROSS: (Laughter).
HANDLER: And a woman once in in Oregon came up to me at a bookstore and said, you know, in one of your books, you teach that it is sometimes necessary to lie. And that seems like a very disturbing lesson to me. Can you name one time when it would be absolutely necessary to lie? And I was so happy that the answer came to me right away, instead of, you know, as it usually does when people say something to you. And then you think three days later, that's what I should've said. Instead, it came right away. And I was able just to turn to her and say, nice sweater.
GROSS: (Laughter).
HANDLER: I'm just really proud of that.
GROSS: (Laughter) What was her reaction?
HANDLER: I think she said thank you.
GROSS: (Laughter).
HANDLER: I'm not sure that the lesson was taught. But at least I was able to sleep at night, knowing that (laughter) I'd been able to say something in response. I mean, of course, you have to lie. And I can't imagine that you would want to teach your child never to lie under any circumstances. That's not going to serve the child well when the child goes to a birthday party and is forced to say whether or not he or she had a nice time.
GROSS: What books did you particularly love when you were growing up?
HANDLER: Oh. I really loved the books by Edward Gorey. I really loved the books of Roald Dahl. And I really - I just adore the books by Zilpha Keatley Snyder, who is not as well-known but is just a terrific writer. She wrote "The Egypt Game" and "The Headless Cupid" and a bunch of really interesting books where children are forced to negotiate difficult but nonsupernatural circumstances more or less all by themselves. And those are the sort of stories that appeal to me.
I didn't like stories where people ran off to summer camp, and everybody just had a grand, old time or tried to join the soccer team. I think it's always depressing to me that there's so many books marketed for young boys who want to read that are about sports. I mean, I was always - I could never play any sports. And I always wanted to go and read a book. And to be offered a book in which boys played sports seemed to be the very opposite of what I wanted.
GROSS: (Laughter) Well, did your parents ever give you mixed messages about reading? On the one hand, say it's really important to read. And on the other hand, if you were sitting home on a sunny day while a lot of other boys were playing baseball, would your parents say, it's a beautiful day out? You should be outside.
HANDLER: Well, my parents were always very avid readers - are very avid readers. And so I never got the sense that they really meant what they said when they said, you really ought to be outside playing baseball because my parents are - neither of them are very athletic, either. And so even though they would say that, it never really rang true.
One thing that they did that I just thought was fantastic was that they would read to me when I was very young and stop at a suspenseful moment. And then they would say, well, it's now time for bed. And, you know, under no circumstances should you read with this light over here that we're placing near your bed. Under no circumstances should you turn this on and read it.
GROSS: (Laughter).
HANDLER: And then, of course, I would. And then the next day, when the bookmark was in a different place in the book, they would read as if nothing had happened. And that, to me, seemed particularly effective. And, perhaps, that's the root of Mr. Snicket's don't read this book. You'll only end up in bad trouble.
DAVIES: Daniel Handler, who, under the pen name Lemony Snicket, is the author of "A Series of Unfortunate Events," the popular children's series of mock-gothic novels. A new TV version of the series premieres today on Netflix. We'll be back with an excerpt of another interview with Daniel Handler. And fair warning - he brought his accordion. I'm Dave Davies, and this is FRESH AIR.
(SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC)
DAVIES: This is FRESH AIR. I'm Dave Davies, in for Terry Gross. Today, Netflix premieres a new TV version of the mock children's gothic novels "A Series Of Unfortunate Events," written by Lemony Snicket, the pen name of Daniel Handler. Handler's an executive producer of the series, which stars Neil Patrick Harris. We heard some of Terry's 2001 interview with Handler a few moments ago. They spoke again in 2012. And Terry asked him to bring his accordion and sing a Snicket song or two. But first, they began by talking about Handler's background.
(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED BROADCAST)
GROSS: I read that your father fled Germany during Hitler's regime. I don't know whether it was...
HANDLER: Yeah.
GROSS: ...Like, what point...
HANDLER: '38.
GROSS: '38. OK.
HANDLER: Yeah.
GROSS: So...
HANDLER: A good time to leave (laughter).
GROSS: Yeah, I'll say. I'll say. Did he have to, like, sneak out? Was it still acceptable for Jews to emigrate? - assuming he was Jewish. That might not be true.
HANDLER: Yes, he was Jewish. He was a child. And so his recollection of it is somewhat lost to the sands of time. But he - yeah. He got out just in time and was raised by his mother. And my extended family - growing up, when I went to family events with my extended family, the stories passed around the dinner table were all stories of who got out and who didn't and daring escapes and lucky rescues and the whole chaotic tumble of living through that era.
And I think that also had a huge effect on "A Series Of Unfortunate Events" - that just the notion that terrible things can happen at any reason and not - they're not punishments for bad behavior, just as good things happening are not rewards for good behavior.
GROSS: And that sense of - you know, I grew up with so many World War II movies and movies about, like, getting out just in time, like you were describing - actually happened to your father. Thankfully - that he got out just in time. But it brings a sense of relief. Like, oh, boy. They got out just in time - but also the sense of constant fear. Like, how do you know when just in time is? How do you know if you're waiting too long or doing it just in time? How do you know when it's - your time is up? And did you grow up with this constant fear that maybe you wouldn't know, and you wouldn't get out just in time?
HANDLER: I definitely have a slice of that Jewish paranoia. On this book tour that I just finished, I was recently in Vancouver. And I always have this feeling of Vancouver. That's my fantasy city for when the United States has gone completely mad, and I must flee for the border. Part of my fantasy is that. Well, then I'll live in one of these beautiful condos in Vancouver and eat sushi.
(LAUGHTER)
HANDLER: So - but, I mean, I don't think to other - I think when other people fantasize about living someplace else, it's not because they're fleeing from a fascist government.
GROSS: (Laughter).
HANDLER: But I think if you're raised Jewish, that paranoia comes with the territory.
GROSS: What scared you as a child?
HANDLER: Oh, everything. Tall trees. Yeah. People in tall trees climbing up to the top of them and leaping upon my window - that was a large source of concern for me. Kidnapping - I remember when my mother finally explained to me that it would be extremely unlikely I would get kidnapped because they didn't really have any money. But kidnappers were after money. And so the idea that you would be kidnapped was very rare if you didn't have money - that was just such a relief to me. I wish that had been explained to me years previously.
GROSS: (Laughter).
HANDLER: But she said, oh, you know, no one - we don't have enough money. We couldn't possibly pay ransom for you that would be rewarding for a kidnapper. So you probably won't be snatched up. That was intense relief.
GROSS: That's great.
HANDLER: And so, sometimes, when children are standing in line at a Snicket event, while I'm making small talk with them, I ask if they've ever been kidnapped. And they never have. And then I say, well, do you have parents who would pay a lot of money for your safe return? And we try to figure out exactly what sum of money that is. And, you know, it's under the guise of whether I'm calculating enough - so if it seems like enough money for me to kidnap them. But I hope that it's also reassuring...
GROSS: (Laughter).
HANDLER: ...When they realize they probably won't be kidnapped. There's probably just not enough money at stake.
GROSS: What if you're talking to a wealthy kid, and you scare the heck out of him (laughter) because his parents would have enough money?
HANDLER: Well, I always say, have you been kidnapped? And then I often say, have you ever been locked in the trunk of a car?
GROSS: (Laughter).
HANDLER: And then do you like trying new things? Those are kind of the three questions.
GROSS: (Laughter) Oh, gosh.
HANDLER: You know, one thing that is different since the last time we spoke is that I now have a child.
GROSS: Who is how old?
HANDLER: And so I'm now forced - he's 9. He's just turned 9. And I'm forced to explain the world to him all the time. And I'm aghast at my own complete failure.
GROSS: (Laughter).
HANDLER: I just can't - yeah (laughter). My wife and I tell this story a lot.
GROSS: Are you an unreliable narrator?
(LAUGHTER)
HANDLER: I just realize I have hardly any explanation for anything at all. We were listening to this song by Kraftwerk, "We Are The Robots." And he said to me, are they pretending to be robots? And I said, yes, they are. And then he said, are the Beatles pretending to be Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band? And I said, I think they are.
GROSS: (Laughter).
HANDLER: And he said, but aren't they pretending to be beetles? And I felt, suddenly, the knowledge of the world just absolutely slipping out of my brain. I thought, why did they call themselves The Beatles? That doesn't make any sense at all.
GROSS: Well, one story is that it was a play on Buddy Holly and The Crickets. And they were The Beatles.
HANDLER: Right. But when did musicians start calling themselves things that they weren't?
GROSS: Yes, exactly.
(LAUGHTER)
HANDLER: When did that happen, and how do I explain that to my child...
GROSS: Good luck (laughter).
HANDLER: ...In such a way that it makes sense? - let alone, you know, explaining the horrors of the world or anything.
GROSS: I'm going to ask you now - you've brought your accordion with you.
(LAUGHTER)
HANDLER: Because I was asked, I want to add.
GROSS: I asked you. Yes, we asked you 'cause I love accordion. And it's...
HANDLER: But I have a policy that I only bring it when someone asks me because the question - why haven't you brought your accordion? - is charming...
GROSS: (Laughter).
HANDLER: ...And the question - why have you brought your accordion? - is alarming.
GROSS: (Laughter) So how did you start playing accordion?
HANDLER: Well, I played piano my whole life. And when I got to college, I wanted to be in a band. And it was during a strange moment in American pop music when no keyboard instruments were cool. If I'd lugged around a synthesizer, I would've been scorned. And so I took up the accordion. So i like to say that I'm one of the few people who in the history of the world to take up the accordion, basically, in order to meet women.
GROSS: (Laughter) Did it work?
HANDLER: I did, in fact, meet my wife in college. So there you go.
GROSS: Because of the accordion?
HANDLER: No. But, in fact, I think the accordion was probably a drawback. But (laughter) all's well that ends well. Yeah. And the accordion is - I mean, one nice thing is that if you play the accordion, you're probably the best accordion player anybody knows. And so I've had opportunities as a result of playing the accordion despite not being very good. That never would've come my way if I played some more ordinary instrument.
GROSS: So did you ever play accordion favorites like "Lady Of Spain" and "Beer Barrel Polka?" Or, since you were already a musician, could you, like, skip right past that to stuff you really wanted to play?
HANDLER: I skipped right past most of the beginning accordion tunes. But, I mean, I was in a band that played a lot of polkas. I was in a tango band, a klezmer band, a kind of country-western band. And, I mean, if you play the accordion, you can really play almost any kind of music.
GROSS: And to prove that (laughter), I'm now going to ask you...
HANDLER: (Laughter).
GROSS: ...Something that is very un-accordion.
HANDLER: Is this Stump the Author? What is this?
GROSS: This is Stump the Author.
GROSS: Yes, I'm going to ask you to play something that we would never think of as being perfect for accordion, but you have made it work.
HANDLER: Let's see. Well, I have this song about Count Olaf. I really don't have a lot I can do offhand 'cause I'm usually sitting in with other people.
GROSS: OK. Excuse accepted.
HANDLER: Oh, man.
GROSS: So Count Olaf...
HANDLER: Gross plays hardball. Excuse accepted. (Laughter).
GROSS: Count Olaf is from Daniel Handler - Lemony Snicket's gothic novel series for children, "A Series Of Unfortunate Events."
HANDLER: (Playing accordion, singing) The count has an eye on his ankle and lives in a horrible place. He wants all your money. He's never at all funny. He wants to remove your face. And you might be thinking what a romp this is. But wait till you meet his accomplices. When you see Count Olaf, you're suddenly full of disgust and despair and dismay. In the hole of soul of Count Olaf, there's no love. When you see Count Olaf count to zero, then scream and run away.
Scream, scream, scream, and run away. Run, run, run, run, run, run, run or die, die, die, die, die, die, die. Run, run, run, run, run, run, run, run or die, die, die, die, die, die, die, die, die.
GROSS: Oh, that's so enjoyable. (Laughter) Thank you so much.
HANDLER: You're quite welcome. My delight.
DAVIES: Daniel Handler, aka Lemony Snicket, author of the satirical children's novels "A Series Of Unfortunate Events," speaking and singing with Terry Gross there recorded in 2012. Handler's also executive producer of the new Netflix show based on the series which premieres today.
Coming up, we remember Indian actor Om Puri. This is FRESH AIR.
(SOUNDBITE OF TODD SICKAFOOSE SONG, "PAPER TROMBONES")
Lemony Snicket
(Daniel Handler)
A pseudonym used by Daniel Handler
Lemony Snicket was born before you were, and is likely to die before you as well. His family has roots in a part of the country which is now underwater, and his childhood was spent in the relative splendor of the Snicket Villa which has since become a factory, a fortress and a pharmacy and is now, alas, someone else's villa.
To the untrained eye, Mr. Snicket's hometown would not appear to be filled with secrets. Untrained eyes have been wrong before. The aftermath of the scandal was swift, brutal and inaccurately reported in the periodicals of the day. It is true, however, that Mr. Snicket was stripped of several awards by the reigning authorities, including Honorable Mention, the Grey Ribbon and First Runner Up. The High Council reached a convenient if questionable verdict and Mr. Snicket found himself in exile.
Though his formal training was chiefly in rhetorical analysis, he has spent the last several eras researching the travails of the Baudelaire orphans. This project, being published serially by HarperCollins, takes him to the scenes of numerous crimes, often during the off-season. Eternally pursued and insatiably inquisitive, a hermit and a nomad, Mr. Snicket wishes you nothing but the best.
Genres: Young Adult Fantasy, Children's Fiction
Series
Series of Unfortunate Events
1. The Bad Beginning (1999)
2. The Reptile Room (1999)
3. The Wide Window (2000)
aka Disappearance!
4. The Miserable Mill (2000)
5. The Austere Academy (2000)
6. The Ersatz Elevator (2001)
7. The Vile Village (2001)
8. The Hostile Hospital (2001)
9. The Carnivorous Carnival (2002)
10. The Slippery Slope (2003)
11. The Grim Grotto (2004)
12. The Penultimate Peril (2005)
13. The End (2006)
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Series of Unfortunate Events Collections
A Box of Unfortunate Events (omnibus) (2001)
The Cumbersome Collection (omnibus) (2004)
The Trouble Begins (omnibus) (2004)
The Ominous Omnibus (omnibus) (2005)
The Loathsome Library (omnibus) (2005)
The Complete Incomplete Collection (omnibus) (2005)
The Gloom Looms (omnibus) (2005)
The Horrendous Heap (omnibus) (2005)
The Complete Wreck (omnibus) (2006)
A Series of Unfortunate Events Collection: Books 1 - 3 (omnibus) (2011)
A Series of Unfortunate Events Collection: Books 10-13 (omnibus) (2012)
A Series of Unfortunate Events Collection: Books 4-6 (omnibus) (2012)
A Series of Unfortunate Events Collection: Books 7-9 (omnibus) (2012)
A Series Of Unfortunate Events #1-4 Netflix Tie-in Box Set (omnibus) (2017)
All the Wrong Questions
1. Who Could That Be At This Hour? (2012)
aka Question 1
2. When Did You See Her Last? (2013)
3. Shouldn't You Be in School? (2012)
4. Why Is This Night Different from All Other Nights? (2015)
File Under: 13 Suspicious Incidents (2014)
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Novels
Poison for Breakfast (2019)
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Collections
Read Something Else (2019)
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Picture Books
Baby in the Manger (2007)
The Latke Who Wouldn't Stop Screaming (2007)
The Lump of Coal (2008)
13 Words (2010)
The Dark (2013)
29 Myths on the Swinster Pharmacy (2014)
Goldfish Ghost (2017)
The Bad Mood and the Stick (2017)
Swarm of Bees (2019)
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Chapter Books
The Composer Is Dead (2009)
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Non fiction
The Unauthorized Autobiography (2002)
Series of Unfortunate Events Calendar 2004 (2003)
Series of Unfortunate Events Calendar 2005 (2004)
The Blank Book (2004)
Behind the Scenes with Count Olaf (2004)
The Notorious Notations (2006)
The Beatrice Letters (2006)
The Puzzling Puzzles (2007)
Horseradish (2007)
Daniel Handler
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
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For the Uruguayan actor, see Daniel Hendler.
Daniel Handler
Handler at a party celebrating the publication of The End, on October 12, 2006
Handler at a party celebrating the publication of The End, on October 12, 2006
Born February 28, 1970 (age 52)
San Francisco, California, U.S.
Pen name Lemony Snicket
Occupation
Novelistscreenwritermusician
Period 1998–present
Genre Children's literature
Notable works A Series of Unfortunate Events, All the Wrong Questions, The Basic Eight, Watch Your Mouth, Adverbs
Spouse Lisa Brown[1]
Children 1
Signature
Daniel Handler (born February 28, 1970) is an American writer and musician. He is best known for his children's series A Series of Unfortunate Events and All the Wrong Questions, published under the pseudonym Lemony Snicket.[2] The former was adapted into a Nickelodeon film in 2004 as well as a Netflix series from 2017 to 2019.
Handler has published adult novels and a stage play under his real name, along with other children's books under the Snicket pseudonym. His first book, a satirical fiction piece titled The Basic Eight, was rejected by many publishers for its dark subject matter.
Handler has also played the accordion in several bands, and appeared on the album 69 Love Songs by indie pop band The Magnetic Fields.[3]
Contents
1 Life
2 Professional work
2.1 Books
2.1.1 Lemony Snicket
2.2 Music
2.3 Theater
2.4 Film and television
3 Controversies
3.1 Remark about race
3.2 Allegations of inappropriate sexual comments
4 List of works
4.1 Bibliography
4.2 Filmography
4.3 Discography
5 References
6 External links
Life
Handler was born in San Francisco, California, the son of Sandra Handler (née Walpole), a retired City College of San Francisco Dean; and Louis Handler, an accountant.[4] His father was a Jewish refugee from Germany. His mother is distantly related to British writer Hugh Walpole.[5][6] In terms of his early religious upbringing, Handler said, "I had a fairly standard Reform Jewish upbringing, I guess, in terms of the religious side of it."[7] He has a younger sister, Rebecca Handler. Handler has been a voracious reader since childhood, and his favorite author was William Maxwell.[8] He attended Commodore Sloat Elementary, Herbert Hoover Middle School, and Lowell High School. He graduated from Wesleyan University in 1992.[9] He was awarded the 1992 Connecticut Student Poet Prize, which he claims was earned by ripping off Elizabeth Bishop.[10] He is an alumnus of the San Francisco Boys Chorus.
He is married to Lisa Brown, an illustrator whom he met in college.[11][12] They have a son, Otto Handler, born in 2003.[13] They live in an Edwardian house in San Francisco.[14]
Handler revealed ambivalence toward his wealth and the expectations that it creates in the June 10, 2007 edition of The New York Times Magazine. He emphasized that he often donates money to charitable causes.[15] Handler and his wife have also donated $1,000,000 to Planned Parenthood,[16] and he has supported the Occupy Wall Street movement.[17][18]
Handler describes himself as a secular humanist and an atheist.[19][20][21] He describes himself as having developed a "feminist consciousness" while in college.[22]
Professional work
Books
Six of Handler's major works have been published under his name.[23] His first, The Basic Eight, was rejected by many publishers for its subject matter and tone (a dark view of a teenage girl's life). Handler claims that the novel was rejected 37 times before finally being published in 1999.[24][25]
Watch Your Mouth, his second novel, was completed before publication of The Basic Eight. It follows a more operatic theme, complete with stage directions and various acts. Watch Your Mouth's second half replaces the opera troupe with the form of a 12-step recovery program, linguistically undergone by the protagonist.[citation needed] In April 2005, Handler published Adverbs, a collection of short stories that he says are "about love." It was followed in January 2011 by Why We Broke Up, which received a 2012 Michael L. Printz honor award.[26] Handler's novel, We Are Pirates[27] is about a modern-age pirate who "wants to be an old-fashioned kind of pirate."[28] It was released on February 3, 2015.[29] His most recent novel, All the Dirty Parts, was published in May 2017[30] and "takes the blunt and constant presence of a male teen's sexuality and considers it with utmost seriousness".[23]
Handler served as a judge for the PEN/Phyllis Naylor Working Writer Fellowship in 2012.[31] In 2016, he founded Per Diem Press, a poetry competition for young writers.[32] He awarded $1,000 to three prize winners and published a chapbook with their work.[33]
Lemony Snicket
Main article: Lemony Snicket
Handler at a book signing in 2006
Handler wrote the bestselling series of thirteen novels A Series of Unfortunate Events under the Snicket pseudonym from 1999 to 2006.[34] The books concern three orphaned children who experience increasingly terrible events following the death of their parents and burning of their home (done by a man named Count Olaf and his troupe of associates), and Snicket acts as the narrator and biographer of the fictional orphans.[35] He has also narrated the audiobooks for three consecutive books in the series, before handing back the narrating job to the original narrator, Tim Curry.[citation needed]
From 2012 to 2015, Daniel Handler published the four-part series All the Wrong Questions under the name Lemony Snicket; the books explore Snicket's childhood and V.F.D. apprenticeship in the failing town Stain'd-by-the-Sea.[36][37][38] He has also written other children's novels under the Snicket name, including companion books to his two Snicket series,[39] and children's books such as The Composer is Dead[40] and The Latke Who Couldn't Stop Screaming.[41]
Music
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Handler playing and singing at a reading of The End in 2006
Handler was in two bands after college, the Edith Head Trio and Tzamboni, but it wasn't until 69 Love Songs, a three-album set by The Magnetic Fields, that his music attracted attention. He played accordion on several tracks in 69 Love Songs.[42][43][44] In the box set of the project, Handler provides a lengthy interview with band leader Stephin Merritt about the project, as well as conversations about each song. He also appears in the 2009 documentary Strange Powers, by Kerthy Fix and Gail O'Hara, about Merritt and the Magnetic Fields.
He has played accordion in several other Merritt projects, including music by the Magnetic Fields, The 6ths and The Gothic Archies, the last of which provided songs for the audiobooks in the A Series of Unfortunate Events children's book series. On October 10, 2006, an album by the Gothic Archies was released with all thirteen songs from the thirteen audiobooks in A Series of Unfortunate Events, along with two bonus songs.
In the audio commentary on the film adaptation Lemony Snicket's A Series of Unfortunate Events, Handler plays a song about how depressing it is to have leeches in a film.
He wrote the lyrics to the song "Radio," performed by One Ring Zero,[45] and the lyrics to "The Gibbons Girl" by Chris Ewen's The Hidden Variable.
Theater
In 2017, Handler wrote the play Imaginary Comforts, and The Story of The Ghost of The Dead Rabbit, which was performed at the Berkeley Repertory Theatre.[46] The satirical play follows the intertwining lives of three characters and is inspired by the grief Handler felt after the death of his father.[47]
Film and television
Handler has also had some success in film work. He produced the screenplay for Rick, which was based on the Verdi opera Rigoletto,[48] as well as Kill the Poor, which was based on the novel by Joel Rose.[49]
Handler was involved in the screenwriting process for the film Lemony Snicket's A Series of Unfortunate Events, but was ultimately removed from the project. After writing eight drafts of the script for Sonnenfeld,[50] he was replaced by Robert Gordon in May 2003.[51] Handler approved of the changes that were made to his original screenplay.[52] "I was offered credit on the film for screenwriting by the Writers Guild of America," Handler said, "but I didn't take it because I didn't write it. I felt like it would be an insult to the guy who did."[50]
Handler did submit a commentary track for the DVD version, alongside director Brad Silberling. In character as Lemony Snicket, he derides the Lemony Snicket in the film – played by Jude Law – as an impostor, as well as choosing to play the accordion and sing about leeches rather than pay attention to the film. At numerous times during the track, he shows great sympathy towards the Baudelaire children and implies that he is being held captive by the director in order to do the commentary.[citation needed]
Handler was a writer on the Netflix series A Series of Unfortunate Events, also contributing lyrics to the show's theme song, which varies each episode.[53][54] The show has won several accolades, including a Peabody Award in 2017 for excellence in Children's & Youth Programming.[55]
Controversies
Remark about race
At the National Book Awards ceremony in November 2014, Handler made a controversial remark after author Jacqueline Woodson was presented with an award for Brown Girl Dreaming. During the ceremony, Handler said that Woodson was allergic to watermelon, a reference to the racist watermelon stereotype. His comments were immediately criticized;[56][57] Handler apologized and donated $10,000 to We Need Diverse Books, and promised to match donations up to $100,000.[58] In a New York Times op-ed published shortly thereafter, "The Pain of the Watermelon Joke", Jacqueline Woodson explained that "in making light of that deep and troubled history" with his joke, Daniel Handler had come from a place of ignorance, but underscored the need for her mission to "give people a sense of this country's brilliant and brutal history, so no one ever thinks they can walk onto a stage one evening and laugh at another's too often painful past".[59][60][61]
Allegations of inappropriate sexual comments
In February 2018, Handler signed an online pledge to boycott conferences that do not have and enforce harassment policies. Underneath his comment, author Kate Messner recounted an incident in which Handler had made inappropriate jokes directed at her, such as "Are you a virgin, too?!" and "These children's book events always turn into orgies!"[62] This led to many other women accusing Handler of verbal sexual harassment at book conferences; among the public accusations are stories of Handler telling a woman he had just met to kiss a random stranger, making crass comments to a teenage girl and walking off without apology when confronted, referring to a stranger as a "hot blonde" and making a "uni-ball" double entendre in front of young children. The incident is part of the larger Me Too movement.[62][63]
Handler apologized for his behavior, saying that "It has never been my wish to insult any of my professional colleagues",[62] "my sense of humor has not been for everyone",[63] "as a survivor of sexual violence, I also know very well how words or behaviors that are harmless or even liberating to some people can be upsetting to others"[64] and "I am listening and willing to listen; I am learning and willing to learn."[62] Following this, students at Wesleyan University began to protest Handler's upcoming planned commencement speech at the university.[64] In March 2018, Wesleyan president Michael S. Roth announced that Handler had withdrawn from the appearance,[65] to be replaced by Anita Hill.[64]
List of works
Bibliography
Handler has published a variety of books under the name Lemony Snicket, especially thirteen books in the Unfortunate Events series. These books are listed under Lemony Snicket bibliography,
This section lists works published under as Daniel Handler:
The Basic Eight, Thomas Dunne (1998)
Watch Your Mouth St. Martin's Press/HarperCollins (2000)
How to Dress for Every Occasion, by the Pope (with illustrations by Sarah "Pinkie" Bennett, pseudonym for Lisa Brown) McSweeney's (2005)
Adverbs St. Martin's Press/HarperCollins (2006)
Why We Broke Up (2011)
We Are Pirates (2014)
All the Dirty Parts (2017)
Bottle Grove (2019)
Handler also edited or contributed to the following books:
Nonsense Novels by Stephen Leacock (Introduction) New York Review of Books Classics (2004)
Noisy Outlaws, Unfriendly Blobs and Some Other Things That Aren't as Scary, Maybe, Depending on How You Feel About Lost Lands, Stray Cellphones, Creatures from the Sky, Parents Who Disappear in Peru, a Man Named Lars Farf and One Other Story We Couldn't Quite Finish, So Maybe You Could Help Us Out by McSweeney's (Introduction and Unfinished story)
The Confidence-Man: His Masquerade by Herman Melville (Preface) Dalkey Archive Press (2007)
The Hour: A Cocktail Manifesto by Bernard DeVoto (Introduction) Republished by Tin House Books (2010)
"Half-Minute Horrors"
Filmography
Rick (2003)
Lemony Snicket's A Series of Unfortunate Events (2004)
Kill the Poor (2006)
A Series of Unfortunate Events - executive producer,[66] teleplay by, title theme and original song lyrics
Discography
69 Love Songs – The Magnetic Fields
Hyacinths and Thistles – The 6ths
The Tragic Treasury: Songs from A Series of Unfortunate Events – The Gothic Archies
Distortion – The Magnetic Fields
Nevermind the Context – Moth Wranglers
The Composer Is Dead – A collaboration with Nathaniel Stookey, premiered in San Francisco at Davies Symphony Hall on July 8, 2006
Realism – The Magnetic Fields
Barricade – Stars
Love at the Bottom of the Sea – The Magnetic Fields
BIOGRAPHY
Daniel Handler is the author of the novels The Basic Eight, Watch Your Mouth, Adverbs, We Are Pirates, and All the Dirty Parts. He also wrote with Maira Kalman, Why We Broke Up, which won the Michael J. Printz Honor. Additionally he worked with Kalman on the books Girls Standing on Lawns, Hurry Up and Wait, and Weather Weather. Handler also edited The Best Nonrequired Reading of 2014, which includes an introduction by Lemony Snicket. His most recent novel is Bottle Grove, about which Andrew Sean Greer wrote “What a funny, riveting, heartbreaking, wise and joyous read you have ahead of you!"
As Lemony Snicket, he has written the best-selling series All The Wrong Questions as well as A Series of Unfortunate Events, which has sold more than 60 million copies. A Series of Unfortunate Events was the basis of a 2004 feature film starring Jim Carrey and Meryl Streep, with Jude Law as Lemony Snicket. In 2017 Netflix produced a critically acclaimed, Peabody Award-winning, series based on A Series of Unfortunate Events, starring Neil Patrick Harris.
Snicket is also the creator of several picture books, including the Charlotte Zolotow Award-winning The Dark, illustrated by Jon Klassen. Other Snicket titles include the picture books 13 Words, in collaboration with Maira Kalman, 29 Myths on the Swinster Pharmacy, The Goldfish Ghost, both illustrated by Lisa Brown, The Bad Mood and the Stick with art by Matthew Forsythe, Swarm of Bees with Rilla Alexander, and two books for Christmas: The Lump of Coal and The Latke Who Couldn’t Stop Screaming: a Christmas Story. His other Snicket books include; Lemony Snicket: The Unauthorized Biography, The Beatrice Letters, Horseradish: Bitter Truths You Can’t Avoid, and Read Something Else: Collected & Dubious Wit & Wisdom of Lemony Snicket. His new Snicket book is Poison for Breakfast (Liveright, August 31, 2021).
Daniel Handler's criticism has appeared in The New York Times, Newsday, The San Francisco Chronicle, and The Believer, where he has a column exploring the Nobel Prize in Literature titled “What The Swedes Read.” He wrote the inaugural dispatch for the Wall Street Journal’s monthly feature on literary cocktails, “Message in a Bottle,” and the foreword for Tin House’s reissue of Bernard DeVoto’s The Hour. Handler has worked as a screenwriter on the adaptation of A Series Of Unfortunate Events, as well as the independent films Rick, based on Verdi’s opera, Rigoletto, and Kill The Poor. His play for adults, Imaginary Comforts, or The Story of the Ghost of the Dead Rabbit, premiered at Berkeley Rep in October 2017. He also wrote the script for You Shouldn't Be Here a multipart audio drama that takes place in automobiles.
In an interview with PEN American Center, he said, “My parents claim that when I was six years old I was asked what I wanted to be when I grew up, and my answer was that I wanted to be an old man who lived at the top of a mountain giving advice. If this story is true—and my parents are unreliable narrators—then there was a time in my life when I did not want to be a writer. But I do not remember such a time. I do not remember a time when I was not writing things down. I do not remember a time when I was reading without thinking of how I could poach the tricks of my favorite writers. All I have ever wanted was to be in the company of literature.”
Handler established, in partnership with the American Library Association, the Lemony Snicket Prize for Noble Librarians Faced With Adversity. He hosted the National Book Awards in November 2014 in New York.
Handler works extensively in music, serving as the adjunct accordionist for the music group The Magnetic Fields and collaborating with composer Nathaniel Stookey on a piece commissioned and recorded by the San Francisco Symphony, entitled "The Composer Is Dead", which has been performed all over the world and is now a book with CD. He is currently at work on a commission from the Royal Shakespeare Company on a stage musical in collaboration with songwriter Stephin Merritt.
He is a graduate of Wesleyan University, and lives in his native San Francisco with his wife, illustrator Lisa Brown, and their son.
Daniel Handler’s new novel for adults is the highly-anticipated We Are Pirates, which Bloomsbury published in February, and Neil Gaiman says is, “Honest and funny, dark and painful. We Are Pirates reads like the result of a nightmarish mating experiment between Joseph Heller and Captain Jack Sparrow. It's the strangest, most brilliant offering yet from the mind behind Lemony Snicket.”
Daniel Handler is also the author of the novels The Basic Eight, Watch Your Mouth, Adverbs, and, with Maira Kalman, Why We Broke Up, which won the Michael J. Printz Honor. He also worked with Kalman on the book Girls Standing on Lawns and Hurry Up and Wait (May 2015). Handler also edited The Best Nonrequired Reading of 2014, which includes an introduction by Lemony Snicket
As Lemony Snicket, he has written the best-selling series All The Wrong Questions as well as A Series of Unfortunate Events, which has sold more than 60 million copies, was the basis of a feature film starring Jim Carrey and Meryl Streep, with Jude Law as Lemony Snicket. In 2014, Netflix acquired rights to produce an original series based on A Series of Unfortunate Events.
Snicket is also the creator of several picture books, including the Charlotte Zolotow Award-winning The Dark, illustrated by Jon Klassen. His newest picture book is 29 Myths on the Swinster Pharmacy illustrated by Lisa Brown. Other Snicket titles include the picture book 13 Words, in collaboration with Maira Kalman, as well as Lemony Snicket: The Unauthorized Biography, The Beatrice Letters, Horseradish: Bitter Truths You Can’t Avoid, and two books for Christmas: The Lump of Coal and The Latke Who Couldn’t Stop Screaming: a Christmas Story. He is currently working on the final book in the All the Wrong Questions series; Why Is This Night Different from All Other Nights? (Sept. 2015).
His criticism has appeared in The New York Times, Newsday, The San Francisco Chronicle, and The Believer, where he is has a column exploring the Nobel Prize in Literature titled “What The Swedes Read.” He recently wrote the inaugural dispatch for the Wall Street Journal’s new monthly feature on literary cocktails, “Message in a Bottle,” and the foreword for Tin House’s reissue of Bernard DeVoto’s The Hour. Handler has worked as a screenwriter on the adaptation of A Series Of Unfortunate Events, as well as the independent films Rick, based on Verdi’s opera, Rigoletto, and Kill The Poor.
In a recent interview with PEN American Center, he said, “My parents claim that when I was six years old I was asked what I wanted to be when I grew up, and my answer was that I wanted to be an old man who lived at the top of a mountain giving advice. If this story is true—and my parents are unreliable narrators—then there was a time in my life when I did not want to be a writer. But I do not remember such a time. I do not remember a time when I was not writing things down. I do not remember a time when I was reading without thinking of how I could poach the tricks of my favorite writers. All I have ever wanted was to be in the company of literature.”
Last year, Handler established, in partnership with the American Library Association, the Lemony Snicket Prize for Noble Librarians Faced With Adversity, which was awarded in Las Vegas in June.
Handler works extensively in music, serving as the adjunct accordionist for the music group The Magnetic Fields and collaborating with composer Nathaniel Stookey on a piece commissioned and recorded by the San Francisco Symphony, entitled "The Composer Is Dead", which has been performed all over the world and is now a book with CD. He is currently at work on a commission from the Royal Shakespeare Company on a stage musical in collaboration with songwriter Stephin Merritt.
He is a graduate of Wesleyan University, and lives in his native San Francisco with his wife, illustrator Lisa Brown, and their son.
Lemony Snicket author Daniel Handler on accusations of racism and sexism: ‘Um, it’s hard to navigate’
The children’s author tells Nick Duerden about his new novel, navigating London without a phone and how he copes with controversy
Daniel 'Lemony Snicket' Handler at the LA Times Festival Of Books (Photo: by Imeh Akpanudosen/Getty Images for LA Times)
Daniel ‘Lemony Snicket’ Handler at the LA Times Festival Of Books (Photo: Imeh Akpanudosen/Getty)
author avatar image
By Nick Duerden
December 20, 2019 2:25 pm(Updated October 14, 2020 5:07 pm)
Daniel Handler steps into the cafe where we are meeting, clutching a bottle of water, a paperback book and a small notepad and pen. When he sits, he does so with a sigh. The 49-year-old American has been in London for almost a week, and is trying to navigate his way round town without relying on his phone. “So I’m lucky to be here at all,” he says.
Though he goes unnoticed in the cafe, Handler is something of a megastar in the world of books, particularly children’s. His Lemony Snicket titles have sold 70 million copies, been made into a 2004 film starring Jim Carrey, and adapted for Netflix. Occasionally, he steps out of children’s fiction to write more grown-up fare – his latest adult book, Bottle Grove, is out this week – and admits to still feeling bewildered at the breadth of his literary success.
Initially, he thought the idea of a children’s series revolving around three young people who lose their parents to a house fire and end up in the clutches of an evil man as a little too dark for mass appeal, but the Snicket books – all 13 of them – possessed so much wit and invention that they sold, and kept selling. “The cessation of financial worry is a pretty lovely thing to be gifted,” he says.
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Bottle Grove is very different. It focuses on two marriages in a San Francisco gripped with tech fever, and much of the narrative hangs on a vicar who, the narrator announces early on, “is not a vicar”. He might be a fox, or some kind of shape-shifter; it’s never entirely clear. But it is, Handler suggests, about the state of marriage, and what that union means in the modern era. Handler himself has been married for 20 years.
Author Daniel Handler
Author Daniel Handler: ‘Literature has always been a solace to me’
“Many books end with a wedding, but weddings are absolutely not the end of a relationship,” he laughs.
“They’re just the beginning, and I thought that would be interesting to explore. And at the risk of sounding insufferable, literature is an attempt to put the ineffable down on paper.”
Though he normally reads books for inspiration, this time he found an unlikely source: the 1984 Prince and the Revolution album Purple Rain. “It’s one of the very strangest popular records, and has all these peculiarities that sound as if Prince really didn’t know what he was doing. I liked that,” says Handler. “So I vaguely used the pace of its nine songs to set out my nine chapters. I’ve never done that before.”
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With its deliberately confusing storyline and tricksy wordplay (“The place would be nice if it were a nicer place”), Bottle Grove has received mixed reviews in the US, but Handler hasn’t read them. He has spent several years giving the press – and social media – a wide berth, with good reason.
Bottle Grove by Daniel Handler Courtesy: Bloomsbury)
Bottle Grove by Daniel Handler
In 2014, he was accused of racism after suggesting that an African American YA novelist didn’t like watermelon and then, last year, he was accused of making inappropriate sexual comments to several female children’s authors. He apologised for both, but the fallout still hangs heavy. His shoulders slump when the subject comes up now. “It’s difficult to talk about,” he sighs.
But were the accusations justified? “Um, it’s hard to navigate,” he says. “Being taken to task for not understanding the effects of something I’ve said, and to see some extremely stressful difficulties arrive as a result…” He haltingly explains that his wife and 16-year-old son still regularly receive abuse because of it, and he hates that they are targeted. “An effort to encourage people to take responsibility for what they said might also extend to people who are engaging in such things,” he says.
Handler would rather talk about the books. “Literature,” he says, “has always been a solace to me.”
‘Bottle Grove’ by Daniel Handler (£18.99, Bloomsbury) is out now
‘A Series of Unfortunate Events’ Daniel Handler, aka Lemony Snicket, has ‘Poison for Breakfast’
SAN FRANCISCO, CALIFORNIA – May 04: “A Series of Unfortunate Events” author Daniel Handler, known by the pseudonym Lemony Snicket, poses for a portrait at his home on Tuesday, May 4, 2021, in San Francisco, Calif. (Dai Sugano/Bay Area News Group)
SAN FRANCISCO, CALIFORNIA – May 04: “A Series of Unfortunate Events” author Daniel Handler, known by the pseudonym Lemony Snicket, poses for a portrait at his home on Tuesday, May 4, 2021, in San Francisco, Calif. (Dai Sugano/Bay Area News Group)
By SAMANTHA DUNN | sdunn@scng.com | Orange County Register
PUBLISHED: June 23, 2021 at 12:49 p.m. | UPDATED: June 23, 2021 at 1:58 p.m.
“This book is about bewilderment,” Lemony Snicket writes in the first page of “Poison for Breakfast,” his new, stand-alone adventure to be published Aug. 31. The slim volume, geared for young readers and adults alike, offers a dive into creativity, philosophy, the writing life and life – and death – in general. (And there might or might not be a crime in it.)
What it is not is another installment of Snicket’s beloved children’s novels, “A Series of Unfortunate Events,” about the tragic Baudelaire orphans that has so far been translated into more than 40 languages and spawned a television series on Netflix, a feature film and a merchandising empire. Nor is it part of the prequel to that series, “All the Wrong Questions.”
And it is most certainly not one of the novels by the writer Daniel Handler (which include “Why We Broke Up” and “We Are Pirates”), even though Handler is Snicket and Snicket is Handler. Although Snicket is not married to book illustrator Lisa Brown and does not have a son named Otto, which Handler is and does.
Bewildered yet? Good. That’s just where you should be, according to Handler. At least I think that’s what he is saying. Here’s a telephone conversation with the author (only slightly edited for clarity). Judge for yourself.
Hello, can I speak to Daniel? I mean Mr. Handler –
Hello, hi. It’s Daniel.
Hey, wow. I was expecting some fancy assistant to answer and an awkward process of them getting you connected. But you just picked up.
Yeah, that’s right. You’ve reached me directly in my hovercraft.
Just like Tony Stark! Listen, I have to start this conversation by admitting something very personal. I have a son who’s 12 years old. He was not at all turned on by school, I mean not interested in anything at all, until fifth grade, when his language arts teacher introduced him to “The Reptile Room,” his first Lemony Snicket book. It totally flipped the switch for my son in terms of school, and turned him on to reading.
Well, that is so lovely to hear. I think I have to credit the teacher more than I get to credit me, but I’m glad that your son found a way in.
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He’s read all of “The Unfortunate Events” series, saw the movie and watched the show on Netflix. When I told him I was talking to you today, he begged me to stay home from school so he could eavesdrop.
[Laughs] I’m not sure that’s a sign of academic success, but I’ll take it.
Yeah, I don’t know that he’s going to be an academic wunderkind, but because of your stories he’s definitely a reader, so thank you.
Well, you’re quite welcome. That’s very sweet of you to tell me.
Actually, his teacher, Miss Van Hoogmeod – who sounds like a character in one of your books – said that she’s found that a lot of neurodivergent children — my son has an ADHD diagnosis – really resonate with your books. Has anyone told you that?
They have, yeah. I have a son and I feel like I have a little bit of a window, retroactively, into what that is. It was not something that I had any understanding of when I was writing the books.
I was going to say, didn’t your son come along after you had started the series?
Way, way, way after, and he was very scared of the books for a long time. And I think also he just felt, you know, he just felt a little awkward about it. But then he actually really loved the other series, “All the Wrong Questions,” and that led him back to “A Series of Unfortunate Events.”
I think he’s one of the few people who went that way. But, I think that a narrator kind of stopping and explaining things is often a real kind of guardrail for people who are challenged by kind of ordinary linear storytelling.
It’s interesting because the interruptions and explanations in Lemony Snicket books are very unreliable, but I think there’s something about the “Can we stop the action here and go over something?” Just the structure of that, I think, is quite comforting to that kind of brain.
My son was that way for a lot of things. I’m so grateful for the kind of technology that allows you to have a movie in your home and stop it, you know? Because we’d just pause and say, like, “Okay. Remember what’s going on here? They’re in love and there’s a villain.”
Funny you mention that. My son had to write an essay analyzing a book, and of course he picked one from “Unfortunate Events.” He was writing about how that is one of his favorite techniques in all your books, how you give the definition and the context for words.
I thought I would share that just because that’s been my understanding. I mean, my son is 17 now so it’s a different thing, but even when he was younger I learned that the best thing to do, if he had a busy day, was to stop and say, “Okay, we’re having lunch now, remember, and then after lunch we’re going to do this thing or that thing.” He just needed to take a breath and think about what had just happened, what was happening and what was going to happen.
Yes, exactly. Anyway, you’ve often said how much you enjoy writing in libraries. But in the pandemic, libraries were closed. How did you manage?
Yeah, I mean, between libraries and cafés, which is how I write most of the time, it was a little tough. This is a little embarrassing, but I would pack up my stuff in my office. I would zip up my notebook in my little bag and I would walk across my house, which normally I wouldn’t stop to explain, but because you thought there might be a long network of assistants, I’ll just tell you that my house is plenty big, and I have no complaints, but it is not a vast estate that I’m walking across. It’s just a Victorian house in San Francisco. And I would walk across to our breakfast table and I would sit down and I would put on music and I would kind of try to create the illusion that I had gone someplace, that I commuted. It wasn’t super successful.
My son was obviously home from school, and my wife is an illustrator, but her studio is within walking distance of the house and she doesn’t share it with anyone, so she got to get away a lot. But my son would often be working right next to me. And I think that one of the pleasures of working in a library or a café is that someone working alongside you keeps you honest.
During the pandemic, I’d get on Google Hangouts with my writer friends, and we wouldn’t say anything. We’d just write, but it helped to know the others were there, working.
When I was running the writers’ room for the Netflix show, we spent a couple of weeks up here – I ran in my dining room, basically. But then everybody got sent home and all day long we would keep a chat open; I actually don’t remember what platform it was on because I’m not very technological.
It was a weird thing – the first couple of days, I would say things like, “I’ll be right back, I’m just making tea.” Until finally the writers had to say, “You don’t have to say that. We don’t see you and we don’t care that you’re getting up from the table.” But yeah, we would just kind of, you know, ask each other questions or run a line of dialogue by one another. That was really nice.
I think that’s one of the things that I’m going to hopefully maintain post-pandemic. There was something really nice about that connection.
Yeah. I’ve had a weekly gathering with a bunch of writers on Zoom just to kind of talk about literature. A bunch of them are nearby, but a bunch of them aren’t, and we’re trying to figure out how long we can go on meeting because we love meeting, but we are beginning to feel self-conscious about the fact that it’s no longer a necessary thing, necessarily.
I had my first dinner party last week, and it went really well. I thought it might be awkward. We had one scheduled last year just when things were beginning to look strange. We’d sent out this email that said, “We’re still comfortable having everybody over at the house,” and then, like, three days later we said, “Never mind, everybody stay home.” And so we invited those same people last weekend, and it went really well, I’m happy to say.
Was there hugging involved?
I mean, everybody was fully vaccinated, so there was, you know, the hugging and the sipping of cocktails. The only thing that people didn’t want to do, which was funny, was that we said, “Maybe we’ll start before sunset and have cocktails in the garden,” and everyone said, “Oh, please don’t. We’re so happy to be inside the house. Please don’t make us stand out in the yard as we’ve been doing for a year.” And so, we said, okay, fine.
Your new book, “Poison for Breakfast,” has one of my favorite lines about writing in the entire world: “…the history of literature is the history of bewilderment. Writers all over the world and all across history have been bewildered by the world and all the things in it they cannot imagine, which is why they are – we are – writing them down, to try and imagine them.” The pandemic was a bewildering time. Is “Poison for Breakfast” a product of the pandemic?
It was not. There were some last little edits that happened during the pandemic, but it was finished before anyone had any grasp that it could happen. I guess I am a little embarrassed to say that I exist in a state of bewilderment. Pandemic or no pandemic, I never have any idea what’s going on.
You talk about bewilderment a lot. What is that about? Where does that come from?
Well, I think there’s kind of a brainy answer, and kind of an emotional answer.
The brainy answer is that I was asked to write something about fairy tales and their appeal for young people. The usual explanation, the Joseph Campbell “Hero’s Journey,” never really made any sense to me.
I think that the reason why tales like that appeal to children is that they often have a premise that is completely inexplicable, and that helps young people who are learning the world, think about the world. As in, “Once upon a time there was a king, and he had a daughter and she never laughed, and so he had a contest and whoever could make her laugh got to marry her.” Everything about that is crazy, right?
When you’re young, the whole world has that kind of thing, like, “I’m going to strap you into a plastic seat and we’re going to get into a machine that has wheels going around, and then we’re going to drive and we’re going to get you out of the seat. And, here’s Grandma, an old woman you don’t know!” It’s exhausting being a child – that’s why they’re sleeping so much, hopefully.
I think that when they start hearing stories that are kind of bananas, they think, “Oh this is helping me, I’m learning that even though the world is bananas, there are things you can do.” So that’s how I came to it intellectually.
But I just think in general when I find something strange or I don’t understand something that’s going on that, it’s useful to remind myself that is probably the truest understanding of the world, that it’s good to sit with confusion and bewilderment, and think, I’m confused because the world is confusing.
It doesn’t mean to give up or anything like that. It just means that deciding that the goal should be a perfect understanding of the world is not going to get you anywhere. Instead, sit with the idea that you have no idea what’s going on.
After my favorite quote in the book, you write on the next page this line: “Nobody knows anything at all, we have no idea what is happening. We are all bewildered.” That is, I think, what you’re speaking to right now.
Yeah, I think so. A lot of this book came out of being a parent, because parenting is a constant pop quiz on the world. Your child is constantly saying, “What is this? What is this? What is this?” When my son was really young, I found myself saying, “It’s a mystery,” all the time. I’m not going to reach for a handy sentence to explain this whether it was a tiny thing or a large thing, and particularly if I didn’t know because it was an unknowable thing.
The book also came about because when my son was younger, what he liked to read most was nonfiction. It was very funny because I write the kinds of books I write and my wife is an illustrator of picture books and a maker of graphic novels and this is, like, the one category of children’s literature that we did not do at all. Of course, that would be the one our son would like.
And then so much of the nonfiction offered to children is this kind of very instructional material. You know, it’s either Harriet Tubman and or the lizards of North America. Now, God bless Harriet Tubman, and God bless the lizards of North America, of course, but I think that the kind of nonfiction that so many adults read, that is kind of a personal take on a question, is really not made for children. It’s not entirely absent but it’s not there very much.
So, just between thinking about that I am unable to offer any explanation to anything, but also that there is a drive, at least among some young people, to read something that was exploring the actual world, that’s kind of where this book came from.
You write under the pen name Lemony Snicket and you write as Daniel Handler. When do you know whether a project is for Daniel or Lemony? How is that decided?
That’s never been an issue for me, honestly. Maybe someday it will be confusing to me, but it always seems perfectly clear to me. And although there was much talk on the business end, not really on my end of things, but on the publishing and marketing end, about whether this book is for adults or for children. There was not a question about whether it was by Lemony Snicket or by me. I just know it when I see it. I don’t have a list of characteristics for it, or kind of a boundary line, but it’s never a problem for me. I know pretty quickly what hat I’m wearing.
Speaking of writing, “Poison for Breakfast” is really a lovely meditation on writing and the writing process. I’m curious if you have indulged in the literature about writing – I’m thinking of things like Anne Lamott’s “Bird by Bird” or Stephen King’s “On Writing.” Is there a book you yourself have turned to?
The short answer, which I apologize if it sounds kind of cute, is that I think I learned the most about writing by reading the writers that I loved. What they wrote is what taught me the most. And even when some of my favorite writers have essays or something about writing, I might enjoy them just for kind of commiseration, but I don’t think that they’ve really taught me anything. Here and there, there’ll be some tiny piece of advice hidden someplace. I think in some ways “Poison for Breakfast” is kind of an answer to books about writing that irritate me, that pretend that there are rules that everyone knows, whereas in fact, no one knows anything.
Yes! As you say in the book, there are three rules to writing, but nobody knows what the third one is. I wanted to ask about San Francisco. What I mean is San Francisco plays a part in some of your books – I’m thinking of “Bottle Grove” in particular – but the aesthetic of San Francisco is always kind of with you, in your works. Do you think that’s part of your DNA as a writer, where you’re writing from?
I think it can’t help but be in many ways. I really, really grew up here. I didn’t grow up anywhere else. And I have a pretty hysterical love for the city. I’m often saying things like, “Oh you can’t get this anywhere but San Francisco!” And someone will say, “That’s wrong. That’s green tea and it’s actually from Japan and you can get it anywhere.”
But I think there’s something about the physicality of the city, the terrain and the weather. And then also it’s kind of its…spirit, for lack of a less corny term. I think I grew up in a city with a really strong political base. I think I grew up in a city in which many different cultures and subcultures were bumping up against one another and all trying their best. I grew up in a city that was very open about love and sexuality.
And yeah, I think that’s all very, very much part of who I am and so it must be very much a part of why I write. I think because I look like a square white guy and am sometimes dressed up, I think there’s often an assumption that the set of values I’m holding are different from the ones I’m actually holding.
Like those beautiful Victorians in San Francisco. Pretty straight-laced on the outside, but what’s behind the door… . I want to ask about actually seeing your work on screen and having it adapted. Is it still your work when you see it translated? What is your relationship with your work once it goes off the page?
The big difference is that for something, particularly for something that is as enormously and lavishly done as in the Snicket media, it’s very collaborative. It helps to be collaborative, you know? I mean, not just the writing of the screenplays, but there’s people acting out words and there are people building the sets and there are people composing the music and playing the music and recording the music – every little piece of it is immensely collaborative, and so the whole thing is very collaborative.
I’m always really interested to see what people are doing. It was really nice to go to the set of Netflix and talk with some of the costume designers just about how happy they were to get to make things up. You know? One of them said, I’ve done so many cop shows. I’m so tired of sitting in a room and talking about what sweater a famous person is going to wear, just the idea that now I get to build these ridiculous things is what I’ve always wanted to do. And that kind of makes me happier than anything involved with me about it. I just think, oh my God, here’s an opportunity for this person who loves to make costumes to make something ridiculous, to make exactly what they want to make. That’s really fun for me.
I was tempted to give the answer, “No, it’s not my work anymore,” but that sounds more negative about it than I feel. What I feel is I love to see people run with things, and who have thought a lot about what the source material is and take it from there. And some people are more positive than others, and then sometimes the results are not as lovely as I would hope for, but I just think watching people make hay with it is the most interesting part for me.
Yes, it becomes an avenue for other people’s creativity. Just a side note – I’m going through the film option of one of my own books, and it’s kind of bewildering, to use your word. You sit in a room and invent things by yourself and nobody really cares. And then suddenly five people, six people, 10 people, are talking about your work in a different way.
Well, congratulations! Yeah, you should enjoy this part – the part where it’s all possibility is great. Right now, there’s a possibility it will be the greatest movie ever made. It will never be as good as it is right now.
Ha! I will take that note and hold it close. Just one more question: So, if you had to assign people something to read over the summer, what would you want them to be reading?
Oh my goodness. If I had to assign … I mean, one of my favorite things to do is to hook people up with books like I’m a matchmaker. And as with a matchmaker, it’s very specific. A matchmaker wouldn’t ever say, like, “Everybody ought to go with that guy.” So it’s kind of hard to think of a book that I think everyone will love.
Well, what are you reading now?
Hmm … I would say right now some books that are important to me are two books by a poet named Dorothea Lasky. She is the author of several books, but there’s a book of her poems called “Rome” that I have read before and I’m rereading. And then she has another book – and maybe this is actually an answer to a prior question – about poetry and writing poetry, it’s a tiny little book called “Animal.” I’ve had that by my side and I find it really gorgeous to read.
If I were to translate your question to a more general recommendation, it would be that I think everyone ought to have a book of poetry close to them. Poetry can be intimidating if you don’t read it normally and you think, “I have no idea who to read.” So, I always tell people when they ask me this question – which is not as often as I want them to ask me, I want them to ask me all the time – I tell them to start with Poetry Magazine, which I think is often very marvelous. They also have an app and other people have an app that will, like, send you a poem on your phone every day if you want to start there. That’s nice.
But there are a million poets I’d recommend. I put a poem just about every day up on Instagram [@authordanielhandler] by someone, so you can always find something there.
I think poetry is a great way to interact with your own brain and your own consciousness. And so, I’m always reading a book of poetry alongside whatever novel or whatever else I might be reading. I’m a big proselytizer of that. I would encourage people, as we get to go out, to go to a library or go to a bookstore – which will be so exciting to be in again – and to just grab a book of poetry, almost impulsively. They’re pretty little. They’re pretty cheap. Keep it alongside whatever else you’re reading.
I was just doing my first work with other people in a long time, and I took a book of poetry with me because when we took a break it was so much better to read one or two poems than to check my email. When you’re waiting outside for your kid, when you’re in line at the grocery store, to just have a little moment with a poem is going to be a powerful thing. I think that this summer is still going to be so fraught and so nerve-wracking, so that’s what I’d recommend.
I have one recommendation for you. If you haven’t read Amy Gerstler’s “Index of Women,” do.
Everybody’s crazy about it and I have purchased it, but I have not yet cracked it open. But I’m so glad you said that because you’re literally like the 28th person who has told me to read it.
EXCLUSIVE Interview with Daniel Handler A.K.A Lemony Snicket
Author of A Series of Unfortunate Events, Daniel Handler, has recently published three collections of poetry through his once-off, independent publishing company Per Diem Press. The idea for the press came about as a result of the per diem payments accumulated by Handler while on the set of the Netflix adaptation of A Series of Unfortunate Events. Handler did not spend the money he was given per day to cover expenses while on set, and so he decided to use what came to a significant amount, in order to publish an unknown poet. The competition ran last year, and …
Bookstr Contributor – October 15th, 2018
Book Culture
daniel handler
Author of A Series of Unfortunate Events, Daniel Handler, has recently published three collections of poetry through his once-off, independent publishing company Per Diem Press. The idea for the press came about as a result of the per diem payments accumulated by Handler while on the set of the Netflix adaptation of A Series of Unfortunate Events. Handler did not spend the money he was given per day to cover expenses while on set, and so he decided to use what came to a significant amount, in order to publish an unknown poet.
The competition ran last year, and received no less than 1,200 entries, the standard of which was so high that Handler was unable to select just one winner. Last month, the three winning chapbooks, jurassic desire by Rohan Chhetri, first one thing, then the other by Elizabeth Clark Wessel, and ‘”fish walking” & other bedtime stories for my wife’ by Anissa White, were published.
We caught up with Daniel Handler to talk about Per Diem Press, his admiration for the winning authors, the best advice he’s ever received and more…
You’re famous for your novels, especially A Series of Unfortunate Events. With Per Diem Press, what made you choose to publish poetry over prose?
I started out writing poetry, and even since floating over to prose, carry a mad, blazing candle for verse and its practioners. Some chapbooks seemed the way to go.
Initially, the intention was to publish a chapbook by a single poet, but this changed to three, Rohan Chhetri, Arisa White and Elizabeth Clarke Wessel. What made you change your mind?
I loved these three chapbooks too much to choose just one.
What about these poets really stood out to you?
Chhetri’s poems are like tiny sharp pinholes exposing a bright strobe of a world just under the one we’re wandering around. Wessel’s give me more the feeling of the first time you hear a pop song so good that the chorus seems inevitable even before you hear it, so you’re already singing along. And the work of Arisa White is like a new species of turtle first recorded when it appeared on your breakfast table, so now the whole day is new and strange.
per diem
How long did it take you to read all 1,200 entries?
Forever. I would take three or four with me and sit in a cafe, then come home and read a few more. But if you read too many chapbooks in a row you get very wiggy. One has to pace oneself.
Have you thought about publishing a collection of your own poetry?
To the great relief of the nation I will publicly state that the little poetry of mine extant is not enough to fill a book, let alone good enough to publish.
Per Diem Press came about as a result of the expense money you were given while on the set of the Netflix adaptation of A Series of Unfortunate Events. How did you find the experience of watching your work come to life?
Very strange. I spent a long time in a few rooms, including my own dining room, working with other people through laughter and argument to adapt my own work, and then stood in a few enormous cavernous warehouses in which hundreds of people were hurrying about and I was utterly extraneous.
Did you intentionally write the Series of Unfortunate Events to show children that just because someone is an adult, does not necessarily mean they are trustworthy?
Children know this already.
Which Baudelaire child would you say you are most like?
Each of them are far more admirable and capable than I am, but I do confess I identify a little bit with Lemony Snicket.
Are there any other books you have written that you would like to see adapted?
Any of them would be interesting, I think, and occasionally one of the many adaptations in progress threatens to actually exist.
You’re known for your unique writer’s voice. Is this something you worked on developing over time, or something that has always come naturally to you?
I try not to think about such things. An interesting story, a striking method of telling it – these are the best one can hope for, as a reader or a writer.
Per Diem Press was a really great example of a successful author using their platform to help and elevate other writers. Did you receive any advice or votes of confidence early in your career from established authors that helped or encouraged you?
My mentor Kit Reed was endlessly encouraging while also being scrupulously honest, but most of my literary advice prior to being published came from imaginary conversations with authors I admired.
What’s the best advice you’ve ever received, on writing or otherwise?
“Just write it down then.”
What’s the best advice you could give?
“Don’t envy people you don’t admire.”
Handler, Daniel BOTTLE GROVE Bloomsbury (Adult Fiction) $27.00 8, 27 ISBN: 978-1-63286-427-7
Consumed by their baser natures, two San Francisco couples struggle to find happiness within the confines of marriage and immense wealth.
Martin Icke, a down-on-his-luck barman, mixes bespoke cocktails at the wedding of Rachel, an anxious socialite about to marry Ben Nickels, a kindly tech underling. Midswizzle, Martin falls for Padgett, a poor-little-rich-girl with an ill-concealed substance abuse problem moonlighting as a waitress. The wedding is disrupted by the trickster wiles of Reynard, a hedonistic spirit that haunts the would-be monogamists of the book, reminding them of their animalistic desires. Affairs, animal experiments, potential kidnappings, and thefts ensue. In particular, Padgett and Martin concoct a scheme to put Padgett in the way of the Vic, a tech scion a la Zuckerberg and Jobs who has invented software that tracks your every move and stores it in "the Trail." If only Padgett can capture the Vic's interest, perhaps she can redistribute the immense wealth of Silicon Valley back into the pockets of a man like Martin. Handler (All the Dirty Parts, 2017, etc.) draws on fables like "Reynard the Fox" to comment on the inhumanity of his characters and tips his hat to noir films like Rebecca to pluck at the threads of the marriage plot. Instead of giving readers new ways to think about marriage or cruelty, however, these literary allusions only muddy the waters in a novel overly interested in solipsistic caricature and jagged, cynical pronouncements. Marriage is both a "big con" and "a civilizing influence." Gentrification is the "prowling," beastly instinct of the tech bro. Characters quip endlessly, repeating the same tiresome steps in Handler's wordplay shuffles. "You're icky, Icke," Padgett tells Martin at some point. Reynard's appearance is "not ghastly, just ghostly." A drunkard watches a bar "shimmer as if in a breezy breeze." While the brutal inhumanities of startup culture are ripe for satire and criticism, this novel fails to deliver even a glancing blow.
A clunky, garbled novel about marriage, greed, and deception in Silicon Valley at the height of the tech boom.
Copyright: COPYRIGHT 2019 Kirkus Media LLC
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"Handler, Daniel: BOTTLE GROVE." Kirkus Reviews, 15 Aug. 2019. Gale General OneFile, link.gale.com/apps/doc/A596269864/ITOF?u=schlager&sid=bookmark-ITOF&xid=96d1c521. Accessed 14 Mar. 2022.
Bottle Grove
Daniel Handler. Bloomsbury, $27 (224p) ISBN 978-1-63286-427-7
Handler's latest novel for adults (following All the Dirty Parts) is a hilarious tale about unlikely couples set during the San Francisco dot-com explosion. Martin is a 30-year-old co-owner of Bottle Grove bar when he meets Padgett, a woman with a trust fund, sharp wit, and a drinking problem, while they're both working a wedding for Rachel and Ben, and soon become a couple. The wedding ends with a bang when the significant other of Reynard, who is pretending to be a vicar, confronts Reynard about his infidelity and Reynard crashes his car trying to escape her. After the wedding, Martin and his business partner need cash to keep their bar open, and Martin hatches a plan that involves Padgett meeting tech tycoon Vic and enchanting him to get money out of him. Padgett, not in on the scheme, realizes what Martin's doing after becoming involved with Vic, a complicated and famous man with plenty of secrets. Meanwhile, Rachel and Ben are still married, but she's feeling restless and unsettled while Reynard lurks around her, biding his time to seduce her. Handler cleverly exposes the sinister sides of his protagonists as they clamor for what they think they deserve. Readers expecting Handler's trademark humor and bite won't be disappointed. (Aug.)
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"Bottle Grove." Publishers Weekly, vol. 266, no. 22, 3 June 2019, p. 35. Gale General OneFile, link.gale.com/apps/doc/A588990675/ITOF?u=schlager&sid=bookmark-ITOF&xid=48300a63. Accessed 14 Mar. 2022.
Swarm of Bees by Lemony Snicket; illus. by Rilla Alexander Preschool, Primary Little, Brown 48 pp. 4/19 978-0-316-39282-2 $17.99 e-book ed. 978-0-316-39279-2 $9.99
On the front endpapers, an angry-looking little boy is poised to throw a tomato at a beehive; on the title page, the bees (represented in aggregate in the stylized rubber-stamp-and-ink art as scores of dots of black and yellow) swarm out. The distressed offstage narrator addresses the bees ("Swarm of bees! Swarm of bees! ... You are so angry! What will you do?") and follows the bees through the town, attempting to dissuade them from stinging people. Meanwhile, the boy proceeds on his way, pulling his wagon full of tomatoes, and begins to throw tomatoes at everyone the bees had left alone. The narrator is upset; the townspeople are upset; the bees continue to swarm--and, now chased by everyone at whom he threw tomatoes, the boy runs for home. The spread that depicts this turn of events is one to linger over, as it pulls back to show the whole town, the bees' path, the line of people chasing the boy, and the boy running--and introduces two crucial characters. We see a beekeeper, who subsequently captures the swarm of bees, now calm and ready to return to the hive; and we see the boy's adult caretaker (a chef), who gives him a hug. "It can feel good to be angry. It can feel better to stop." The book ends with the whole group enjoying a feast of pasta (with tomato sauce, of course) and, finally, with the boy cleaning up his mess. The cumulative-mischief/ chase/feast plot recalls that of Vipont and Briggs's classic Elephant and the Bad Baby (rev. 6/70)--but with a message about anger. It's okay to feel like a swarm of bees sometimes as long as you express your anger less destructively; and sometimes you need a little help to let it go. MARTHA V. PARRAVANO
Copyright: COPYRIGHT 2019 A wholly owned subsidiary of Media Sources, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
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Parravano, Martha V. "Swarm of Bees." The Horn Book Magazine, vol. 95, no. 2, Mar.-Apr. 2019, p. 69. Gale General OneFile, link.gale.com/apps/doc/A587973650/ITOF?u=schlager&sid=bookmark-ITOF&xid=c27b6e15. Accessed 14 Mar. 2022.
Snicket, Lemony and Alexander, Rilla
Swarm of Bees
Andersen, 2019, pp48, [pounds sterling]12.99 978 1 78344 912 5
A naughty, and presumably angry, little person throws tomatoes from his cart at a bee's nest. A swarm of angry bees emerge. Thus begins a walk passing a number of people and creatures who are ripe for 'stinging'. The accompanying text offers several very good reasons why the bees should not sting them. The sailor is coming home to hug his mother. There is a hairdresser, a bricklayer and on and on... The little child with his truck, however, begins to throw his tomatoes and the people become angry too. They chase the child. Where is this story going? The block print style of illustration, reminiscent of Swedish fabric design (it is true that the Illustrator admits the influence) is limited to a four colourway of green, blue, red and yellow and progresses the story. The bees, simply printed dots of black, grey and yellow swarm in various densities across each page denoting the humming angriness that is building.
At last the bees are recaptured by the beekeeper. They enter a dark sack and at once feel cosy, calm, warm and secure. They know they are safe and will soon be home. Simultaneously, the little person finds a comforting parent and a double page spread shows them sharing a warm cuddly hug. The message is explicitly stated: 'It can feel good to be angry. It can feel even better to stop'
An unusual and challenging approach to storytelling with purpose but one which is attractive as a straight picture book and would be a positive addition to any collection for tackling anger and behaviour management.
Copyright: COPYRIGHT 2019 The School Library Association
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Sims, Janet. "Swarm of Bees." School Librarian, vol. 67, no. 4, winter 2019, p. 224. Gale General OneFile, link.gale.com/apps/doc/A609890741/ITOF?u=schlager&sid=bookmark-ITOF&xid=1eb81abe. Accessed 14 Mar. 2022.
Byline: Ian Shapira
Bottle Grove
By Daniel Handler
Bloomsbury. 240 pp. $26
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Since the early 2000s, the tech boom has rewarded writers with a wealth of material - a literary hard drive generously crammed with terabytes of contemptible buzzword-spewing Zuck clones and the products they invented to supposedly make the world better. Over and over, journalists and authors have pumped out viral articles and literary novels skewering Silicon Valley's characters and their impact on San Francisco and the world at large.
The fiction industry, in particular, must love these satires, because it keeps churning them out, with so many of them teeming with stand-ins for Google, Apple or Facebook, and moguls that sound and look like space-crazed Jeff Bezos or the late Steve Jobs. (Bezos owns The Washington Post.) Several of these authors live or have lived in Northern California - some have worked in the industry - and they leverage their experience to trash the Valley's gross wealth, discriminatory internal cultures and zealous faith in data.
The latest entrant into the genre is "Bottle Grove" by San Francisco native and resident Daniel Handler, otherwise known as Lemony Snicket, the pseudonymous author of the tragicomic best-selling children's books "A Series of Unfortunate Events."
"Bottle Grove," set during a Bay Area tech surge, chronicles the first few years of two marriages - one between tech bro Ben Nickels and his wife, Rachel, a nonprofit worker; the second between digital titan Victor de Winter, aka "the Vic," and Padgett Bottle, the ne'er-do-well of a patrician San Francisco family that made its money the old-fashioned way (real estate). But Handler spices up the tech-novel's conventions with a bit of fantasy, weaving in a fifth character named Reynard Mahatma, the officiant at the Nickels' wedding who later transforms into a half-man, half-creature consumed by the spirit of a dead fox.
Over the next 200 or so pages, Handler shows us how members of two couples keep secrets from their partners, their motives driven by the fear - and exploitation - of the digital utopia developing in their midst. Men, too, are villains: Reynard's fox-ification feels like a metaphor for the industry's toxic male culture. And the Vic is obsessed with his legacy and surveilling Padgett with his company's invention, which tracks users' every micromovement and is lamely named The Trail.
Observing all the madness is Martin Icke, a 30-year-old bar owner who falls for Padgett and loathes the technology subsuming his city. Before Padgett winds up with the Vic, she and Martin hook up and feel like a better fit. But as his bar's finances go south, he tries coaxing her into a deranged scheme to steal the Vic's money, even though such a plan seems entirely out of character for both Martin and Padgett.
Who doesn't enjoy a good sendup of the very people who addicted us to the internet and all of its devices? Yet Handler seems devoted to making readers put his book down. Scenes and moments feel mashed together and all too often I found myself pausing, rereading pages or paragraphs, confused about how we jumped so instantaneously from one place or person to the next. His narrator, who shapeshifts from omniscient outsider to quasi-first-person raconteur, only made my disorientation worse.
Handler tries to be witty, but fails repeatedly. So many times, Handler writes sentences or pairs of sentences that re-use the same word in an attempt at cleverness. "The Vic still lives like [Padgett] can't believe, and now she can't believe how much she can't believe." A few paragraphs later: "The Vic, she's learned, tracks his bottles, so she drinks her own, scattered hither and yon, but not too yon." And then 36 pages later, in a conversation between Padgett and Martin: "'Look, I'm trying to tell you the truth. I'm going back and forth on it.' 'Mostly forth, I bet.'"
That pales next to the writing about seduction and sex, though: "Reynard sits back down and his body, his flesh, lays siege to her breath. ... 'I think you need something inside you,' Reynard says. 'Smells like your husband isn't the right one. You need something wild and toothy.'" One more: "'This is all part of my evil plan,' Reynard says, his lips against her fleshy flesh."
Handler tries to grapple with some big ideas: human duplicity, male aggression and patriarchy, our discomfort or even fear of the wild, and San Francisco's hyper-gentrification. But he keeps stymieing momentum, especially with his treatment of sensitive issues.
The narrator, for example, mentions that one character, Martin's sidekick Stanford Bell, is black - for no apparent reason. Was this detail meant to highlight Stanford's otherness amid San Francisco's white colonization? Or did Handler think this detail was relevant only because he presumed we'd assume whiteness as the default for every other character?
Later, Reynard appears to rape Padgett, but Handler's narrator is bizarrely unclear about what exactly happened.
In the end, I had little hold to on to. The characters were neither sympathetic nor evil enough to make their downfall worthwhile. The plot seemed wafer-thin, and I never felt like the narrator could fully make me believe in the fantasy about a fox's spirit possessing Reynard. Only when I turned to Google did I learn why Handler was using the fox in the first place: In a recent interview with The San Francisco Chronicle, he said he started writing "Bottle Grove" at a time when foxes and coyotes "were literally being displaced by construction that was going on in San Francisco." OK, (BEGIN ITAL)that(END ITAL) makes sense.
Copyright: COPYRIGHT 2019 The Washington Post
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Shapira, Ian. "Book World: Silicon Valley is a popular target for writers. How does Daniel Handler's 'Bottle Grove' hold up?" Washington Post, 30 Aug. 2019. Gale General OneFile, link.gale.com/apps/doc/A597888155/ITOF?u=schlager&sid=bookmark-ITOF&xid=8f6ac911. Accessed 14 Mar. 2022.
Lemony Snicket. Liveright, $17.95 trade paper (176p) ISBN 978-1-324-09062-5
Snicket (the A Series of Unfortunate Events series) returns with a delightfully quirky philosophical novel. After just finishing a meal of "Tea/ with honey/ a piece of toast/ with cheese,/ one sliced pear,/ and an egg perfectly prepared," protagonist Snicket finds a note that informs him: "You had poison for breakfast." Alarmed, he decides to trace the origins of each ingredient to discover what could have been poisoned. He visits a tea shop that keeps "daringly eccentric hours"; a honey farm; the disconcerting supermarket where he bought the bread; and the park where goats graze and where their cheese is sold. Between these inconclusive investigations, he reminisces about, among other things, a friendship with an older shoemaker neighbor, and considers the craft of writing. His final effort, to visit a library ("to breathe in a room where so much literarure has been gathered... often brings a tear to my eye, although that could also be my mild allergy to dust") sets the stage for a surprising conclusion. Snicket laces the narrative with his trademark word definitions ("dicey, a word which here means as risky as rolling dice, if getting a certain number means you will drown") and ominous hints at past tragedies. This will delight fans of Snicket's singular storytelling. Agent: Charlotte Sheedy. the Charlotte Sheedy Agency. (Aug.)
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"Poison for Breakfast." Publishers Weekly, vol. 268, no. 26, 28 June 2021, p. 44. Gale General OneFile, link.gale.com/apps/doc/A667715213/ITOF?u=schlager&sid=bookmark-ITOF&xid=7ed25113. Accessed 14 Mar. 2022.
SNICKET, Lemony. Poison for Breakfast. 176p. Norton/Liveright. Aug. 2021. Tr $17.95. ISBN 9781324090625.
Gr 4 Up--Snicket's latest opens with the author's assertion that it is a book about bewilderment. Writing in the first person, he shares in the first chapter that after having breakfast one morning, he discovers a note under his door that reads, "You had poison for breakfast." This discovery leads him on a search for what may have poisoned him, and he investigates the sources of each of his breakfast's ingredients. He describes his stops at the tea shop, the beekeeper, the seashore, the supermarket, the park, and (happily) the library, and along the way, he chases his thoughts as far as they will go down roads of philosophy, memory, literature, and imagination. The narrative is full of Snicket's trademark clever whimsy; it is so clever, in fact, that it almost distracts readers from the fact that the story line contains very little action. The claim of bewilderment is accurate, but it is the sort of pleasant bewilderment that comes from letting your mind wander down unfamiliar paths. Back matter includes notes about books and people mentioned in each chapter. VERDICT Steadfast fans of Lemony Snicket will surely be pleased with this new entry into his canon, but others may find it a bit too cerebral. --Sarah Reid, Four County Lib. Syst, NY
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Reid, Sarah. "SNICKET, Lemony. Poison for Breakfast." School Library Journal, vol. 67, no. 8, Aug. 2021, pp. 79+. Gale General OneFile, link.gale.com/apps/doc/A670397947/ITOF?u=schlager&sid=bookmark-ITOF&xid=f12def56. Accessed 14 Mar. 2022.