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The Basic Eight (Paperback)

~ (Author) "One of the reasons the teenage years are so agonizing that in most societies, particularly ours, the adolescent is emotionally neither fish nor fowl..." (more)
Key Phrases: absinthe abuse, important semester, fingering her pearls, Jennifer Rose Milton, Basic Eight, Flora Habstat (more...)
4.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (101 customer reviews)

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Amazon Price New from Used from
  Kindle Edition, December 4, 2007 $8.79 -- --
  Hardcover, March 31, 1999 -- $94.60 $2.12
  Paperback, April 30, 2006 $12.59 $4.70 $1.23
  Paperback, March 2000 -- $3.24 $0.01

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Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Flannery Culp is 19, precocious, pretentiousAand incarcerated. Accused of Satanism and convicted of murder, she and her seven friends (the "Basic Eight") have been reviled and misunderstood on the Winnie Moprah Show and similar tabloid venues. So Flannery has typed up and annotated the journals of her high school years in order to tell her real story: "Perhaps they'll look at my name under the introduction with disdain, expecting apologies or pleas for pity. I have none here." Handler's sharply observed, mischievous first novel consists of Flannery's diaries from the beginning of her senior year to the Halloween murder of Adam State and its aftermath. The journals detail Flan's life in her clique of upper-middle-class San Francisco school friends, who desperately emulate adulthood by throwing dinner parties and carrying liquor flasks. Kate ("the Queen Bee"), Natasha ("less like a high school student and more like an actress playing a high school student on TV"), Gabriel ("the kindest boy in the world" and in love with Flan) and the rest begin experimenting with the hallucinogen absinthe. Squabbles once easily resolved grow deeper and darker when Natasha poisons the biology teacher who has been tormenting Flan. Should the Basic Eight turn on, and turn in, one of their own? Handler deftly keeps the mood light even as the plot careens forward, and as FlanAnever a reliable narratorAbecomes increasingly unhinged. The links between teen social life, tabloid culture and serious violence have been explored and exploited before, but Handler, and Flannery, know that. If they're not the first to use such material, they may well be the coolest. Handler's confident satire is not only cheeky but packed with downright lovable characters whose youthful misadventures keep the novel neatly balanced between absurdity and poignancy. (Apr.) FYI: The Basic Eight has been optioned for film by Bridget Johnson, producer of the hit film As Good As It Gets. Handler's second novel, Watch Your Mouth, will be published by St. Martin's in winter 2000.
Copyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.


From Library Journal

First novelist Handler has all the teenage issues down patAbelonging, power, loyalty, drugs, and body imageAas he sets about proving just how dangerous high school can be. As Flannery Culp edits her journal of the previous year in prison, we follow Flan and her friends (the Basic Eight) through the fall of their senior year. Adults are generally absent, except for a few teachers who matter. Flan's beautiful friend, Natasha, is worth close attention. Handler's writing is witty and perceptive, especially as schools and society are parodied, and he makes clever use of vocabulary and study questions. But as a brutal murder unfolds and lives are ruined, the "wonderful, wicked fun" promised by the book jacket faded for this reviewer. The novel has been optioned for film, so expect to see it on the screen, a tragedy larger than the Othello Flan's drama club is staging. Recommended with reservations.ARebecca Kelm, Northern Kentucky Univ. Lib., Highland Heights
Copyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

  • Paperback: 329 pages
  • Publisher: Thomas Dunne Books; Reprint edition (March 2000)
  • Language: English
  • ISBN-10: 0312253737
  • ISBN-13: 978-0312253738
  • Product Dimensions: 8.2 x 5.5 x 1 inches
  • Shipping Weight: 13.9 ounces
  • Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (101 customer reviews)
  • Amazon.com Sales Rank: #558,558 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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More About the Author

Daniel Handler
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Front Cover | First Pages | Back Cover | Surprise Me!
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Inside This Book (learn more)
First Sentence:
One of the reasons the teenage years are so agonizing that in most societies, particularly ours, the adolescent is emotionally neither fish nor fowl. Read the first page
Key Phrases - Statistically Improbable Phrases (SIPs): (learn more)
absinthe abuse, important semester, fingering her pearls, gorgeous car, cello case, last postcard, fat bitch, student parking lot, croquet set
Key Phrases - Capitalized Phrases (CAPs): (learn more)
Jennifer Rose Milton, Basic Eight, Flora Habstat, Adam State, Flannery Culp, Jim Carr, Frank Whitelaw, Peter Pusher, Mark Wallace, Steve Nervo, Hattie Lewis, Baker's Rule, Eleanor Tert, Roewer High School, Nancy Butler, Principal Bodin, Darling Mud, Rachel State, Ron Piper, Festival Internationale, San Francisco, Frosh Goth, Death Before Decaf, Lake Merced, Study Questions
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Customer Reviews

101 Reviews
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Average Customer Review
4.2 out of 5 stars (101 customer reviews)
 
 
 
 
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15 of 15 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars Finally, Beverly Hills 90210 gets its due., August 17, 2000
This review is from: The Basic Eight (Hardcover)
This is a brilliant lampoon the whole "pretty teen drama" genre. Daniel Handler hits all his cliché targets right on the bullseye: ridiculously sophisticated teen dialogue, adults who aren't there or who "just don't understand," the token gay guy, the outrage of being called a "fat bitch," and shopping for shoes (a lot). He also manages to rip up National Organizations, Oprah Winfrey, self-appointed experts, the coffee culture, "alternative/rock" music (Rattle and Hum quite rightly becomes Gurgle and Buzz), and sensational journalism. In fact, this book makes it clear that the news media is incapable of reporting accurately, or even truthfully. (Whoever unfavorably compared this to a John Grisham novel was the type of reader who is aware only of an author's description of EVENTS. The murder, my friend, was not the point.) All in all, this is hilarious parody and convincing drama. Rumor has it that it has been opted for a movie, so I hope they make it before Christina Ricci becomes too old to play Flannery Culp.
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11 of 11 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars Well, it won't be an Oprah Book!, August 26, 2000
By "alexwriter" (Miami, Fl. USA) - See all my reviews
. . . but anyone who loves black comedy should read it -- twice. At first, this book seems like it's just going to be a wild romp through high school -- complete with kids who throw lavish dinner parties in sculpture gardens and drink cappuccino at coffee bars with names like Bean and Nothingness or Death Before Decaf. Only hitch is, we already know that the seemingly sweet ("fat", dowdy, lovesick) anti-heroine, Flannery Culp, has been convicted of the Satanic murder of her crush, Adam State in one of the media events of the century. How could this happen? The rest of the book is a puzzle, and we get it in pieces. From Dr. Eleonor Tert (a formerly drug-addicted flight attendant turned guru), Winnie Moprah (no relation, I'm sure), and even Guiness Book-reciting Flora Habstadt (who, Flannery assures us, was never one of the Basic Eight). And especially, from Flannery, who interrupts her perpetual prison solitaire game to explain how her love notes to Adam, experimentation with absinthe (Poe's drug of choice), her calculus teacher's command to "do something" (surely he didn't mean murder), and particularly, her coffee dates with the glamorous Natasha lead to . . . well, read it and find out.
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11 of 11 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars I agree with the New Yorker (for once!), July 9, 1999
By A Customer
This review is from: The Basic Eight (Hardcover)
The New Yorker called this one of the best first novels of the year, and I wholeheartedly agree. I read this book awhile ago, and I've been watching, with amusement, the love-hate relationship that people are having with it on this site. What seems clear is that some people are completely misunderstanding this novel. To call it shallow, silly and stupid is to insult the narrator, not the book. I think Handler does a splendid job of hiding a gripping story in between the lines of his character's diary--a character who is, after all, a high school girl, and it needs to be read twice, not because it's William Shakespeare but because there's a twist ending which makes you go back and see how well the author planned the whole thing out. This novel isn't for everyone--only for people intelligent and engaged enough to tell the narrator from the author. (And no, just for the record, I'm not the author's friend, agent, whatever...)
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5.0 out of 5 stars So glad I read this unique story!
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2.0 out of 5 stars An unsatisfying book to read
(Warning: Some plot points discussed)





I came across a favorable mention of The Basic Eight in an Amazon review of another title, Special... Read more
Published on April 24, 2007 by Movie Buff

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