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Sunday, Nov 8, 2009
So Handler thought about the books he didn't like when he was 10. In the pre-Harry Potter years, books for 10-year-old boys, according to Handler, fell into one of two categories: a) hardcore fantasy, and b) books about sports.
Handler, who was not one of those teenagers who spend their days playing Dungeons and Dragons, didn't think much of hardcore fantasy. ("I started the first chapter of "The Hobbitt" about 19 times and never finished it.") And as for books about sports, Handler says, "The idea that a bookworm boy would want to read about sports always cracked me up. That is exactly what the bookworm boys read books to get away from. They're hiding from the teacher at recess because they don't want to play kickball, and then the teacher is like, 'Here, read this book about a hockey team!'"
But Handler was in possession of the first 90 pages of a mock-Gothic novel for adults that he had started years before it was suggested that he write a children's book. (He had dropped the novel when it seemed he couldn't take the idea any further.) He thought about the writers he did like -- Roald Dahl, Edward Gorey. And, eventually, he wrote "A Series of Unfortunate Events," a series for children ages 10 and older, that was, appropriately enough for a Gothic novel, "cannibalized from the ruins" of his unrealized adult novel.
In his pre-Snicket days, Handler, now 30, already was doing well for a young literary novelist. "The Basic Eight" was favorably reviewed in the New Yorker, Publisher's Weekly and the New York Post, among others, and optioned by New Regency Pictures. His uncanny prescience for the Zeitgeist didn't hurt: Handler's first novel dealt with teenage murder, and hit stores a month before Columbine, and his second novel, "Watch Your Mouth," is an mock-operatic incest comedy which includes in its press materials the disclaimer "Daniel Handler has never slept with a family member." (A Canadian newspaper called Handler for a quote right after Angelina Jolie slobbered all over her brother at the Oscars.)
Handler swears that he and Snicket don't allow competitive feelings to get in the way of a good working relationship. They don't, he assures me, compare rankings on Amazon.com. (Handler's wife, Lisa Brown, is the only family member who regularly trawls Amazon.) But if they did compete, Snicket would kick Handler's ass in the retail realm.
"There's no competition, really," says Handler. "The children's books are selling like hotcakes. And the adult novels are selling like strange literary novels for adults. The market for incest comedies would suddenly have to burst wide open for the adult novels to catch up with Snicket."
The Snicket series follows the misfortunes of the Baudelaire siblings -- Violet, Klaus and Sunny -- whose loving and wealthy parents perish in a fire on Page 8 of "The Bad Beginning," leaving them with a large fortune that, unfortunately, cannot be claimed until Violet, the eldest at 14, reaches adulthood. In the meantime the Baudelaire siblings are required to live with a blood relative, which is unfortunate since every blood relative they encounter is incompetent, cruel or dead by the end of each novel.
Another perennial subplot in the series involves the necessity of the siblings to escape the clutches of dastardly Count Olaf, a foul and dissolute personage who keeps a messy house and has a penchant for wine (unlike the Baudelaires' parents, who lived in a comfortable house full of books, loved their children dearly and appear to have been quite temperate.)
Count Olaf claims to be the orphans' long-lost uncle, which may or may not be true. What is certain is that the count is only after the Baudelaire fortune and will stop at nothing -- deceit, abuse, even murder -- to have it. And because the count is an actor by trade, he is a master of disguise with his own troupe of thespian henchmen. The bumbling adults meant to protect and defend the children consistently refuse to see that -- take your pick: Stephano the new lab assistant or Coach Gengis the athletic director or Shirley the receptionist or Captain Sham the boat rental guy -- is really Count Olaf in disguise.
"One question that adults always ask is 'Why doesn't he just steal the fortune?'" says Handler. "Clearly, the answer is that he likes dressing up in outfits and scaring children. That makes him scarier." And to those who believe that a grown man who slaps one child, tries to marry another and causes the death of a kindly uncle is a bit too scary, Handler says, "I have no apologies for how the villain behaves. If he were nicer, he wouldn't be a villain."
