Do not read this book if you are picking it up because you like Daniel Handler's writing.DO read this book if you like experimental fiction as well Jewish mythology and the absurd nature of modern opera.The first half of this book uses the guise of a 'satire of opera' to tell a lengthy absurd-style comedy story that continuously references a couple of major themes/motifs. It's chalk full crazy situations and unbelievable scenarios, because opera. The second half of the novel is very long and there is only a little payoff and explanation. It was meant to be structured as a 12-step program, but the titles of 'steps' and the appearance of a self-help book are really just chapter titles. I like to try experimental fiction and I know it has the option of being something amazing that I love or something that I really dislike so this one was a big ol' swing and a miss for me. 1-star for the few moments where Daniel Handler's usual poignant prose triumphed:1) "As in all American cities, the areas are named after what was destroyed to put the houses there, and most of Pittsburgh is named after Indian things:"2) "the one drain that always clogged come October when the maples dropped Canadian propaganda over everything"3) "in every house there’s a family of people remembering clearly and obsessively what the other people have said and forgotten. You’ll show a finger- painting to your father, and he’ll say, “That’s nice. Go wash up for dinner,” and your hopes of becoming an artist will join your daily grime in the drain, despite the hundreds of other finger- paintings he’s celebrated in minute detail, magneted to the gal- ley of the refrigerator. Your mother will let something carelessly slide about your sister which will become a Doric column in your mind, the central piece in the Temple of Sibling Opinion. “I hate olives,” your brother will say once, and you’ll never give him any even though he loves them, he just hated that one. “My daughter is attractive,” somebody will say, and they won’t mean it one-tenth as much as you do. There in the dining room behind the fancy-paned glass and those stickers touting an advanced burglar alarm system, families are investigative re- porters. They write down their favorite things and quote them, out of context, all childhood long and through all the dinner parties of adulthood: at college gatherings with cheap red wine and stir-fries, over the exquisite grilled fish of early marriage, then with the carpools all I had time to do was throw together this casserole, hope you like it, and mixed into the pureed peas of the home where you sit on the porch and stare moodily at the shuffleboard courts"^ Now that's some good writing.
[from my blog: http://blog.whistledance.net/2005/10/... ]This book turned out to be excellent, though I have to admit I was a bit skeptical at first, given the somewhat excessive horny-college-kids and incestuous-family themes. But it worked out to be a kind of fascinating web of complex crazy people, with a monster story mixed in for good measure. So it really stayed intensely interesting all the way through.The structure of the whole book was extremely unique, which I liked. (There's nothing wrong with a nice, standard, straight-through story, but I'm always intrigued by new ways of putting things together.) A little over half of it is written like an opera written like a novel, and the rest of it is like a 12 step recovery program. Sounds bizarre (especially since I didn't realize that the opera was going to end midway through the book) but somehow it really works. The opera section in particular had some really brilliant moments. The story-telling version and the opera version blend in interesting ways, and some of the descriptions really tickle me. Such as at one particular (ahem) climax of a scene, where he says "seizuring so hard that the orchestra has to extend its budget and hire some additional percussionists just for these ten measures or so."Another smaller scale thing that I liked was a twisting of perspective within sentences. As an example, the narrator was in a diner when he found out that he needed to go somewhere a couple exits farther up the freeway. He says "I signalled for the check and then for the left-hand turn at the end of the ramp." The driving doesn't need to be mentioned, but he makes the ignoring of it interesting, by slipping it in there and sharing the signalling between the check and the turn signal. When he gets there, he says "I parked in a lot crammed with mid-life crisis cars, red and shiny and probably divorced," describing the drivers by describing the cars. The book throughout is filled with clever little bits like that.So anyway, great book all around, and a good example of some of the things that make me want to have the kind of creativity that produces novels.
What do You think about Watch Your Mouth (2002)?
This is the first book I've read by Daniel Handler. Sort of. He also writes under the pen name Lemony Snicket, who is a fictional character Handler created to tell the story of the Baudelaire orphans in the popular children's series, A Series of Unfortunate Events. I have been a fan of that series almost since its inception; I find the books to be extremely witty, different, humorous, and slightly macabre. Therefore, I was really looking forward to reading one of Handler's books for adults. Overall, he did not disappoint.In Watch Your Mouth one finds the darkness and perverse plot twists that an adult reader, after finishing the Unfortunate Events books, will suspect he is capable of. Thankfully, there is also a hearty dose of humor, albeit a little black. The book is an amalgamation of several. . . shall we say interesting themes. Let's make a list: Incest. Opera. Jewish mysticism. Self help. Sounds great already, right?The book is broken up into two parts. In the first the main character, Joseph, moves in with his girlfriend, Cynthia (aka Cyn, an obvious play on words) during their college summer break, and is witness to her family's dysfunctional ways. Cyn's mother happens to be a prop mistress for the local opera, and the writing in this section is organized and presented as an operatic production, complete with stage directions and specifications of the vocal ranges of each character. After a tumultuous and tragic summer, the second part chronicles Joseph as he tries to recover from what he has seen and experienced as a part of Cyn's family. The operatic theme is dropped, and replaced by an organizational theme resembling the steps in a self-help recovery program. In short, what could have been the most depressing read of the year was actually turned into something quite thought provoking at the end. The plot makes a leap into magical realism via Jewish mysticism, and features a real life golem that goes around wreaking havoc. My favorite part probably occurred in the last few pages, when the reader is invited to imagine the ending of the story as he or she wishes. As a fan of Handler's other works, I found it interesting to read his writing for adults. However, I wouldn't go around recommending this to everyone. If this sounds like your cup of tea or you have time to kill and want something really different, I might give it a go. Otherwise, this is one read that's alright to leave on the shelf for awhile.
—Leah
2/5Yikes. I didn't really like this, which is unfortunate considering how much I have fallen for Handler's writing lately. The writing itself is well done: expansive and poetic with a good handle on that tongue-in-cheek humor he does so well. The plot though? I just could not get into it. It is very strange, which in itself is not always a bad thing, but strange bordering experimental, like the black box productions in the state college's basement theater. The first half, the half which honed in on this comedy-incest-operatic-absurdist amalgamation, was just too absurd. It was so absurd I was positive it wasn't really happening, that it was some lofty allegory. Wrong.Overall, it's overly ambitious and just trying too hard to be shocking and original. The shame is I don't think for one second that he needs to try so hard; he's a wonderful writer with a fantastic imagination and voice. Although this earned a 2 from me, I will continue to read his writing, though I may need a bit of a break from it.
—Shannon
What can I say about this book? Well first of all, if you've read already read the Lemony Snicket series, you may be pleased to see that Handler's sense of humour is definitely at work here. Also it is quite interesting in it's lay out: Half the book is a (sort of) opera with chapters headed as Acts and Scenes and with mentions of what music is playing and which characters are tenors and which are sopranos, that kind of thing. The second half is a 12 step program, which isn't quite as interesting to read, but even so I can't say it was too disappointing. The plot is something which will strongly divide people as it involves heavy amounts of incest. The most disturbing thing is how blaise the Glass family are about it. They don't feel it's a big deal at all, and that is the most disturbing thing about it. Despite all this surprisingly I found it to be a real page-turner.If you aren't easily shocked and enjoy Lemony Snicket, and were (like me) disappointed with "The Basic Eight" give it a read. Otherwise it's probably best avoided.
—Gary Pryke
