A book that rather reminds me of Julian Barnes' "A History of the World in 10 1/2 Chapters", Adverbs is generally very skilfully written and offers some great insights about love. At times the links seem a little forced and a little obvious. ( )

I HATED THIS BOOK. HATED. I was hoping that I'd like it - Daniel Handler is also known as Lemony Snicket, and it seemed promising. Turns out is has no plot, the vignettes barely tie together, and NOTHING HAPPENS. I didn't care about any of the characters, the reader is given no reason to invest in them emotionally, and he's got this weird thing about magpies. The prose was pseudo-intellectual: at times it read like free-form poetry and I found myself wondering if it was just beyond my comprehension, but then I remembered that I'm really smart and I read A LOT and realized it's not me, it's that the book is badly written. It SUCKS. Reading this book was like a hate fuck. God DAMN I hated it, but I was going to finish it if it killed me. I'm done, and now I'm burning it. Stupid fucking book. ( )

I just read in someone else's review of this that Daniel Handler hangs out in the McSweeney's secret lair and cavorts with Ben Gibbard (of Death Cab for Cutie) and Colin Meloy (of Death Cab for Pirates).

That sounds about right.

This book is not dissolute and confusing because it serves its theme. It is dissolute and confusing because Mr. Handler was too busy sorting through his filing cabinet of one-liners and prefab situational jokes to surround them with anything resembling a novel

If he ever decides to put the work in, he'll probably write a good novel. ( )

prefer Snicket ( )

Love love love love love love love love. Let no one say it has no place in a modern story. This "novel" is a collection of related stories in which characters appear and reappear at different times in their lives; post-apocalyptic fables like those I lived through in college. Think Kris Kristofferson songs if Kris went to Santa Cruz for college in the mid-nineties. -Steve