Synopses & Reviews
Hello.
I am Daniel Handler, the author of this book. Did you know that authors often write the summaries that appear on their book's dust jacket? You might want to think about that the next time you read something like, "A dazzling page-turner, this novel shows an internationally acclaimed storyteller at the height of his astonishing powers."
Adverbs is a novel about love a bunch of different people, in and out of different kinds of love. At the start of the novel, Andrea is in love with David or maybe it's Joe who instead falls in love with Peter in a taxi. At the end of the novel, it's Joe who's in the taxi, falling in love with Andrea, although it might not be Andrea, or in any case it might not be the same Andrea, as Andrea is a very common name. So is Allison, who is married to Adrian in the middle of the novel, although in the middle of the ocean she considers a fling with Keith and also with Steve, whom she meets in an automobile, unless it's not the same Allison who meets the Snow Queen in a casino, or the same Steve who meets Eddie in the middle of the forest....
It might sound confusing, but that's love, and as the author me says, It is not the nouns. The miracle is the adverbs, the way things are done. This novel is about people trying to find love in the ways it is done before the volcano erupts and the miracle ends. Yes, there's a volcano in the novel. In my opinion a volcano automatically makes a story more interesting.
Review
"[A] narrative ingenuity that should delight readers interested in exploring the possibilities of fiction....Handler's prose is warm, funny, smart and addictively readable....Experimental fiction is rarely this emotionally engaging." Kirkus Reviews
Review
"[W]itty but ultimately wearying....Handler can certainly turn a phrase, but his prose is so overloaded with linguistic acrobatics...it's likely to leave some readers a bit bent out of shape, especially if they were expecting Lemony Snicket for grown-ups." Booklist
Review
"Adverbs has implausibilities, indulgences and a track list that drags on a few cuts too long. But what stays with you is the music: the elegantly rendered emotion, the linguistic somersaults, the brilliantly turned reminders that there are a million ways to describe love and none of them will ever be the last word." James Poniewozik, The New York Times Book Review
Review
"In every technical sense...this is an impeccable creation, from start to finish and top to bottom....But Adverbs, unfortunately, while easy to admire, is hard to love quite as much as one should." San Francisco Chronicle
Review
"Although he oozes wit and he's an astute social observer, [Handler's] voice can feel intrusive in spots, coming between the reader and the story....In the end, despite its quirks, the book's offbeat sweetness charms." Charlotte Observer
Review
"[C]lever, unsettling, confusing, and often brilliantly moving." Library Journal
Review
"Adverbs is not an unequivocal success. It makes a valiant case for the indispensability of style, but all the quirky stylistic connections in the world...will not rescue a narrative when it fails to connect emotionally with the reader." Los Angeles Times
About the Author
Daniel Handler is the author of the novels The Basic Eight and Watch Your Mouth, and as Lemony Snicket, a sequence of novels for children collectively entitled A Series of Unfortunate Events.
Reading Group Guide
Questions for Discussion
1. How did you make sense of the narrator's sudden infatuation with Peter, the taxi driver, in "Immediately," the chapter that opens Adverbs?
2. What role does chivalry play in the romantic encounters depicted in "Obviously," in which Joe experiences unrequited love for his fellow ticket-taker, Lila, and "Clearly," in which Adam and Eddie suffer coitus interruptus, courtesy of a fellow hiker in need?
3. How did the recurrence of many characters (such as Mike, Joe, Andrea, Helena, and Allison, for example) over the course of Adverbs deepen and complicate your understanding of their individual connections to one another?
4. To what extent is Adverbs a novel without a plot?
5. How are the mysterious, catastrophic events of the kinds described in chapters like "Frigidly," "Symbolically," and "Soundly" integral to the progress of love in all its forms in Adverbs?
6. In "Truly," a character who shares the name of the book's author, Daniel Handler, makes an appearance. How did you reconcile his presence in Adverbs?
7. "Accordingly, the magpies in this book are so furtive, so eager to avoid human persecution, that you might not have noticed them." In what contexts did you notice the many magpies that crop up in Adverbs, and what did you make of them?
8. What role does coincidence play in the relationships that develop in "Naturally," in which Eddie Terhune and Hank Hayride reunite in the park, and in "Collectively," in which everyone in the neighborhood is smitten with the anonymous resident of 1602?
9. How did the structure of this novel, with each chapter's focus on an individual adverb, affect your appreciation of the diversity of human love and behavior?
10. "Love is a story, usually a love story. The main characters are what matter." Of the many characters in Adverbs who experience the consequences of love, which did you find most compelling or memorable, and why?