Snicket, Lemony 1970–

views updated Jun 11 2018

Snicket, Lemony 1970–

[A pseudonym]

(Daniel Handler)

PERSONAL: Born Daniel Handler, 1970, in San Francisco, CA; married Lisa Brown. Education: Wesleyan University.

ADDRESSES: Home—San Francisco, CA. Office—c/o Author Mail, HarperCollins, 10 East 53rd St., New York, NY 10022. E-mail—[email protected].

CAREER: Author, poet, and self-styled "studied expert in rhetorical analysis." Comedy writer, "The House of Blues Radio Hour," San Francisco, CA; freelance book, music, and movie reviewer.

AWARDS, HONORS: Academy of American Poets Prize, 1990; Olin Fellowship, 1992.

WRITINGS:

ADULT FICTION; AS DANIEL HANDLER

The Basic Eight, St. Martin's Press (New York, NY), 1999.

Watch Your Mouth, St. Martin's Press (New York, NY), 2000.

JUVENILE FICTION; AS LEMONY SNICKET; "A SERIES OF UNFORTUNATE EVENTS" SERIES

The Bad Beginning, illustrated by Bret Helquist, HarperTrophy (New York, NY), 1999.

The Reptile Room, illustrated by Bret Helquist, HarperTrophy (New York, NY), 1999.

The Wide Window, illustrated by Bret Helquist, HarperTrophy (New York, NY), 2000.

The Miserable Mill, illustrated by Bret Helquist, HarperTrophy (New York, NY), 2000.

The Austere Academy, illustrated by Bret Helquist, HarperTrophy (New York, NY), 2000.

The Ersatz Elevator, illustrated by Bret Helquist, HarperTrophy (New York, NY), 2001.

The Vile Village, illustrated by Bret Helquist, HarperTrophy (New York, NY), 2001.

The Hostile Hospital, illustrated by Bret Helquist, HarperTrophy (New York, NY), 2001.

A Series of Unfortunate Events (omnibus; contains The Bad Beginning, The Reptile Room, and The Wide Window), HarperTrophy (New York, NY), 2001.

Lemony Snicket: The Unauthorized Autobiography, HarperTrophy (New York, NY), 2002.

The Grim Grotto, HarperCollins (New York, NY), 2004.

The Penultimate Peril, Egmont Books, 2005.

Handler has also written for the Voice Literary Supplement, Newsday, Salon, and the New York Times. "A Series of Unfortunate Events" has been published in England, Canada, Germany, Italy, Norway, Israel, Japan, and Denmark. Handler also wrote the screenplay for Rick, an independent film, 2004.

ADAPTATIONS: The Basic Eight was optioned for a film by New Regency, a division of Warner Brothers; Dreamworks and Paramount Pictures plan to film Lemony Snicket's Series of Unfortunate Events. The movie will be directed by Brad Silberling.

WORK IN PROGRESS: Writing as Daniel Handler, a third novel, about pirates. Writing as Lemony Snicket, more volumes in the "A Series of Unfortunate Events." Adaptation of a movie for the Independent Film Channel from Joel Rose's novel, Kill the Poor, and a movie script with songwriter Stephin Merritt of the band The Magnetic Fields.

SIDELIGHTS: Daniel Handler has a fine sense of timing. As a writer for adults, he has produced two popular novels which have had an eerie prescience to them: his 1999 The Basic Eight deals, partly in a tongue-in-cheek manner, with a teenage murder, and hit the shelves just a month before the tragic events at Colorado's Columbine High School focused the nation's attention on teen violence; his second novel, a "mock-operatic incest comedy" as Amy Benfer of Salon described Watch Your Mouth, came out in time to benefit from a similar theme broached at the Oscar awards ceremony of 2000.

However, it is his juvenile writings, penned under the pseudonym of Lemony Snicket, that have most benefitted from chronological serendipity: "A Series of Unfortunate Events" has ridden the tsunami created by J.K. Rowling's "Harry Potter" books, tapping into a youthful readership eager to deal with irony, intelligent silliness, and Goth-like depressing situations in their fiction. When the New York Times Book Review, influenced by the huge sales of the "Harry Potter" books, initiated a children's bestseller list, Mr. Snicket weighed in at number fifteen; within a year, all five of the books written by the illusive and mysterious Mr. Snicket had made the top twenty-five, and the series had been optioned by Nickelodeon for a film treatment.

Handler was born and raised in San Francisco, the son of an accountant and a college dean. Growing up, Handler was "a bright and obvious person," as he characterized himself for Sally Lodge in Publishers Weekly. However, the incipient novelist "always wanted to be a dark, mysterious person."In books, he preferred stories "in which mysterious and creepy things happen," he told Lodge, hating books "where everyone joined the softball team and had a grand time or found true love on a picnic." The youthful Handler sought out stories à la Roald Dahl or Edward Gorey, and indeed his fiction for juveniles has often been compared to that duo. Snicket enjoyed reading the sort of things "set in an eerie castle that was invaded by a snake that strangled the residents." The first book Handler 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, tying for Best Personality of his graduating class. Eleven years later, Handler set his first novel at a barely concealed stand-in for this school, Roewer High with students "pushed to the limit academically, socially and athletically," as Handler wrote. After high school graduation, Handler attended Wesleyan University, winning a Poets Prize from the Academy of American Poets in 1990. His love for poetry soon developed into a passion for novels. "My poems were getting longer and longer, and more proselike," Handler commented to Greg Toppo in an Associated Press story carried on CNNfyi.com. Upon graduation, he received an Olin Fellowship which provided him with the financial support to work on his first novel. Publication of that book, however, would come several years later. Meanwhile, there was a living to be earned. Handler spent a couple of years in the mid-1990s writing comedy sketches for a nationally syndicated radio show based in San Francisco, "The House of Blues Radio Hour."

Things began looking up for Handler when he moved to New York City and began his literary career as a free-lance movie and book critic. By 1999, his first novel, The Basic Eight, was finally published and earned respectful if not praiseworthy reviews in major media. The Basic Eight, though written for adults, caused some reviewers and booksellers to label it YA as it focused on a cast of high school students in a clique called The Basic Eight. The school in question, Roewer High, was plainly a thinly disguised Lowell High in San Francisco. As Handler told Philana Woo in his alma mater's paper, The Lowell, "When I was at Lowell, it was called Roewer…. Lowell then was predominantly Asian,… and Roewer was the name people of all races referred to it. It was sort of the kids' joke about the fact that most of the school was Asian. I guess Roewer could be an offensive way of making a pun on an Asian accent."

Essentially beginning at the end of the action, The Basic Eight is narrated by Flannery Culp, who depicts the events of her senior year at Roewer High from her journal written in prison where she is serving time for the murder of a teacher and fellow student. Flan is, as a reviewer for Publishers Weekly observed, "precocious" and "pretentious," and now means to set the record straight. Reviled in the press as a leader of a Satanic cult, Flan has kept her journal to tell the real truth of the tragicomic events that have landed her in prison instead of in some Ivy League school.

At school, Flan, editor of the student paper but having trouble in calculus, relies on her seven friends—the "Queen Bee" Kate, lovely Natasha whom Flan admires, Gabriel, a black student and chef in the making who has a crush on Flan, Douglas, who has access to absinthe, V, whose name has been changed to provide anonymity to her wealthy family, Lily, and Jennifer Rose Milton. These eight form the elitist clique in question. Childhood games turn serious when the group begins experimenting with absinthe; Natasha comes to Flan's rescue by poisoning a biology teacher who has been plaguing her. There is also Adam State, love interest of Flan's, and it is her jealousy that ultimately leads to his murder—by croquet mallet—as well. The talk show circuit quickly picks up on the story, calling these privileged kids a Satanic cult.

Handler's characters are all coming of age and aping the adult world of their parents by throwing dinner parties and toting around hip flasks. "The links between teen social life, tabloid culture and serious violence have been explored below and exploited before," noted the reviewer for Publishers Weekly, "but Handler, and Flannery, know that. If they're not the first to use such material, they may well be the coolest." This same reviewer concluded, "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." Booklist's 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." Zvirin felt that The Basic Eight "will leave readers on the brink of both laughter and despair." Library Journal's Rebecca Kelm found Handler's writing to be "witty and perceptive, especially as schools and society are parodied," and the reviewer also noted his "clever use of vocabulary and study questions" that poke fun at the conventions of literary criticism in high schools. Kelm's admiration for the book, however, was tempered with the brutal murder at its center.

Other reviewers also had mixed praise. A writer for the New Yorker commented, "Handler is a charming writer with a lovely mastery of voice, but the book is weakened by his attempt to turn a clever idea into a social satire." Brian Howard, writing in Citypaper.net, felt that Handler "beautifully captures the ennui and distorted perspectives of a suburban upbringing, where dinner parties are the biggest concern." Howard also pointed to "a lot of excellent suspense writing" in the book, but concluded that "the oh-my-gosh plot twist, which ultimately ruins Culp's credibility, also does much to undo Handler's otherwise fine debut."

Handler told Woo in The Lowell that his theme with his first novel "is that young people are oftentimes full of great ideas and creativity and that those things are often stifled." For his second novel, Watch Your Mouth, Handler chose another coming of age crucible, the college years. Joseph is just finishing his junior year at prestigious Mather College. There he has met luscious and lascivious Cynthia Glass, whom he delights in calling Cyn with its intended double meaning. A surfeit of sex has caused Joseph to fall behind in his studies and earn an incomplete in one class. When Cyn recommends that Joseph spend the summer with her and her family in Pittsburgh, he leaps at the chance to stay close to his lover. There the two will work days as Jewish day-camp counselors, Joseph will finish his incomplete, and their nights will be their own.

Once settled in the Glass's home, however, Joseph is filled with a sort of foreboding. "Perhaps it's the summer heat in his attic room,"noted Ted Leventhal in a Booklist review of Watch Your Mouth, "or the overly erotic environment, but Joseph begins to imagine that there is something unhealthy about the family's intimacy." It seems father Ben pines for his daughter, Cyn; that mother Mimi yearns for her son, Stephen, and that Stephen may return the favor. Is this a product of Joseph's warped imagination, or is there any truth in it?

Joseph soon discovers or uncovers a triad of fascinations for the family: science, Kabbalah, and, well, incest. And in the basement, is that a golem Mrs. Glass is constructing? Written in the form of an opera, the novel employs realism and surrealism side by side, references to Judaism and modern literature share the same page. Billed as an "incest comedy," the novel steps perilously close to the bounds of good taste. "Did I hear you right, Mr. Reviewer, did you say 'incest comedy'?" wrote Jonathan Shipley in a BookBrowser review. "That's 'comedy'? It can be if you write it right. And who writes it right. Daniel Handler. Handler, the author of the critically-acclaimed The Basic Eight, comes back with a very odd, quirky, unusual story." A Publishers Weekly reviewer felt that Handler's second novel is so "twisted that even its protagonist can't keep up with the perverse turns of plot," and further observed that "this melodramatic satire of family life trembles between virtuosity and utter collapse." Library Journal's Kelm called the book "quirky" and "offbeat," while Salon's Edward Neuert noted that Handler "is more than ready to pick up the torch [of Kurt Vonnegut] and write the kind of deftly funny absurdist story that both horrifies with its subject matter and hooks you with its humor." Leventhal concluded his review noting that there are "plays within plays and puns within puns…. Mouth is clever, witty, and unpredictable."

If Handler has a way of getting away with the quirky novel or two, his alter ego, Lemony Snicket has perfected the gambit. "Try pitching this as a series of children's novels," wrote Toppo. "Three young siblings—handsome, clever and rich—lose their loving parents in a fire that destroys their mansion. Too gloomy? It gets worse." And indeed it does, in the ongoing adventures of "A Series of Unfortunate Events," siblings Violet, Klaus, and Sunny Baudelaire not only lose their parents, but are then set upon by the vile Count Olaf, whose one goal in life, it seems, is to bilk the children out of their fortune. After a close encounter with this dastardly villain in the opening novel of the series, The Bad Beginning, the children make their painful way from one relative to the next, each more hideous than the last. The Count, of course, makes reprise appearances in each successive volume, much to the delight of the legion of young readers these books have attracted. The trio of kids is led by inventive fourteen-year-old Violet, her rather bookish brother, twelve-year-old Klaus, and baby Sunny who has incredibly sharp teeth for an infant and employs a baby argot that speaks volumes. Eschewing the magic of Harry Potter, Snicket/Handler has imbued these children with survival skills of a more practical nature, enabling them to defend themselves from a cornucopia of hurled knives, falling lamps, storms, snakes, leeches, and just plain rotten folks. And all of this is related in a deadpan, sophisticated text that has its tongue firmly planted in cheek.

The birth of Lemony Snicket was actually influenced by Handler's debut novel, The Basic Eight. Susan Rich, editor at HarperTrophy and a fan of Handler's first novel, decided to try and woo him over to children's books. "I knew we shared a similar sensibility about children's books," Rich told Lodge in Publishers Weekly, "which I'd define as a resistance to fall into overly trodden paths of traditional stories, and a resistance to anything that is too sweet or patronizing or moralistic." Handler was at first resistant, but offered the chance to pen books he might have enjoyed reading himself when he was ten, he set to reworking the hundred or so pages of a mock-Gothic novel for adults that he had long ago abandoned. Handler, writing as Snicket—a name he had once devised to avoid getting on unwanted mail lists—was delighted to revamp the entire notion of what constitutes an appropriate novel for juveniles, repealing the old sports or fantasy categories that were available to him as a youth. The result was The Bad Beginning, the first of what Handler/Snicket see as a thirteen-volume set chronicling the adventures of the Baudelaire orphans. "If you are interested in stories with happy endings," the author wrote on the first page of that novel, "you would be better off reading some other book. In this book, not only is there no happy ending, there is no happy beginning and very few happy things in the middle…. I'm sorry to tell you this, but that's how the story goes."

When the three Baudelaire children lose their parents in a fire, they become—through the oversight of the ineffectual banker, Mr. Poe—wards of Count Olaf, a distant cousin. He sets them to labor in his house, meanwhile devising schemes with his theatrical troupe to deprive the orphans of their inheritance. The three survive the Count's attacks with spunk, initiative, and, in the case of Sunny, a set of sharp teeth. "The author uses formal, Latinate language and intrusive commentary to hilarious effect," noted a review for Publishers Weekly of this first title in the series. The same reviewer felt that the author "paints the satire with such broad strokes that most readers will view it from a safe distance." In the second book of the series, The Reptile Room, it seems the orphans will have a chance for happiness when they go to live with Dr. Montgomery Montgomery, a "very fun, but fatally naïve herpetologist," according to Ron Charles in the Christian Science Monitor. Unfortunately, their safe haven is short-lived, spoiled once again by the arrival of the oafish Count Olaf. Susan Dove Lempke, reviewing the first two titles in Booklist, thought that the "droll humor, reminiscent of Edward Gorey's, will be lost on some children; others may not enjoy the old-fashioned storytelling style that frequently addresses the reader directly and includes definitions of terms." Lempke went on, however, to conclude: "But plenty of children will laugh at the over-the-top satire; hiss at the creepy nefarious villains; and root for the intelligent, courageous, unfortunate Baudelaire orphans."Linda Bindner, writing in School Library Journal, noted 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." Bindner also found that the use of sophisticated vocabulary and inclusion of author definitions make "these books challenging to older readers and excellent for reading aloud."

The third book in the series, The Wide Window, finds the orphans with elderly Aunt Josephine who lives on a house on stilts which overlooks Lake Lachrymose. Josephine is a widow as well as a frightful grammarian, and when Olaf finally tracks down the Baudelaires, he fools the aunt for a while into believing he is a sailboat captain. When she finally stumbles onto his true identity, he gets rid of her by pushing the good woman into leech-infested waters and the peripatetic children must find a new protector. Booklist's Lempke noted that Snicket writes in "an old-fashioned tone," offering "plenty advice to readers in asides." "The effect is often hilarious as well as edifying," Lempke observed. Most importantly, as Lempke concluded, "readers never truly worry that [the Baudelaire orphans] will be defeated in this or their next adventure."

The fourth in the series, The Miserable Mill, begins with the three children on their way to Paltryville and yet another guardian, this time the owner of the Lucky Smells Lumbermill. Here they must work in the mill, survive on gum for lunch and casserole for dinner. Count Olaf, is of course, just off-stage ready to pounce. "The story is deliciously mock-Victorian and self-mockingly melodramatic," noted Booklist's Carolyn Phelan, who also commented on the artwork and "the author's many asides to the reader" which both "underscore the droll humor…." Phelan concluded, "Another plum for the orphans' fans." "This is for readers who appreciate this particular type of humor," observed Sharon R. Pearce in School Library Journal. Pearce noted that such humor "exaggerates the sour and makes anyone's real life seem sweet in comparison." The adventures continue in The Austere Academy and The Ersatz Elevator. In the former title, the Baudelaire children are consigned to a shack at the Prufrock Preparatory School where they will face snapping crabs, strict punishments, dripping fungus and the evils of the metric system. In the latter book, they must contend with new guardians Jerome and Esme Squalor, while trying to save two friends from the clutches of Count Olaf.

The Grim Grotto, the next chapter in the Baudelaire children's story, is as "cheerful" as "death, alopecia, and crabgrass," according to Alynda Wheat of Entertainment Weekly. This time the orphans team up with Captain Widdershins, commander of the submarine Queequeg, and his stepdaughter Fiona, in their quest to find a magical sugar bowl while evading the everpresent Count Olaf and a patch of poisonous mushrooms. Their underwater adventure is augmented by mechanical monsters and the tap-dancing Carmelita Spats. In an interview with Malcolm Jones in Newsweek, Snicket said that part of the reason the Baudelaire children have become so popular is because they are "heroes in which every reader could imagine themselves…. Working from a tradition of Gothic storytelling, I find that the external drama and melodrama are just more interesting than interior landscape." Additionally, Jones told Snicket he appreciated how "you really go out of your way to give both parents and kids a break … in your effort to avoid teaching moral lessons."

"The Snicket novels are morality tales, albeit twisted ones," observed Benfer in Salon. "Among other things, Snicket tells children that one should never stay up late on a school night, except to finish a very good book; he insists that there is nothing worse than someone who can't play the violin but insists upon doing so anyway." He employs continual authorial intrusions, providing definitions, giving stage directions. "I was mostly just knocking the heavy-handedness that I remembered from kid's books that I didn't like as a child," Handler reported to Benfer. "That sort of mockery seems to really appeal to kids." Another Handler trademark is the use of names in the Snicket books which come from literature: the Baudelaire orphans themselves are but the most obvious example of a long list including Mr. Poe and Prufrock Prep. "There's plenty of literary names and the like," Handler told Benfer, "but there's not so many outright jokes. And the literary names are there mostly because I look forward to kids growing up and finding Baudelaire in the poetry anthology and having that be something else to be excited about."

The formula has worked quite well, sending the Handler/Snicket books onto the best-seller charts and establishing a devoted fan base. More than 125,000 of the books in "A Series of Unfortunate Events" are in print, the Snicket Web site is a popular venue in cyberspace, and the elusive Mr. Snicket himself has become a popular speaker at schools. Correction. Mr. Snicket's representative, Mr. Handler, performs standins for his friend, who has variously been injured or delayed or unaccountably held hostage somewhere while Mr. Handler entertains the youthful audience with his accordion and tales of the Snicket family tree. According to the official Snicket Web site, "Lemony Snicket was born before you were and is likely to die before you as well."

Lodge wrote in Publishers Weekly that obviously "the author's knack for combining the dark with the droll has hit a nerve just about everywhere," and word-of-mouth has greatly contributed to the success of the series. With Nickelodeon working on the film and Handler/Snicket collaborating on an expected thirteen volumes, the future looks surprisingly bright for the Baudelaire orphans.

BIOGRAPHICAL AND CRITICAL SOURCES:

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.

Boys' Life, December, 2000, Stephen G. Michaud, review of "A Series of Unfortunate Events" titles, p. 61.

Christian Science Monitor, August 12, 1999, Ron Charles, review of The Bad Beginning and The Reptile Room, p. 21.

Entertainment Weekly, September 24, 2004, Alynda Wheat, a review of The Grim Grotto, p. 112.

Horn Book, March, 2001, Christine Heppermann, "Angel Wings and Hard Knocks," p. 239.

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.

Newsweek, September 27, 2004, Malcolm Jones, "Fame and Misfortune," p. 84.

New Yorker, June 21, 1999, review of The Basic Eight.

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; January 17, 2000, p. 58; May 29, 2000, Sally Lodge, "Oh, Sweet Misery," p. 42; June 19, 2000, review of Watch Your Mouth, p. 60.

School Library Journal, November, 1999, Linda Bindner, review of The Bad Beginning, p. 165; January, 2000, p. 136; 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, pp. 188-189.

Time for Kids, April 27, 2001, "He Tells Terrible Tales," p. 7.

ONLINE

A Series of Unfortunate Events Web site, http://www.lemonysnicket.com/ (March 26, 2001).

BookBrowser Review, http://www.bookbroswer.com/ (July 15, 2000), Jonathan Shipley, review of Watch Your Mouth.

Citypaper.net, http://www.cpcn.com/ (June 17-24, 1999), Brian Howard, review of The Basic Eight.

CNNfyi.com, http://www.cnn.cm/200/fyi/news/ (May 12, 2000), Greg Toppo, "Wry 'Series of Unfortunate Events' Books Earn Fans, Praise."

Lowell, http://www.thelowell.org/ (February 15, 1999), Philana Woo, "Author Reflects on High School Life."

Nancy Matson's Web site, http://www.nancymatson.com/ (March, 2000).

Salon.com, http://www.salon.com/ (July 24, 2000), Edward Neuert, "What to Read: July Fiction;" (August 17, 2000) Amy Benfer, "The Mysterious Mr. Snicket."

Concise Major 21st Century Writers

Snicket, Lemony 1970–

views updated May 18 2018

Snicket, Lemony 1970–

(Daniel Handler)

PERSONAL:

Born Daniel Handler, February 28, 1970, in San Francisco, CA; married Lisa Brown (an art director); children: Otto. Education: Wesleyan University, graduated, 1992.

ADDRESSES:

Home—San Francisco, CA. E-mail—[email protected].

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.

AWARDS, HONORS:

Academy of American Poets Prize, 1990; Olin fellowship, 1992; Quill Award, 2006, for The Penultimate Peril.

WRITINGS:

FOR CHILDREN; "A SERIES OF UNFORTUNATE EVENTS" SERIES

The Bad Beginning (also see below), illustrated by Bret Helquist, HarperCollins (New York, NY), 1999.

The Reptile Room (also see below), illustrated by Bret Helquist, HarperCollins (New York, NY), 1999.

The Wide Window (also see below), illustrated by Bret Helquist, HarperCollins (New York, NY), 2000.

The Miserable Mill (also see below), illustrated by Bret Helquist, HarperCollins (New York, NY), 2000.

The Austere Academy (also see below), illustrated by Bret Helquist, HarperCollins (New York, NY), 2000.

A Box of Unfortunate Events: The Trouble Begins (contains The Bad Beginning, The Reptile Room, and The Wide Window), HarperCollins (New York, NY), 2001.

The Ersatz Elevator (also see below), illustrated by Bret Helquist, HarperCollins (New York, NY), 2001.

The Vile Village (also see below), illustrated by Bret Helquist, HarperCollins (New York, NY), 2001.

The Hostile Hospital (also see below), illustrated by Bret Helquist, HarperCollins (New York, NY), 2001.

A Box of Unfortunate Events: The Situation Worsens (contains The Miserable Mill, The Austere Academy, and The Ersatz Elevator), HarperCollins (New York, NY), 2002.

The Carnivorous Carnival (also see below), illustrated by Bret Helquist, HarperCollins (New York, NY), 2002.

A Box of Unfortunate Events: The Dilemma Deepens (contains The Vile Village, The Hostile Hospital, and The Carnivorous Carnival), HarperCollins (New York, NY), 2003.

The Slippery Slope (also see below), illustrated by Bret Helquist, HarperCollins (New York, NY), 2003.

The Grim Grotto (also see below), illustrated by Bret Helquist, HarperCollins (New York, NY), 2004.

A Box of Unfortunate Events: The Ominous Omnibus (contains The Bad Beginning, The Reptile Room, and The Wide Window), HarperCollins (New York, NY), 2005.

The Penultimate Peril (also see below), illustrated by Bret Helquist, HarperCollins (New York, NY), 2005.

A Box of Unfortunate Events: The Loathsome Library (contains The Bad Beginning, The Reptile Room, The Wide Window, The Miserable Mill, The Austere Academy, and The Ersatz Elevator), HarperCollins (New York, NY), 2005.

A Box of Unfortunate Events: The Gloom Looms (contains The Grim Grotto, The Slippery Slope, and The Penultimate Peril), HarperCollins (New York, NY), 2005.

The End (also see below), illustrated by Bret Helquist, HarperCollins (New York, NY), 2006.

The Complete Wreck (omnibus), HarperCollins (New York, NY), 2006.

The Beatrice Letters, HarperCollins (New York, NY), 2006.

Author's work has been published in Germany, Italy, Norway, Israel, Japan, and Denmark.

FOR ADULTS; UNDER NAME DANIEL HANDLER

The Basic Eight, St. Martin's Press (New York, NY), 1999.

Watch Your Mouth, St. Martin's Press (New York, NY), 2000.

Adverbs, Ecco (New York, NY), 2006.

OTHER

Lemony Snicket: The Unauthorized Autobiography, HarperTrophy (New York, NY), 2002.

(Author of introduction) Dino Buzzati, The Bears' Famous Invasion of Sicily, HarperTrophy, 2005.

The Puzzling Puzzles: Bothersome Games Which Will Bother Some People (activity book), HarperTrophy (New York, NY), 2006.

The Notorious Notations (blank journal), HarperFestival (New York, NY), 2006.

Horseradish: Bitter Truths You Can't Avoid, HarperCollins (New York, NY), 2007.

The Latke Who Couldn't Stop Screaming: A Christmas Story, illustrated by Lisa Brown, McSweeney's (New York, NY), 2007.

The Composer Is Dead, illustrated by Carson Ellis, HarperCollins (New York, NY), 2008.

Contributor to Little Lit: It Was a Dark and Silly Night, by Art Spiegelman, HarperCollins, 2003. Contributor to periodicals, including Voice Literary Supplement, Newsday, Salon, and New York Times.

ADAPTATIONS:

The Basic Eight was optioned for a film by New Regency; "A Series of Unfortunate Events" was adapted for film, Paramount Pictures, 2004. The "A Series of Unfortunate Events" books were adapted for audiobook.

SIDELIGHTS:

Daniel Handler is the author of the wildly popular "A Series of Unfortunate Events" books penned under the pseudonym of Lemony Snicket. The thirteen-volume series, which features the grim misadventures of the orphaned Baudelaire children, tapped into a youthful readership eager to deal with irony, intelligent silliness, and Goth-like depressing situations in their fiction. "Stories like these aren't cheerful," the author admitted in a New York Times essay, "but they offer a truth—that real trouble cannot be erased, only endured—that is more soothing to me than any determinedly cheerful grin." In the words of London Guardian contributor Tim de Lisle, Handler "has become the Roald Dahl of our day, plying eleven-year-olds with eloquently gleeful nastiness." Other books, including his arch holiday-themed The Latke Who Couldn't Stop Screaming: A Christmas Story, continue in the Dahlian tradition.

Handler was born and raised in San Francisco, the son of an accountant and a college dean. Growing up, he was "a bright and obvious person," as he characterized himself for Sally Lodge in Publishers Weekly. However, the incipient novelist "always wanted to be a dark, mysterious person." In books, he preferred stories "in which mysterious and creepy things happen," he told Lodge, and rejected stories "where everyone joined the softball team and had a grand time or found true love on a picnic." The youthful Handler sought out stories à la Roald Dahl or Edward Gorey, and his fiction for juveniles has often been compared to the works of those two writers. The first book Handler 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, tying for Best Personality of his graduating class. Eleven years later, he would set his first novel at Roewer High, a barely concealed stand-in for this school, wherein students were "pushed to the limit academically, socially and athletically," as Handler wrote. After high school graduation, he attended Wesleyan University, winning a Poets Prize from the Academy of American Poets in 1990. His love for poetry soon developed into a passion for novels. Upon graduation, an Olin fellowship provided him with the financial support to work on his first novel. Publication of that book, however, would come several years later. Meanwhile, there was a living to be earned. Handler spent a couple of years in the mid-1990s writing comedy sketches for a nationally syndicated radio show based in San Francisco, The House of Blues Radio Hour.

Things began looking up for Handler when he moved to New York City and began his literary career as a freelance movie and book critic. By 1999, his first novel, The Basic Eight, was finally published and earned respectful if not praiseworthy reviews. The Basic Eight, though written for adults, caused some reviewers and booksellers to label it "YA" because it focuses on a cast of high-school students in a clique called The Basic Eight.

The Basic Eight, which deals with a teenage murder, hit bookstore shelves a month before the tragic events at Colorado's Columbine High School focused the nation's attention on teen violence. The tale is narrated by Flannery Culp, who recounts the events of her senior year at Roewer High from her prison cell where she is serving time for the murder of a teacher and fellow student. Flan is, as a reviewer for Publishers Weekly observed, "precocious" and "pretentious." Reviled in the press as a leader of a Satanic cult, she is determined to tell the real truth of the tragicomic events that have landed her in prison instead of in some Ivy League school.

At school, Flan, editor of the student paper but having trouble in calculus, relies on her seven friends—"Queen Bee" Kate, lovely Natasha, chef-in-the-making Gabriel, absinthe-fan Douglas, Jennifer Rose Milton, and V, the last whose name has been changed to provide anonymity to her wealthy family. These eight form the elitist Basic Eight. Childhood games turn serious when the group begins experimenting with absinthe; Natasha comes to Flan's rescue by poisoning a biology teacher who has been plaguing her friend. There is also Adam State, love interest of Flan's, and it is her jealousy that ultimately leads to his murder—by croquet mallet—as well. The talk-show circuit quickly picks up on the story, calling these privileged kids a Satanic cult.

Handler's characters ape the adult world of their parents by throwing dinner parties and toting around hip flasks. "The links between teen social life, tabloid culture and serious violence have been explored below and exploited before," noted a Publishers Weekly critic, "but Handler, and Flannery, know that. If they're not the first to use such material, they may well be the coolest." This same reviewer concluded, "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." Library Journal contributor Rebecca Kelm found Handler's writing to be "witty and perceptive," and noted his "clever use of vocabulary and study questions" that poke fun at the conventions of literary criticism in high schools. Kelm's admiration for the book, however, was tempered with the brutal murder at its center. Also with mixed praise, a New Yorker critic wrote that while "Handler is a charming writer with a lovely mastery of voice," The Basic Eight "is weakened by his attempt to turn a clever idea into a social satire."

For his second novel, Watch Your Mouth, Handler chose another coming-of-age crucible: the college years. Joseph is just finishing his junior year at prestigious Mather College. There he has met luscious and lascivious Cynthia Glass, whom he delights in calling Cyn with its intended double meaning. A surfeit of sex has caused Joseph to fall behind in his studies and earn an "incomplete" in one class. When Cyn recommends that Joseph spend the summer with her and her family in Pittsburgh, he leaps at the chance to stay close to his lover. There the two will work days as Jewish day-camp counselors, Joseph will finish his classwork, and their nights will be their own. Once settled in the Glasses' home, however, Joseph is filled with an unsettled foreboding. It seems that father Ben pines too much for his daughter, Cyn; that mother Mimi yearns too much for her son, Stephen; and that Stephen may return his mother's feelings.

Written in the form of an opera, Watch Your Mouth employs realism and surrealism side by side, and steps perilously close to the bounds of good taste, according to some reviewers. A Publishers Weekly reviewer felt that Handler's second novel is so "twisted that even its protagonist can't keep up with the perverse turns of plot." As the critic further observed, "this melodramatic satire of family life trembles between virtuosity and utter collapse." In Library Journal Kelm called the novel "quirky" and "offbeat," while Leventhal concluded his review by calling Watch Your Mouth "clever, witty, and unpredictable."

The birth of Lemony Snicket came about when Handler was offered the chance to pen books he might have enjoyed reading himself when he was ten. Taking up the Snicket moniker, a name he had once devised to avoid getting on unwanted mail lists, he was delighted to revamp the entire notion of what constitutes an appropriate novel for juveniles, repealing the old sports or fantasy categories that were available to him as a youth. The result was The Bad Beginning, the first of thirteen volumes chronicling the adventures of the Baudelaire orphans. As the "A Series of Unfortunate Events" books unfold, siblings Violet, Klaus, and Sunny Baudelaire not only lose their parents, but they are then set upon by the vile Count Olaf, whose one goal in life, it seems, is to bilk the children out of their fortune. The Baudelaire brood is led by inventive fourteen-year-old Violet, while her rather bookish brother, twelve-year-old Klaus, follows her lead. Then there is baby Sunny, who has incredibly sharp teeth for an infant and employs a baby argot that speaks volumes. Eschewing magic, Handler imbues these children with survival skills of a more practical nature, enabling them to defend themselves from a cornucopia of hurled knives, falling lamps, storms, snakes, leeches, and just plain rotten folks. And all of this is related in a deadpan, sophisticated text that has its tongue firmly planted in cheek.

As readers meet them in The Bad Beginning, the three Baudelaire children have lost their parents in a fire. Through the oversight of the ineffectual banker, Mr. Poe, they become wards of Count Olaf, a distant cousin. He sets them to labor in his house, meanwhile devising schemes with his theatrical troupe to deprive the orphans of their inheritance. The three survive the count's 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 review for Publishers Weekly of the first title in the series. The critic added that the author "paints the satire with such broad strokes that most readers will view it from a safe distance."

In The Reptile Room, it seems the orphans will have a chance for happiness when they go to live with Dr. Montgomery Montgomery, a "very fun, but fatally naïve herpetologist," according to Ron Charles in the Christian Science Monitor. Unfortunately, their safe haven is short-lived, spoiled by the arrival of the oafish Count Olaf. Susan Dove Lempke, reviewing the first two titles in Booklist, thought that the "droll humor, reminiscent of Edward Gorey's, will be lost on some children; others may not enjoy the old-fashioned storytelling style that frequently addresses the reader directly and includes definitions of terms." Lempke went on, however, to conclude that "plenty of children will laugh at the over-the-top satire; hiss at the creepy nefarious villains; and root for the intelligent, courageous, unfortunate Baudelaire orphans." Linda Bindner, writing in School Library Journal, noted 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 third book in the series, The Wide Window, finds the orphans with elderly Aunt Josephine who lives on a house on stilts that overlooks Lake Lachrymose. Josephine is a widow as well as a frightful grammarian, and when Olaf finally tracks down the Baudelaires, he fools the aunt for a while into believing he is a sailboat captain. When she finally stumbles onto his true identity, Olaf gets rid of her by pushing the good woman into leech-infested waters, and the peripatetic children must find a new protector. Lempke noted that in this installment Snicket adopts "an old-fashioned tone," offering "plenty of advice to readers in asides." "The effect is often hilarious as well as edifying," the critic observed, adding that "readers never truly worry that [the Baudelaire orphans] will be defeated in this or their next adventure."

The Miserable Mill finds the three siblings on their way to Paltryville and yet another guardian, this time the owner of the Lucky Smells Lumbermill. Here they must work in the mill and survive on gum for lunch and casserole for dinner. Count Olaf, is of course, lurking just offstage and preparing to pounce. "The story is deliciously mock-Victorian and self-mockingly melodramatic," noted Booklist reviewer Carolyn Phelan. The critic also commented on Brett Helquist's artwork and on Handler's "many asides to the reader," both which "underscore the droll humor." As Sharon R. Pearce observed in School Library Journal, the book's humor "exaggerates the sour and makes anyone's real life seem sweet in comparison."

The saga continues in The Austere Academy and The Ersatz Elevator. In the former title, the Baudelaire 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. In the latter book, the children must contend with new 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, and … Helquist's droll pencil drawings will add to their reading pleasure," Phelan noted of The Ersatz Elevator.

In The Vile Village, the Baudelaires are adopted by the residents of V.F.D., a town run by a strict council of elders whose myriad rules regulate every aspect of the villagers' lives. When the children are falsely accused of murder, they must escape from jail to avoid being burned at the stake. "Arch literary allusions enhance the stories for readers on different levels," noted School Library Journal contributor Farida S. Dowler. The Baudelaires volunteer their services at Heimlich Hospital in The Hostile Hospital, "another darkly amusing, nightmarish adventure," as Phelan stated. The trio is once again pursued by Count Olaf and his cohorts, who this time threaten Violet with a cranioectomy. Writing in Entertainment Weekly, Daniel Fierman praised the author's "devilish carnivals of wit, wordplay, and adventure."

The Carnivorous Carnival finds the children disguised as circus freaks to investigate Madame Lulu, a fortune teller who uses her crystal ball to fuel Olaf's evil plans. "The humor is as sharp as ever," Heather Dieffenbach commented in School Library Journal. In The Slippery Slope, Violet and Klaus must rescue young Sunny, who has been kidnaped by the count and taken to the Mortmain Mountains. According to Entertainment Weekly reviewer Alynda Wheat, the tenth entry in the series "is 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 nefarious 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. In The Penultimate Peril, the Baudelaires gather at the Hotel Denouement, a venue organized according to the Dewey decimal classification and whose guests include a host of characters from earlier series installments. As Zvirin noted, "this inventive go-round seems more dizzying … than usual."

Snicket concluded "A Series of Unfortunate Events" with the appropriately titled The End. Adrift in the open seas with Count Olaf, the Baudelaires are washed ashore and welcomed by friendly islanders, though their haven does not remain safe for long. Several critics noted that this final installment offers a fitting although somewhat ambiguous ending to the series. In the words of Horn Book reviewer Claire E. Gross, "Where Snicket excels … is in balancing the expectation of happy ending against his own repeated declarations that none exists." Henry Alford, writing in the New York Times Book Review, offered a different assessment, remarking that the novels offer 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." According to Alford, "the books seem at times like a covert mission to turn their readers into slightly dark-hued sophisticates … amply prepared for the rocky narrative landscapes of Borges and Eco."

"The Snicket novels are morality tales, albeit twisted ones," observed Amy Benfer in her Salon.com review. "Among other things, Snicket tells children that one should never stay up late on a school night, except to finish a very good book; he insists that there is nothing worse than someone who can't play the violin but insists upon doing so anyway." Through his use of continual authorial intrusions, interjection of definitions, and insertion of stage directions, Handler "was mostly just knocking the heavy-handedness that I remembered from kid's books that I didn't like as a child," as he reported to Benfer. "That sort of mockery seems to really appeal to kids."

Asked by Zvirin if he viewed the end of his series with nostalgia, Handler responded: "A little. It's like watching your baby learn to walk or your child graduate from college … but that doesn't mean I'd want to do it again." However, the author admitted to Bookseller interviewer Caroline Horn that his literary career is far from over. "I plan to keep writing for children and adults," he said. "My problem isn't the search for ideas but how to whittle the ideas down." However, he added, in typically morose fashion, "if no one pays any more attention to me again as a writer, well, that will be exactly what I predicted all along."

BIOGRAPHICAL AND CRITICAL SOURCES:

BOOKS

Haugen, Hayley Mitchell, Daniel Handler: The Real Lemony Snicket, Gale (Detroit, MI), 2005.

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, 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.

Bookseller, May 19, 2006, Caroline Horn, "Lemony Snicket—A Happy Ending?," p. 32.

Christian Science Monitor, August 12, 1999, Ron Charles, review of The Bad Beginning and The Reptile Room, p. 21.

Entertainment Weekly, November 2, 2001, Daniel Fierman, review of The Hostile Hospital, p. 70; October 3, 2003, Alynda Wheat, review of The Slippery Slope, p. 79; September 24, 2004, Alynda Wheat, review of The Grim Grotto, p. 112; October 20, 2006, Alynda Wheat, review of The End, p. 86.

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.

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.

Newsweek, September 27, 2004, Malcolm Jones, interview with Lemony Snicket, p. 84.

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, p. 18.

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.

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, 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.

ONLINE

A Series of Unfortunate Events Web site,http://www.lemonysnicket.com (February 1, 2008).

BookBrowser.com, http://www.bookbrowser.com/ (July 15, 2000), Jonathan Shipley, review of Watch Your Mouth.

Lowell Online,http://www.thelowell.org/ (February 15, 1999), Philana Woo, "Author Reflects on High School Life."

Salon.com,http://www.salonmag.com/ (August 17, 2000), Amy Benfer, "The Mysterious Mr. Snicket."

Contemporary Authors, New Revision Series

Snicket, Lemony 1970–

views updated Jun 11 2018

Snicket, Lemony 1970–

(Daniel Handler)

Personal

Born Daniel Handler, February 28, 1970, in San Francisco, CA; married Lisa Brown (an art director); children: Otto. Education: Wesleyan University, graduated, 1992.

Addresses

Home—San Francisco, CA. E-mail—[email protected].

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.

Awards, Honors

Academy of American Poets Prize, 1990; Olin fellowship, 1992; Quill Award, 2006, for The Penultimate Peril.

Writings