Watch Your Mouth

by Daniel Handler

Book Overview

Tolstoy wrote that happy families are alike and that each unhappy family is unhappy in a different way.In Watch Your Mouth, Daniel Handler takes "different" to a whole new level....

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 006093817X
• ISBN13: 9780060938178
• Release Date: February 2002
• Publisher: Ecco Press
• Length: 240 Pages
• Weight: 0.45 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.6" x 5.5" x 8.3"

Customer Reviews

It's very sick, but I loved it for its bravery to be sick

When I discovered that Lemony Snicket was Daniel Handler I found thisbook 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.

Terrific, and terrifically underrated

This is a dark and elegant book, the only novel I can think of that's explicit and oblique at the same time. The plot is a pageturner that keeps its air of mystery straight up to the hilariously creepy finale. It's stupid that so many critics (both on this site and off) criticize the subject matter and the tone of the book without realizing that it's the narrator whose world view is skewed and unrelentingly sexual, not the author. I dare anyone to read this book and not find themselves thinking about it, still trying to unravel it, weeks later, unlike most praised novels which lead you to their own conclusion. For Calvino and Henry Green fans, and anyone who finds poetry in old monster movies.

And you thought his children's books were crazy...

I picked this up because of the kid's books Handler writes under the name Lemony Snicket--strange, gothic dark comedies. But this book has them all beat. He's such a good stylist that he almost convinces you that his subject matter is normal--almost. This is a very scary, very sexy and VERY strange book, but it's one of the most rewarding reads I've had in a long time. You'll never look at your family the same way again!

Even better than THE BASIC EIGHT!

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.