Watch Your Mouth [Import] [Paperback]

Daniel Handler (Author)

Product Details

• Paperback: 300 pages
• Publisher: Harper Collins (2001)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0749005653
• ISBN-13: 978-0749005658
• Product Dimensions: 8.4 x 5.4 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 7 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (19 customer reviews)

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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.