“Life is a turbulent journey, fraught with confusion, heartbreak and inconvenience. This book will not help.”
Such are the immediately recognizable words, on the back of a hardcover’s dust jacket, from Lemony Snicket, pseudo-author of the wonderfully sad books known collectively as A Series of Unfortunate Events. Snicket continues his trademark dark humor in this short book called Horseradish, a compilation of short passages and proverbial one-liners about what he refers to as the inescapable truths of life.
His thoughts and observations have a voice all their own, written with sharp wit, acute insight, and a hint of sadness at his own observations. The tone is quite unlike anything you will find by any other author, even those whose styles speak directly to the reader, as Snicket’s does.
However, this book is not considered supplementary reading material to A Series of Unfortunate Events. It can be enjoyed regardless of whether or not the reader lacks knowledge of Snicket’s previous works because of its diversity of topics divided into the following chapters:
- Home
- Family
- School
- Work
- Entertainment
- Literature
- Travel
- Emotional Health
- Affairs of the Heart
- A Life of Mystery
- The Mystery of Life
- An Overall Feeling of Doom That One Cannot Ever Escape No Matter What One Does
- Miscellaneous
That being said, fans of Unfortunate Events may want to consider picking this up for a light read, given that they will be more accustomed to Snicket’s despondent prose and because many of the bitter truths found therein relate to the plight of the Baudelaire orphans.
