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Driven to distraction. When he isn't writing dark, offbeat tales for children as Lemony Snicket, Daniel Handler writes dark, offbeat tales for adults, and this collection forms a strange tapestry of stories about how and why his various characters experience love. Particularly, truly, obviously, collectively, frigidly - Handler drinks deep from his dictionary to uncover emotions that, however they’re felt, are hardwired into his cast.Some are more successful than others - the man who is besieged in his house by passers-by isn't a patch on the woman who fears for the loss of her terminally-ill friend. And when the author uses one story to highlight the connecting threads it rests uneasily on that thin line between skilled demolition of the fourth wall and being a smart arse. Characters reappear throughout, or it might just be that they have the same names. This, along with the eclectic themes (cocktails, magpies, the Snow Queen and a volcano lurking beneath San Francisco), creates the “impression” of a novel, despite the actual structure of the book. Handler's leftfield style will either thrill or infuriate, but, whatever your opinion, he's certainly original. Adverbs by Daniel Handler, out now published by 4th Estate.
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