Long time back when I heard somewhere the name “A Series of Unfortunate Events”, I was instantly fascinated. Is someone talking about me? Because what can be closer to the description than my own life! Later the details came under my radar about “A Series of Unfortunate Events” being a book series for children and others. The writer is Lemony Snicket. What a quirky name! Later I found out it is the pseudonym of American writer Daniel Handler.
Few years back we stayed in a hotel with a wonderful library. I took full advantage of the library. We stayed for a week. I borrowed one book each day and finished it. I don’t think I have read so many book at such short span of time ever in my life. The hotel stays almost merge with each other in my poor memory. However, this one-book-reading-per-one-day hotel stay remains in my mind forever in a separate place away from the merging.
Why am I writing all these mundane things about my life in details in a book review! Because the book is that. The deep philosophy in the mundane life and also because in that hotel stay I read the first book in the “A Series of Unfortunate Events” series.
I was instantly taken in by the beautiful language, honesty, wit, absurd style of the book. I feel children must read this series than Harry Potter series (personal opinion) because the language and theme are so much better. There is no sugar coating of facts. He is straight forward with children and in a sincere way he can convey cruel facts of life to children. And the plot is of course brilliant.
When I saw this book on social network feed I had to read it. My favourite genre is murder mystery and I love Lemony Snicket. How could I miss an opportunity to read a murder mystery by Snicket! A book titled Poison for Breakfast has to be a murder mystery, right!
No, it does not have to be!
The writer has himself referred the book as a bewildering one.
…this is a different sort of book than others you might have read it. It is different from other books I have written.
I loved the book so much that I can write pages and pages about it. But time is ticking (literally as I need to finish this piece before the year ends).
THE NARRATOR
Apparently, the narrator is the writer, Lemony Snicket himself. The narrator is also a writer and written the same books as the writer. Again and again the narrator claims everything mentioned in the book is truth. Broadly, he might be correct but there has to be some extent of fictionalisation of facts.
For instance he claims he does not like when people call him Lemony unless he asks them to. He prefers to be called Mr. Snicket and as Master Snicket when he was a boy. This can’t be true given the fact that his real name is not even Lemony Snicket. He has hidden few lies here and there maybe. As he has written in the book
THE PREMISE
To show how “bewildering” the book is let me give a short outline of the book without spoilers
Chapter One
The bewildering journey starts immediately after breakfast, when the writer/narrator finds a note saying “You had poison for breakfast”. That sends him off on an adventure to find out which breakfast item might have been poisoned. So there is a mystery factor in the book after all.
The things he eats in breakfast are
Tea
with honey,
a piece of toast
with cheese,
one sliced pear
and an egg perfectly prepared,
He reminiscent about a beach vacation from his childhood when he starts fixing his own breakfast.
Chapter Two
He logically explores his options and also gives the reasons why he can’t go to doctors or police. He decides to investigate himself about poison.
Chapter Three
As he gets out of house to investigate he sees his neighbour reading one of his favourite books.
It’s the sort of book that’s so terrific you are almost sorry when you first finish it, because you will never get to read it for the first time.
Then he talks about the reading experience of the book and paradoxes. Then he decided to investigate ingredients of each breakfast item.
Chapter Four
He goes to the tea store but it is closed. He talks about his love for stores when only single item is available. The bewilderment about the close down of the store on random day leads to him discussing about many bewilderments in life, especially from childhood as rarely anyone bothers to explain things to a child.
Chapter Five
He goes to the honey store. He talks about short stories collection translated by F. W. Bain from original Sanskrit manuscript. He discovers a bewildering truth about the collection from the honey seller.
Chapter Six
It is time to investigate water. He does not get anything. He talks about reading and the pleasure of rereading. Discovering the notes on the margin from the first reading!
Chapter Seven
While investigating bread, he philosophises about supermarkets.
Chapter Eight
He goes to a park mainly for the goats. He philosophises about everything and every being.
I have seen, of course, many birds whose names I do not know, but I have also seen people whose names I do not know,
Sometimes you can’t really tell when you are happy until it is over and you are thinking about it later.
Chapter Nine
He is still in the park and sees some pear lookalike poisonous fruits of a cactus. He has an interesting conversation on writing and translation works.
…but reading a book makes me feel as if I am in conversation with the author, often assisted by a translator..
In this chapter I encountered a line that is so wildly Murakamian
“I’ve eaten cactus myself…in an omelette with a woman who wouldn’t stop crying”
Chapter Ten
This about eggs. With the philosophical discourse on eggs versus chicken, he gives recipes of many egg dishes. The recipes are real albeit written in an ironical style.
Chapter Eleven
He goes to library to find answers. He narrates his love for books and also the power of imagination.
Chapter Twelve
He gets the solution and gives peek into his world of writing.
Chapter Thirteen
This is about his style of making notes before writing a book.
THE STYLE
The style of the book is trademark Lemony Snicket; ironic, witty, clever, and profound. He has written the whole book as if he is having a conversation with reader. That enhances the reading experience. One feels as if they are having a nice conversation with their favourite writer.
The book lies somewhere between fact and fiction, as written above.
It can be considered as a slice of life narration. The following line about life from the book explains the book befittingly.
Life is like this, and literature. Imaginary conversations and true stories mingling like languages in translation.
The narrator’s stream of consciousness can be seen in the book.
Snicket has beautifully incorporated repetitions of phrases, themes, ideas in the book. Like a poetry he repeats multiple times the items he eats in THE breakfast. He has used the phrase “A word which here means” widely in terms of unusual usage of words. He ponders a lot about the “finest hour” of a person and his.
The most oft-repeated word is “bewilderment”.
The book has used absurdity and hyperbole effectively.
The book is not exactly a graphic book but every now and then there are brilliant illustrations by Margaux Kent complimenting the narration.
Snicket has mentioned the illustrator in the text portion
…you must first walk halfway there, which the illustrator is marking with an apple because she is hungry.
THE THEMES
The chief theme of the book is philosophy. It is interesting to read two books on philosophy back to back. However, in terms of premise, presentation style, and ending these two books can’t be farther from each other. While The Mind of Adi Shankaracharya concludes Brahman is everything, everything is bewildering is the conclusion of Poison for Breakfast.
Mystery
The book has not only mystery about “who/what poisoned the breakfast” but also mystery about people and life in general. As mentioned above “bewilderment” is most used word in the book.
Book on books
The book is about the writer’s love of reading and books.
Remember what you learned, years ago: You’re never sorry you brought a book.
Throughout the books the writer talks about some literary pieces and how it has affected him. Each book/literary piece he has talked about in the book really exist. In the end of the book, there is Note, which lists all the books/literary pieces mentioned in the book. The Note also contains the music pieces he talks about.
The book has some major book recommendations.
Book on writing
As written above the writer has discussed in many places his writing methods.
END WORDS
This is one of the most relatable books, personally speaking. The lines in the book gave me thoughts from “can he read my mind?” to “is he my soulmate or what?”
This is one of the weirdest books I have read, standing somewhere near If on a Winter’s Night a Traveller. I would strongly recommend the book to everyone.
Musings 