The End by Lemony Snicket
November 18th 2006 05:12
Beginning with The End is perhaps an odd place to start, but it is the latest example of ‘kid lit’ that I’ve read, so it is, at any rate, the most logical one.
The End, Book the Twelfth in A Series of Unfortunate Events, picks up exactly where The Penultimate Peril left off; the Baudelaire orphans and their arch nemesis, Count Olaf, all in the same boat; in true Snicket style, he milks the proverb for all its worth.
Then, the inevitable: a storm, which washes them up on a costal shelf. This leads them to an island where people live contently on a kind of cordial and under the guidance of the island’s facilitator, Ishmael (“Call me Ish,” he insists – the books are full of these kind of joking references to works that the younger reader would miss but the erudite adult would probably adore). For the first time, Count Olaf is regarded as suspect by the island’s inhabitants, which effectively bars him from the community and forces him to remain on the costal shelf.
Ishmael seems to be running a peaceful community, but there is something slight odd about the way everyone responds to his bidding, though not quite as sinister as the Baudelaire siblings have encountered before. And yet, the Baudelaire’s know there must be more to life than the ordered boringness that the islanders are living under, and there certainly must be more to Ishmael and the island itself. Their search leads them to some surprising discoveries, more mysteries, and ultimately to what perhaps they’d have been looking for since the death of their parents.
The end of The End I thought was very satisfying. There are so many loose threads that Snicket refuses to tie up, but in a way, they don’t need to be. I had been hoping for more of an explanation of VFD, how Count Olaf and the Baudelaire’s parents ultimately connected, but then again, it does leave a bit of room for Snicket to explore things further if he so desired.
The message that he ultimately concludes with is one that rings true for the series, though Snicket would, on the face of it, be appalled to think that there is these are stories with a message, there is one, but it is hardly a finger-wagging morality tale that he so hated. A reviewer elsewhere thought that perhaps Snicket could have made more of the references to the sea-faring, island-based novels that are scattered liberally amongst the names of the island’s inhabitants, but it might have detracted from what is essentially the Baudelaire’s story.
Even though I have begun with The End, I would advice you not to do the same. Begin with The Bad Beginning, which I shall eventually review here. If you, like me, ignore Snicket’s insistence that you put down his books immediately, you’ll be well rewarded.
Till later,
JB
The End, Book the Twelfth in A Series of Unfortunate Events, picks up exactly where The Penultimate Peril left off; the Baudelaire orphans and their arch nemesis, Count Olaf, all in the same boat; in true Snicket style, he milks the proverb for all its worth.
Then, the inevitable: a storm, which washes them up on a costal shelf. This leads them to an island where people live contently on a kind of cordial and under the guidance of the island’s facilitator, Ishmael (“Call me Ish,” he insists – the books are full of these kind of joking references to works that the younger reader would miss but the erudite adult would probably adore). For the first time, Count Olaf is regarded as suspect by the island’s inhabitants, which effectively bars him from the community and forces him to remain on the costal shelf.
Ishmael seems to be running a peaceful community, but there is something slight odd about the way everyone responds to his bidding, though not quite as sinister as the Baudelaire siblings have encountered before. And yet, the Baudelaire’s know there must be more to life than the ordered boringness that the islanders are living under, and there certainly must be more to Ishmael and the island itself. Their search leads them to some surprising discoveries, more mysteries, and ultimately to what perhaps they’d have been looking for since the death of their parents.
The end of The End I thought was very satisfying. There are so many loose threads that Snicket refuses to tie up, but in a way, they don’t need to be. I had been hoping for more of an explanation of VFD, how Count Olaf and the Baudelaire’s parents ultimately connected, but then again, it does leave a bit of room for Snicket to explore things further if he so desired.
The message that he ultimately concludes with is one that rings true for the series, though Snicket would, on the face of it, be appalled to think that there is these are stories with a message, there is one, but it is hardly a finger-wagging morality tale that he so hated. A reviewer elsewhere thought that perhaps Snicket could have made more of the references to the sea-faring, island-based novels that are scattered liberally amongst the names of the island’s inhabitants, but it might have detracted from what is essentially the Baudelaire’s story.
Even though I have begun with The End, I would advice you not to do the same. Begin with The Bad Beginning, which I shall eventually review here. If you, like me, ignore Snicket’s insistence that you put down his books immediately, you’ll be well rewarded.
Till later,
JB
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