Lemony Snicket bids farewell
All bad things come to an end – including the really, really unlucky run of accidents, crises and tragedies that have been befalling the three Baudelaire siblings in the Lemony Snicket children’s books.
“The End,” the 13th and final “Series of Unfortunate Events” book, goes on sale at 12:01 a.m. Friday – the 13th, of course. More than 50 million copies of the initial dozen have already been sold.
Daniel Handler, Snicket’s 36-year-old real-life alter-ego, discussed the series and its conclusion (in which at least two characters reportedly die) in a recent conversation from his San Francisco home:
Q.Is this the absolute final book in this series?
A.It is, indeed.
Q.No “Return of the Baudelaires” or “Baudelaires: Part 2”?
A.Not as far as I’m aware. And I think I would know.
Q.Following Sept. 11, there was a lot of talk that books such as yours, dealing with scary stuff, were helping children cope with the fear that was generated by the terrorist attacks. Looking back, do you think there was much to that theory?
A.I’m reluctant to take on that mantle of responsibility or pat myself on the back for being such a devout psychological aid (laughs.) But I was told by parents and educators and even by children themselves that, in those days, they found the books very comforting. As I wrote in an op-ed piece directly after 9/11, I found myself reading books that had scary things in them, but scary things that were packaged neatly. I read just about everything by Raymond Chandler in the weeks after 9/11. There are horrible things that happen in those books, and yet, because of their genre, it’s containable.
Q.You’ve mentioned in interviews that kids, even before 9/11, tell you about the real-life “unfortunate events” they’ve suffered. That must be a heavy burden for you. What do you do?
A.Listen with interest. It’s not that heavy a burden to hear about it. It strikes me as a very heavy burden for some of them to live through. I’m surprised that they would think to tell me these things, but I don’t find it difficult to listen to.
Q. What sort of things do they tell you?
A. Absolutely anything that you can imagine. But I certainly hear from a lot of children who’ve lost one or more parent under literally anything you could dream up – from disease to violent crime to all sorts of horrible accidents. Yeah, it’s a tough world.
Q. When kids tell you things, what do you say to them?
A. I say I’m sorry to hear that. I say the same thing that I would say to an adult who has lost somebody. The children are usually not in the raw stage of grief. I’m often told that I’m good at talking with children. I think it’s just because I don’t talk to them any different than I do to adults.
Q. As Daniel Handler, you’ve published three adult novels. Is there a different way you approach the planning or execution of a Lemony Snicket book and one of your adult novels?
A. Not really. I always tell people that I listen to gloomy Russian music while I’m writing the Snicket books – which is true. But the sad truth is that I’m listening to that all day long anyway: Shostakovich, Scriabin, Borodin.
Q. So, even when you write your adult novels, you’re listening to that music?
A. Even when I’m making pancakes.
Q. Who dies in “The End”?
A. All of us die in the end. Surely, the Chicago Tribune knows that.
Q. In your book, “The End,” who dies?
A. The point of life is that both villains and heroes alike end up buried.