The Bad Beginning (Lemony Snicket)

The Baudelaire orphans—Violet, Klaus, and Sunny—are in dire straits. Their parents are dead, and the villainous Count Olaf takes them in to try and get their enormous fortune. Can this story have a happy ending? Or is this the first in "a series of unfortunate events"?

I didn't like this. At all. I put it on my American Reading List due to critical acclaim and cultural influence (this book series spawned a movie and television series). It's one of the few books I couldn't wait to end—not due to its quality but its story and some other factors. Here are things I did not care for:

- the overall message seemed to be that not all stories have good endings. True! But this is a story without hope; not just hope that bad circumstances can end or justice can be done in this world, but a deeper hope that life has purpose and meaning even in terrible circumstances.

- the author defined words as part of the telling. Not terrible, but I've seen other children's books explain vocabulary in better ways.

- the villain did some ridiculous things, including announcing his evil plot to an audience.

- the children are portrayed as the intelligent ones; the adults were mostly morons.

- the ending was unsatisfying; more like the chapter of a larger arc vs. a self-contained story.

There was some humor . . . but this didn't do it for me. Perhaps the main value was pointing to the greater truth that we tell stories for a reason (and it is not to discourage).

Rating: D