January 21, 2015
These A Series of Unfortunate Events books are perfect for my classroom reading. I read about 10 minutes a day with each of my three reading sections, and can easily get through a chapter or more in each session. I'll probably be able to finish all 13 by the end of the school year, if I'm still delighted as I continue on. So far so good.
What I really love about the series is the voice of the fictitious author/narrator. Lemony Snicket is more of a presence in this second installment than in the first. He is "investigating" the lives of the Baudelaires, and with some secrecy, too. This adds intrigue to the dilemmas that the children face: how will it all end up? Because I get the feeling that creepy Count Olaf is never going to fucking stop until he gets his way, or he gets killed.
In this book, after the daft Mr. Poe realizes the truth about Olaf (though the villain escapes, to continue his terrorizing of the children), he places them with another distant relative, whom they call Uncle Monty. The kids like Uncle Monty, the snake collector and expert, quite a bit, especially after their experiences with Olaf. But Monty is just as dense as any other adult that these kids have to deal with. He's kind of a dick to Klaus, too, snapping at him at least a couple of times. But the kids have a place in Monty's home and in his life, and he excitedly prepares to take them on an expedition to Peru.
But then, dastardly Olaf comes along in disguise as a new assistant for Monty, having killed his previous one to get the spot. Olaf also kills Monty in cold blood, making it look like a snake attack. I felt the children's frustration as they tried to work around Olaf's violent threats, and when Mr. Poe comes along with luggage for the kids, they of course can't readily convince him that "Stephano" the bald assistant is really Olaf. But the kids, clever and resourceful, finally manage to expose the truth to the knucklehead. But Olaf still escapes.
I've written before that in children's and YA literature, it's very common for children to be smarter than adults. But the scariest thing for the Baudelaires isn't the unrelenting violence of Olaf, but rather the fact that their very lives are in the hands of irrational adults, who constantly put the children in their place. Mr. Poe makes all these important decisions for the kids, but he doesn't really know them, and he's an idiot and seems oblivious to the fact that they're in real, constant danger. So honestly, even though Olaf is absolutely wicked, Poe is another kind of evil himself.
I've started in on the third book. I'm thinking there will be a pattern to this: the kids get sent to a new, strange relative; a disguised Olaf worms his way in and bumps off said relative; the kids outsmart him, saving themselves though he escapes. I hope the next 11 books don't stick strictly to that pattern, but I think the quality of the writing, and my growing interest in the sometimes seen narrator, will keep me reading regardless.
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