Watch Your Mouth [Hardcover]

Daniel Handler (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: June 7, 2000

A golem is a creature made of clay that will rise up and do your bidding.The story of the golem is an old one, and nobody knows whether it's true or not.It's like an old family story in this way, or like the best sex of your life--did it happen the way you remember, or is it all just in your dirty mind?The summer Joseph lives with his girlfriend Cynthia and her family is something like an opera, and something like a twelve-step program, and Joseph wants very much to find out what's true and what's not.Does Cyn's father want Joseph to sleep with her, or does he want Cyn all to himself? Does Cyn's brother want to seduce his mother, or is this just one of his experiments?And speaking of experiments, what is Mrs. Glass building out of clay, late at night, in the basement?You can't always find out what's true about a family, but Joseph hopes that he can remember it in time.Because something is rising out of the river, and he really wants to know just whose bidding it's going to do. Tolstoy wrote that happy families are alike and that each unhappy family is unhappy in a different way.With WATCH YOUR MOUTH, Daniel Handler shows us just how different that way can be.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

So twisted that even its protagonist can't keep up with the perverse turns of plot, this melodramatic satire of family life trembles between virtuosity and utter collapse. Handler (The Basic Eight) sets up the first half of his comically warped novel as a mock opera, complete with stage and orchestra directions. Joseph, self-cast as the young hero, is a college student just finishing his junior year. Urged by his insatiable girlfriend, Cynthia Glass, to spend the summer sleeping by her side, Joseph moves in with her family in Pittsburgh, where the two plan to work as counselors at a Jewish day camp. Dinner at the Glass house the first night clues Joseph in to the family's bizarre fascinationsAincest, science, KabbalahAbut he still has no idea what he's getting into. After closer acquaintance with the creepily rational Dr. Glass (baritone), his high-strung, opera-loving wife, Mimi (soprano) and their precocious young son Stephen (tenor), he continues to be bemused, though unspeakable acts are clearly taking place offstage. Handler's baroque prose curls in elegant arabesques, but his elaborate plotting too often overwhelms his characters. Weakest of all is his portrait of the doomed Cynthia (with the obvious pun of her diminutive "Cyn"), who never quite emerges from Joseph's horny descriptions of their romance. After the opera-melodrama's weird but tantalizing climax, involving death and the golem myth, the novel actually recovers its narrative balance as the psychologically scarred Joseph turns to New Age recovery paperbacks, which replace opera as Handler's satiric model. Layered with coincidences and surprises, Joseph's on-the-lam nine-step self-help program achieves some of the novel's potential as a "Turn of the Screwball" black comedy. (July)
Copyright 2000 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Library Journal

Billed rather tastelessly by the publisher as an "incest comedy," Handler's second novel (following The Basic Eight) is ambitious but flawed. Joseph tells the story of a lust-filled college summer he spent with his Jewish girlfriend, Cyn ("Sin") Glass (think J.D. Salinger), and her "close-knit" family in Pittsburgh. The events in Part 1 of this Bildungsroman are treated as a four-act opera, complete with set and musical directions. The aftermath, Part 2, is packaged as a parody of the AA 12-step program. Sex between Joseph and his lovers (Cyn and those who follow) and Handler's clever writing provide entertainment, but the novel, like the golem in it (Joseph is convinced that Cyn's mother has made one), lacks the requisite soul for longevity. Purchase for comprehensive fiction collections or where there's demand for quirky, offbeat work like this.DRebecca Sturm Kelm, Northern Kentucky Univ. Lib., Highland Heights
Copyright 2000 Reed Business Information, Inc.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Hardcover: 272 pages
• Publisher: Thomas Dunne Books; 1st edition (June 7, 2000)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0312209401
• ISBN-13: 978-0312209407
• Product Dimensions: 8.6 x 5.8 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 14.6 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (19 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,457,675 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

25 of 25 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars You've never read a novel quite like this, September 11, 2002

By 

Glen Engel Cox (Columbus, Ohio) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Watch Your Mouth: A Novel (Paperback)

In case you haven't heard, Daniel Handler is the mastermind behind Lemony Snicket, author of the unlucky adventures of the three Baudelaire orphans. His success as Snicket seemed to have happened overnight, but he's been writing for a while it seems, with two adult novels (this one and The Basic Eight to his credit, both written before the Snicket books, I believe). In combination, it is quite clear that Handler is well on his way to becoming the 21st century Roald Dahl, who also wrote books for both adults and children that combined both whimsy and perversion.

And if you want perversion, you can't do much better than a comic novel about incest, which is what this book is. The structure of the book begins as an opera (it ties in to some community opera done by one of the characters), then mutates in Act III to be based on a 12-step program. Like Dahl in My Uncle Oswald, Handler isn't afraid of writing about sex, either. I was reading this on the airplane and I kept holding the book open at 90 degrees rather than the normal 180 just in case the fellow sitting next to me travelling with his young child might glance over and then alert the attendent to the pervert on the plane.

I'm not sure I liked this book, but I have to admit it was audacious, quite funny, and always unusual. The ending was disappointing as Handler went in for the more serious ending rather than really ending off as absurd as he began. All in all, this is an adult series of unfortunate events that is recommended for mature minds only.

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Even better than THE BASIC EIGHT!, July 17, 2000

By 

Rtheatley (Boston MA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Watch Your Mouth (Hardcover)

The Basic Eight was a fun first novel, but Handler outdoes himself with this one. Strange, sexy, scary and incredibly smart, this is an unearthly take on desire and family issues. I predict his cult following will only grow with this very weird but absolutely hypnotizing novel.

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars It's very sick, but I loved it for its bravery to be sick, March 13, 2003

By 

Audrey L. Orenstein "[e-mail]" (Needham, MA United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Watch Your Mouth: A Novel (Paperback)

When I discovered that Lemony Snicket was Daniel Handler I found this
book here. I saw the first few reviews and hoped this book was as unusual as it truly was. I was tired of reading what my book group read (sad women finding themselves and living happily ever after) - I wanted to be shocked and challenged and this book fit the bill! I loved it for being different, taking chances to write in a style of being an opera, to incorporate tough subjects for the pop culture (old Jewish mysiticim and incest). I know I need to read this book a second time to understand all the humor but I loved it for being "OUT" there where most readers won't go. Some parts reminded me of Bee Season and Feast of Love.