Adverbs: A Novel

by Daniel Handler

Overview

Can Joe help it if he falls in love with people who don't make him happy? And what about Helena—she's in love, but somehow this isn't enough. Shouldn't it be? And if it isn't enough, does this mean she's not really in love? It certainly seems to be spoiling the love she's in. And let's say there's a volcano underneath the city—doesn't that make things more urgent? Does urgency mean that you should keep the person you're with, or search for the best possible person? And what if the best possible person loves someone else—like the Snow Queen, for instance?

This novel may not answer these questions, but nevertheless the author and publisher hope it will be of interest.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780060724429
Publisher:	HarperCollins
Publication date:	04/24/2007
Series:	P.S. Series
Edition description:	Reprint
Pages:	288
Product dimensions:	5.31(w) x 8.00(h) x 0.65(d)

About the Author

Daniel Handler has written three novels under his own name, including The Basic Eight, Watch Your Mouth, and Adverbs, and many books under the name Lemony Snicket, including All the Wrong Questions, A Series of Unfortunate Events, and the picture book 13 Words.

What People are Saying About This

Dave Eggers

“Daniel Handler [is] something like an American Nabokov.”

Editorial Reviews

This lovely, lilting book...dramatizes love’s cross-purposes with panache.” — Publishers Weekly (starred review)

“The stories are clever, unsettling, confusing, and often brilliantly moving.” — Library Journal

“Brilliantly kooky and off-kilter.” — Cleveland Plain Dealer

“[Handler] oozes wit and he’s an astute social observer. The book’s offbeat sweetness charms.” — Charlotte Observer

“Daniel Handler [is] something like an American Nabokov.” — Dave Eggers

From the Publisher

Daniel Handler [is] something like an American Nabokov.

Dave Eggers

Brilliantly kooky and off-kilter.

Cleveland Plain Dealer

[Handler] oozes wit and he’s an astute social observer. The book’s offbeat sweetness charms.

Charlotte Observer

[Handler] oozes wit and he’s an astute social observer. The book’s offbeat sweetness charms.

Charlotte Observer

The author of the popular Lemony Snicket series of children's books puts a playful spin on adult themes of love and lust, showing a narrative ingenuity that should delight readers interested in exploring the possibilities of fiction. The third non-Lemony book from Handler (after Watch Your Mouth, 2000) finds him challenging conventional categories. This initially appears to be a selection of short stories, even parables, with each of the 16 taking a different adverb as its title ("Immediately," "Arguably," "Symbolically" and, as a change of pace, "Often"). Teachers generally instruct fledgling writers to eliminate adverbs whenever possible (only passive verbs suffer from greater linguistic disrepute), yet Handler makes his strategy succeed, frequently putting the titular adverb at the service of a broader theme. In "Obviously," he examines the essence of "kissassedness." "Briefly" is the briefest piece here, and includes the pivotal appearance of a boy's briefs. "Soundly" culminates in a boat ferrying across a sound. And so on. Yet in almost subliminal fashion, the author encourages the reader to make connections between the stories, with the repetition of recurring motifs involving magpies and money, plot lines that seem to leapfrog from pieces at the beginning to ones toward the end and the reappearance of characters (who may actually be different characters with the same name). Even the narrative "I" is suspect-sometimes a man, sometimes a woman. Some might find the key to the narrative strategy in "Truly," which the author characterizes as an "essay" and in which he purports to drop the fictional pretense in favor of straightforward autobiography and explanation of authorial intent.Or is this just another twist of the metafictional maze? Whether one approaches this as a novel (in the loosest sense) or a series of somehow connected stories, Handler's prose is warm, funny, smart and addictively readable. It might even send some adult readers to Lemony Snicket to see what they've been missing. Experimental fiction is rarely this emotionally engaging.

Kirkus Reviews