2010, undated later edition, from St. Martin's GriffinSusan J. DouglasThe Rise of Enlightened Sexism: How Pop Culture Took Us from Girl Power to Girls Gone WildBought newish for $16.99Slightly worn paperbackB-
This disappointing follow-up to Douglas's Where the Girls Are (1994) is not without its merits, but I do need to talk about its flaws first and foremost. To begin with, the earlier book was written from her perspective as a fortysomething Baby-Boomer, while this time she's a "Vintage Female" and the mother of a then-twenty-year-old daughter. She often writes here as if there was no generation of feminists in between, except for the riot-grrrls who produced music and zines. Well, I was born in 1968, and I can't relate to any of the TV covered here, from Xena and Buffy to Survivor and The Real World, or even ER. (I've seen more of the Elliott Gould sitcom of the same name!) I have seen several of the movies she discusses, and I do appreciate, for instance, her appreciation of Clueless, but I think she missed the boat on Mean Girls and most definitely Down with Love. I have seen a few celebrity magazines with the "baby bump" pictures. And I sort of followed the way Janet Reno, Hillary Clinton, and Sarah Palin were covered.
But this all may be a flaw in me as a reader, rather than her as a writer. So let's take a look at her title, which was changed from the hardcover edition, Enlightened Sexism: The Seductive Message That Feminism's Work Is Done. Douglas's thesis is that the American media present the following intertwined messages:
- Women have achieved all of feminism's goals, as evidenced by all those women in power in real life and more particularly on TV.
- Therefore, we can now relax and enjoy sexism "ironically," by showing retrograde images, like of scheming, skinny, large-breasted blondes. (Like in Marcotte's It's a Jungle out There. Sorry, I couldn't resist.)
The first part is what she calls "embedded feminism," where female bosses, judges, and even presidents appear as characters. She has a problem with this, because it doesn't reflect most women's lives. Well, no, neither did Bewitched, but she seemed to appreciate that in the previous book. Is the problem that what's shown on TV in recent decades, as opposed to the '50s and '60s, is meant to be real, even when it's contrived "reality TV"?
And, yes, as the more recent subtitle indicates, she does discuss the Spice Girls, and the ambiguity of their message. She doesn't even mention the equally British Hermione Granger, despite my earlier hopes, although there's quite a bit on Bridget Jones. It's as if she doesn't want to include any recent positive images of girl culture. Where the Girls Are was much more balanced.
Still, when she does what she does best, like examining the devolution of Cosmo or mocking Mel Gibson, the book is funny and, well, enlightening. If she does another follow-up, some fifteen or twenty years down the road, I hope that either I'll be more into the pop culture of that time than I am now, or she'll pick a wider range of examples.
2009, 2010 Beach Lane editionM. T. AndersonIllustrated by Kurt CyrusA Pals in Peril Tale: Jasper Dash and the Flame-Pits of DelawareBought newish for $6.99Slightly worn paperbackB-
While the idea of treating the state of Delaware as an exotic, forbidding land is amusing, I found this to be the least funny of the series so far. (The letter from the real Governor of Delaware, reprinted in the back, is as witty as Anderson at his best here.) However, the Cyrus illustrations are his best yet, especially the two-page spreads of the wondrous sights of Dover. Of the writing, I most enjoyed the logic puzzle, which Anderson has the characters solve, deconstruct, and then reconstruct. There's an excerpt from the next book, Agent Q, or the Smell of Danger!, but I'm not interested enough in the series (now, as you'll notice, renamed from M. T. Anderson's Thrilling Tales) to continue anytime soon.
2008, first edition, from HarperCollinsMaureen McCormickHere's the Story: Surviving Marcia Brady and Finding My True VoiceOriginal price $25.95, bought used for $20.76Hardcover in good conditionB-
Although this book is partly about McCormick dealing with the mixed legacy of her role as Marcia, there's not terribly much about the show or her life during that time. Mostly, it's about the years afterwards, as she struggled with drug addiction and other serious problems. Her family seems to have been very dysfunctional, from the beginning to the end. (The last few chapters discuss her brother's elder abuse of their father.)
It's an interesting read but, like other books of its time, it could've used a better editor. Not only does she make mistakes about The Brady Bunch, things any fan could've fact-checked for her, but she thinks her hair is "chestnut," which is not a synonym for blonde. There are typos as well. And it felt like she rushed through the last twenty years or so.
Although Susan Olsen (little sister Cindy) hasn't yet written an autobiography, she will have her say on the Brady legacy in the book she cowrote, Love to Love You Bradys: The Bizarre Story of The Brady Bunch Variety Hour, coming up in '09....
2008 edition updating from '06, from Seven Stories PressStuart Ewen & Elizabeth EwenTypecasting: On the Arts and Sciences of Human InequalityOriginal price unknown, purchase price $14.00Slightly worn paperbackB-
The Ewens take a look at the ways that people (mostly white male Europeans and Americans of the last two or three centuries) have tried to label others, using dubious science (some of which threw out data that contradicted the thesis), as well as various forms of art and entertainment. I found the book to be a bit unfocused, and there were some distracting typos, most oddly enough involving the word "the." However, there is some interesting information, from a 1910ish intelligence test to the Russian attitude towards "Caucasians." Some of it's funny, but some of it's tragic, like the fate of Saartjie Baartmann, the Khosian woman who was exploited during her life and mutilated after her death, all in the cause of "scientific inquiry."
Yes, the Ewens discuss The Birth of a Nation, as well as other early movies. Although there are times that they make connections to the present, such as wondering what "your face is destiny" theorists would've done in the modern world of make-up, contact lenses, and plastic surgery, the book would've been strengthened by more on the post-World-War-II era.
2006, 2007 Random House edition
Anne Tyler
Digging to America
Original price $14.95, purchase price 75 cents
Very worn paperback
B-
Just as Snicket's End isn't about wrapping up the Baudelaire saga, this book isn't, as you might think at first, about foreign adoption. It's not even about what it's like to be Iranian-American in the period a few years before to a few years after 9/11. It's mostly about how an aloof woman in late middle age learns to love and accept people she initially finds annoying. As such, it's not bad, and Tyler (whose late husband was Iranian) makes Maryam Yazdan sympathetic, if not exactly likable. She's less successful with the other characters, but even bossy Bitsy wins Maryam and the reader over a bit by the end.
This is Tyler's seventeenth novel, and the thirteenth and last I'm reviewing, although she's published a couple since. In my opinion, she never became a great writer, but she is at times a good one. She at least has come a long way since 1964's If Morning Ever Comes, although what I said of that novel, "In particular, I can't understand why any of the characters make the decisions about romance they do, including Ben Joe's elopement with an ex-girlfriend. So much of who ends up with whom feels arbitrary, and not in an ironic Jane Austen sort of manner," is just as applicable to this one.
This finishes off not only Anne Tyler and 2006, but the current bookcase, which began with Atwood's Robber Bride (1993).
2006, first edition, from HarperCollins
Lemony Snicket
Illustrated by Brett Helquist
A Series of Unfortunate Events, Book the Thirteenth: The End
Bought new for $12.99
Hardcover in good condition
B-
And so it ends. Not with alliteration, not with all the mysteries solved, not with a bang. The once over-the-top satiric series has morphed into a philosophical question, so that among the references to Erewhon, Caliban, and the like, it seems like there should be a mention of Utopia. In the mid-aughts, my book collection is full of war, invasion, fear, paranoia, betrayal, and abandonment. Yet here the Baudelaires ponder whether it's better to be protected or to be informed. Not coincidentally, a benign snake offers them bitter apples that save their lives.
I miss what the series was, but all things considered, and with over seven years' hindsight, I'm OK with this ending.
2006, "a leatherbound signed edition of this book has been published by the Easton Press," obviously this is not that edition, but it's probably '06, from HyperionBob NewhartI Shouldn't Even Be Doing This!, and Other Things That Strike Me as Funny
Original price unknown, purchase price $5.60Hardcover in good conditionB-
I laughed out loud at this book, especially his recounting of his exchanges with the likes of Johnny Carson and Dean Martin, but I found the long excerpts from his "classic" routines fell flat, partly because the humor hasn't aged well and partly because we need to hear his inflection on the lines, much more in a monologue than a dialogue. Also, some of the material here has been presented elsewhere, including on the audio commentaries for his '70s sitcom. Yes, he does address his Danzaing, how everyone of his shows has at least part of his name. (George of George & Leo comes from his real first name.)
This isn't a strict biography, since it doesn't talk about all of his life. (Ironically, while he discusses his Catholicism a bit, he tells the joke that the book's title is from differently than I've heard it, where it goes, "I'm Catholic. I shouldn't even be doing this.") It's more a collection of anecdotes. Still, it's entertaining enough, and I especially recommend it to his fans, as long as they're not expecting anything as good as the best of his comedy.
2006, first edition, from BloomsburyAndreas Killen1973 Nervous Breakdown: Watergate, Warhol, and the Birth of Post-Sixties AmericaOriginal price $24.95, purchase price $1.00Hardcover in good conditionB-
This is only the second time I've read this book, and I'm still not sure if I like it, or even if it's a book that can be "liked." Killen focuses on the pivotal year 1973, with some looks forward and back, but not only is this far from my favorite year of the 1970s, I don't think of most of the topics that he focuses on, Watergate aside. POWs, skyjackers, and religious cults are not terribly interesting to me. Even when Killen focuses on pop culture besides Warhol, it's things that I've never seen or heard, like the New York Dolls, Fear of Flying, Badlands, and An American Family (the reality-TV pioneer about the Loud family), or ones that aren't very meaningful to me, like American Graffiti. (Even so, I felt like like I knew that movie better than Killen, since he thinks Wolfman Jack is "a person of color.") Also, it seems wrong that Ronald Reagan is repeatedly mentioned, sometimes as being elected "at the end of the decade," while Carter merits only one mention, for pardoning Patty Hearst. True, few outside Georgia knew who Carter was in 1973, while Reagan was a nationally known Governor of California, but couldn't Killen have connected Carter's election with the breakdown of three years earlier?
Still, I found the book well written and sometimes insightful. I'll give Killen kudos for presenting 1973 as it seemed to him and making it more interesting than I expected. And if it was true seven (almost eight) years ago that we were still experiencing the aftershocks of that earthquake of a year, it's still true now.
2006, first edition, from Harcourt, Inc.M. T. AndersonIllustrated by Kurt CyrusM. T. Anderson's Thrilling Tales: The Clue of the Linoleum LederhosenBought new for $15.00Hardcover in good conditionB-
Although there are some nice touches here, from the title to the gathering of children's book series heroes and heroines at a hotel (no, not the Denouement), to the bittersweet realization that Katie is stuck in 1998, and Jasper much further back, I don't think this is as strong as Whales. For one thing, I could've done without the long descriptions of Jasper suffocating in his own snot. For another, the Manley Boys just aren't as funny as Maney's Hardly Boys. Even Cyrus's illustrations aren't quite as good as last time, although I think the geometric "pool-floating" one is great. As I recall, my reservations are why I got the third book, 2009's Jasper Dash and the Flame-Pits of Delaware, from the library rather than buying it. But I also recall that I liked it more than this entry, so I've put it on order and will let you know what I think this time around.
2006, first edition, from HarperCollinsChristopher AndersenBarbra: The Way She IsOriginal price $25.95, purchase price $7.80Hardcover in good conditionB-
Not since Schorer's Sinclair Lewis: An American Life (1961), have I come across a biographer who seems to dislike his subject so much. This book can be summed up as "Barbra Streisand is very talented and very bitchy." Other than his attitude, and his frequent misuse of "proverbial" (hint, is the item actually in a proverb?), the book isn't bad. Andersen traces Barbra's life through her unhappy childhood, her awkward adolescence, and on to more than four decades of (super)stardom. Although I've followed her career off and on (seeing a movie or two every decade), I'm not a huge fan, and there was much here I didn't know. However, Andersen does jump to conclusions, as when he strongly implies that Streisand had an affair with Bill Clinton. (Not that that's implausible of course.) And he seems to exaggerate her neglect of her sister.
One thing that does come through the book, whether or not Barbra is a good person, she is very witty! If she ever writes her autobiography, I'd love to read it, even if she doesn't quite tell all.
Since Andersen discusses Streisand's creative endeavors, in between the gossip, I'm using all these "criticism" tags. And, yes, I'm also using the "LGBT" tag, in honor of Barbra's son and many of her fans, and because of course the subject of homosexuality comes up repeatedly.
2005, first edition, from HarperCollinsLemony SnicketIllustrated by Brett HelquistA Series of Unfortunate Events, Book the Twelfth: The Penultimate PerilOriginal price $11.99, purchase price $4.80Hardcover in good conditionB-
Well, at least Olaf drops his annoying laugh. Here in the, yes, next to last book, there are still many loose ends, and I'm not really sure what the point is in having so many of the earlier characters show up in The Hotel Denouement, but hey, at least Snicket continues to expand kids' vocabularies. I didn't notice any sexual humor this time, but he does make it clear that the Squalors are still married, and that Kit Snicket (Lemony's sister) is pregnant and probably unmarried. He also continues the questioning of good and evil, with the Baudelaires accidentally killing someone! For a satiric series aimed at preteens, this is pretty heavy stuff.
2005, British hardcover Bloomsbury first edition, American hardcover Scholastic first editionJ. K. RowlingAmerican edition illustrated by Mary GrandpreHarry Potter and the Half-Blood PrinceBritish edition bought new for 16.99, American bought new for $29.99Both in good conditionB-
OK, I still think this is the weakest book in the series. It starts out with two chapters that, while not as unnecessary as "Hagrid's Tale" in the previous book, really don't work. The worse chapter is first, "The Other Minister," where we see the Muggle British Prime Minister (John Major in the real summer of 1996, except that this one has a male predecessor) meeting with Fudge and his successor, the almost unpronounceable Scrimgeour. There's little information here that isn't conveyed elsewhere, and more efficiently, and I don't find the chapter nearly as funny as Rowling seems to. (The funniest thing is actually what one of my friends noticed at the time, that the American edition uses "site" for "sight.") I think it's perfectly fine that this chapter was left out of the movie. It does show the political parallels between the Muggle and magical worlds, but I think the later list of "simple security guidelines," including the impossible "You are advised not to leave the house alone," is much sharper satire, especially in light of Code Orange and all.
As for the second chapter, it's better, but it has bad-fanfic overtones, as when Narcissa Malfoy falls on her knees in front of Snape. (To plead for Snape's help for Draco. This isn't actually fanfic.)
Fandom uses an abbreviation OOC for "out of character," and that's the main issue I have with this book, particularly in the characterisation of the female characters, a shame after the triumphs of Order. I've read this book enough times now that it doesn't bother me as much as it used to, but I still don't like Hermione attacking Ron with magic birds, or Ginny being Fred-and-George cruel to Ron. Yes, they're both provoked, but I felt like they went beyond what was necessary, or what was true to their earlier characterisation. And we have usually lively, joking Tonks moping around over Lupin. Only Luna seems like her previous self, and I think that's partly due to the amazing Evanna Lynch, whom Rowling has admitted is the only actor or actress whose portrayal has affected her mind's eye view of her characters.
Other signs of the movies affecting Rowling include not only the previously mentioned "punch" of Draco by Hermione (the slap was in character by the way), but the little shout-outs to Rupert Grint. At the time this book was published, we were four months away from Movie Four. Fandom was only strengthened by the movies of course, and I suspect that all the slashy lines, such as Harry being "obsessed" by Draco, and Snape saying he'll decide how hard to be on/with Draco, are deliberate teases by Rowling.
One thing that I think is much better in the book than the movie is the visit to the cave, which contains some of Rowling's best description. I have mixed feelings about the Pensieve memories being cut back. I don't think it's Rowling's best writing, but there is some important information there. I also think the movie bungled the explanation of Horcruxes, but I'll go into that someday when I've got a movie blog.
I will note that Grandpre is finally drawing the characters as if they're older than twelve. Her green-toned cover art is good, on the front showing Harry and Dumbledore looking at the basin with the locket, on the back picturing Ron, Hermione, and Ginny gazing up at the Dark Mark. I haven't really mentioned the British cover art, partly because it always seems to be by a different artist, but this time it complements the American: Harry and Dumbledore surrounded by fire on the front, and on the back the basin in the middle of the lake.
2004 update from 2003, published by Warner BooksMichael MooreDude, Where's My Country?Bought newish for $14.95Worn paperbackB-
It's been awhile since I've seen Dude, Where's My Car?, so correct me if I'm wrong, but isn't the car actually physically missing? And in this book, Moore says you can't have a war with a noun, like "terror." I think he means an abstract noun, but maybe he doesn't actually know what "country" means. I'm not questioning his patriotism. He's probably more patriotic than I am, since he actually gives a shit, while I've spent the dozen years since 9/11/01 doing my best to not follow the news, although feeling guilty about it and sometimes compensating with purchases such as this. (Ironically, I first saw the attacks in Moore's Fahrenheit 9/11, since I've never hooked up my TV to anything but my VCR and DVD player, and I bought them all earlier in 2001.) I just think he's again chosen a bad title.
This time he of course addresses that War on Terror, as well as the war against civil liberties at home. He's still very confrontational, but arguably less so. (2003 was, however, the year he made his "fictitious" speech at the Oscars.) He thinks that there's a great deal of consensus in America, and you can make common cause with your conservative brother-in-law, provided you admit that liberals are wrong about some things, like MTV. (What happened to MTV being hated by feminists? Now we find out that the liberals are to blame?) Oh, and "your children do not have a right to privacy and you better pay attention to what they're up to." Yes, parents should be involved, but guess what? Kids (especially teens) have legal rights, including to privacy. (Or does pro-choice Moore want to argue for parental consent laws for abortion?)
In Googling Moore before writing this review and the previous one, I saw that he's been criticized for portraying himself as a working-class hero, when he's actually "rich." Well, I guess it depends on how you define "rich." He's no Trump, but he's financially comfortable, as he tells us in this and Stupid White Men, like in the chapter here called "Woo Hoo! I Got Me a Tax Cut!"
Moore seems to be one of those love-'em-or-hate-'em divisive sorts that I can't get too worked up about either way. (Madonna is my ur-example for music.) I find him somewhat entertaining and informative, if taken with a grain of salt, but after following his career from roughly '02 to '05 I lost track of him and didn't really care. Revisiting that time through these books has taken me back a bit, and I will rewatch Fahrenheit next year for its tenth anniversary.
2004 update from 2001, published by HarperCollinsMichael MooreStupid White Men...And Other Sorry Excuses for the State of the Nation!Bought newish for $13.95Worn paperbackB-
Moore generally is not good at titling his works. For instance, his Oscar-winning documentary sounds like the old show Bowling for Dollars, with purple flowers substituted for money. In this case, he was inevitably setting himself up, so it's not surprising that it inspired the "answer book" (sort of like an answer song) Michael Moore Is a Big Fat Stupid White Man. The thing is, Moore at various points in this book says he's not proud of being (somewhat) stupid, white, or male. Some of those he attacks aren't white and/or male, but he considers, for instance, Condi Rice and Colin Powell "honorary white men." And the problem isn't really that these are stupid people. (Even George W. is simply inarticulate, like his father.) The problem is that they're cruel and/or greedy. But that might've made for too wishy-washy a title. And Moore is all about being in your face, in a humorous way.
Yeah, I think the book is funny, although I wouldn't put it in humor (as I might with Ivins), because the line between Moore being satirical and being outspoken is always blurry. When he tells women to buy a stepladder so they won't have to rely on men, I suppose it's pointless to mention that some women can reach cupboards just fine. (I'm 5'3" and when I had lunch with an ex-girlfriend recently, I recalled that she's seven inches taller than I am!) It's the same for some of his more "serious" suggestions.
This book was originally published right before September 11, 2001, but held back by the publisher for a few months. It still went on to be a best-seller. Moore has added footnoted updates for this edition, including on Enron, which was just about to break in '01. He goes into quite a bit of detail on the 2000 Presidential election, and even if you've seen Fahrenheit 9/11 (a good title choice that time), it's worth rereading, especially with hindsight.
2004, undated later edition, from Houghton Mifflin
Lisa Jahn-Clough
Country Girl, City Girl
Bought newish for $6.99
Slightly worn paperback
B-
This was published a generation after Nancy Garden's Annie on My Mind (1982), and it's interesting to look at the similarities and differences. As the title suggests, part of the book is set in the country (rural Maine) and part in New York City, as opposed to all in NYC in Annie. You might expect a dual narrative, but it's all from the perspective of thirteen-year-old country girl Phoebe, who meets fourteen-year-old Melita, the daughter of the best friend of Phoebe's late mother. The passage of time seems to have allowed for greater explicitness. Instead of "heck" and "damn" being the strongest swears, the S-bomb is dropped a few times. Also, there are more mentions of breasts than in Garden's book. And yet, perhaps because the girls are younger, they never do more than kiss. They also come across as more bi-curious than definitely lesbian, and we don't even get a delayed Happy Ending, since the girls don't end up together. (Phoebe does make another new friend, but it's not indicated that this friendship will turn romantic.)
I said that Annie was quaint and "timeless." Here, there are more contemporary (or at least '90s) touches, like an androgynous barista and mentions of hair-dying, piercing, and tattoos, as well as the girls staging a "postmodern, feminist" fairy tale "fashion show." I did find that the dialogue was more natural than in Annie. However, I didn't particularly like Melita, so I wasn't especially rooting for her and Phoebe as a couple. Perhaps it would've been better to have half the book from her viewpoint, although admittedly that didn't work too well when Danziger gave her Phoebe and Rosie each a book.
2004, possibly first edition, from VikingJim HightowerLet's Stop Beating Around the Bush: More Political SubversionOriginal and purchase price unknownHardcover in pretty good condition except for torn dustjacketB-
Unlike Michael Moore (coming up twice later in '04, for reasons I'll explain then), Hightower seems to be more interested in domestic policy than foreign, although they overlapped when it came to Attorney General Ashcroft, who did indeed say, "To those who scare peace-loving people with phantoms of lost liberty, my message is this: your tactics only aid terrorists." So there's a lot more here about the environment and the economy than on wars and elections, but that was true of Hightower's Dead Armadillos book in the days of Clinton.
To mix things up a bit, this time there are illustrations and puzzles, the latter solvable if you've read the chapter, sort of like in a junior/senior-high Civics class. You could probably guess the five-letter word for "Former President who looks like the Jolly Green Giant [environmentally] compared to George W," even if you hadn't read the chapter, since there were then only five possibilities. (No, I don't count Van Buren.)
2003, first edition, from Hyperion
Mo Willems
Don't Let the Pigeon Drive the Bus!
Bought newish for $12.99
Good condition hardcover
B-
The first picture book on here in over a dozen years, since Seuss's Oh, the Places You'll Go! (1990), shows a children's author at the beginning, rather than the end, of his career. Willems has written many more books since, including a few more about the Pigeon. This title character is like a spoiled, manipulative, yet likable child. He addresses the reader directly, and we're meant to discourage him from driving the bus, even when he throws a tantrum. Still, he's unsinkable, and in the endpapers he dreams of driving a truck.
Willems has a simple, retro art style, here sort of like 1950s animated commercials. I wouldn't say this is the best of his output-- the Knufflebunny books and Elephant and Piggie beginning reader series are arguably better-- but it's a fine debut.
I could say that we've got only a decade left for this project, but actually at this point my most recent books are from 2011, so unless I get, say, the latest Bridget Jones (and I'm waiting for that to come out in paperback), we're only eight years from the end.
2003, 2004 Overdue Media editionBill Barnes and Gene AmbaumUnshelved, Volume 1Bought new for $14.95Worn paperback, with autographs and the message to "read responsibly!"B-
This life-in-a-library comic strip has somewhat exaggerated situations that anyone who deals with the public, and not just in libraries, can relate to. I didn't find it hilarious and the art, particularly early on, is primitive, but there are some amusing moments, especially with the library mascot. There's a less "radical" view of libraries here than in Mo's decision to become a librarian, but we do see the staff coping with censorship, including computer filters.
Unshelved is still around and there are of course later volumes, but I've never been a big enough fan to continue collecting. (Yeah, smart-ass, I have checked some out from the library.)
2002 first published in book form in Japan, although as a comic in 2000, this TokyoPop translation from 2005Natsuki TakayaFruits Basket, Volume 8Bought newish for $9.99Slightly worn paperbackB-
This does have one of the characters that made it into the anime (which shuffles things around more than I realized), the "monkey" Sohma, Ritchan, who's just as hysterical (in the over-reacting, not funny, sense) as his mother the hot springs "concubine." I find him annoying, and I wasn't that into the other stories, but I thought the "haunted house" sequence was great and I wish that had been animated.
There were fifteen volumes after this, a few of which I read, but I didn't care enough to buy them, or keep going. Mostly I see the books as a supplement to the anime, rather than the other way round, but they're somewhat entertaining on their own.
2002, first edition, from HarperCollins
Lemony Snicket
Illustrated by Brett Helquist
A Series of Unfortunate Events, Book the Ninth: The Carnivorous Carnival
Original price $10.99, purchase price $4.80
Hardcover in good condition
B-
While better than the autobiography, this entry is still not Snicket at the top of his game. I did like the discussion of whether evil acts, like lying, are evil if they're done by good people for good reasons. But at this point, I think it was wrong to have the Baudelaires be rootless wanderers. When they were with guardians who were supposed to take care of them in one place, no matter how much the guardians failed at this, it rooted not just the siblings but the story. In this one, there's no reason for them to stick around the carnival (more of a circus really), except to eavesdrop. And, yes, I don't find myself laughing out loud at the humor anymore. The series is still better than a lot of other children's series, but it's not living up to its initial promise. Snicket does top himself with his most outrageous sex joke so far: under a discussion of French terms, he has "'la petite mort,' which describes a feeling that part of you has died." Since he's mainly discussing de ja vu, this allows him to repeat the joke three times! (At least when Ruth Plumly Thompson did this stuff, there was a chance she didn't realize what she was saying.)
The best illustration this time is definitely Esme's gown with the "I [heart] Freaks" banner.
