Estimated read time: 4-5 minutes
This archived news story is available only for your personal, non-commercial use. Information in the story may be outdated or superseded by additional information. Reading or replaying the story in its archived form does not constitute a republication of the story.
The ending is impending. How unfortunate.
Lemony Snicket's mega-selling kid-lit saga, "A Series of Unfortunate Events," is about to breathe its last melancholic sigh with the publication of the 13th book in the series. Titled simply "The End," it hits bookstores Friday the 13th --- a timely convergence of ancient superstition and modern marketing.
The conclusion finishes off a phenomenon that has transfixed millions of elementary and middle schoolers, and occasionally their younger and older siblings and parents. More than 50 million copies have been sold, and some kids have hardly known a world in which a new "Unfortunate Event" wasn't in the works.
"My mom would read Lemony Snicket to me every night when I was in the first grade," said Clay Montgomery, a sixth-grader at Booth Middle School in Peachtree City. "Me and my two brothers would listen to a chapter a night. When I got to third grade, I started reading them myself."
"You never love a book the way you love a book when you're 10 years old," said Daniel Handler, the real author. "It's been a bona-fide honor to occupy that place in the minds of 10-year-olds."
Handler invented the Snicket character --- he had used the name as a goof with friends to make restaurant reservations --- and the twisted story of the Baudelaire orphans, launching them in "The Bad Beginning" in 1999.
Through 12 volumes, the three youngsters --- Klaus, Sunny and Violet --- have been put through an endless run of misfortune, related in a hand-wringing, mournful tone by the mysterious Snicket.
According to a "vile video" on the Snicket Web site, the three orphans have been "pushed down a dark hole, unjustly accused, thrown in jail, chased by an angry mob, subjected to unnecessary procedures not covered by medical insurance, exploited in a freak show, dangled off a cliff, held hostage, left for dead, attacked by insects, nearly drowned, terribly poisoned, given an unsafe taxi ride, and dressed as monkeys, or possibly concierges."
To mark the end, Handler is doing a more-bizarre-than-usual book tour that will bring him, his trusty accordion, and his musician friend Stephin Merritt to Georgia Tech's Ferst Center on Oct. 18. There will be reading, book signing, music.
"Lemony Snicket, if he shows up, will be playing percussion," Handler said in a telephone interview from his home in San Francisco, a talk frequently punctuated by his tendency to giggle. "But he hardly ever shows up."
Handler, who has a distinctly offbeat sensibility, said it's "bittersweet" to be done with the Baudelaires. He has no doubt, however, about his ability to satisfy his fans with No. 13, which is supposed to clear up a number of long-running mysteries.
He can't do it.
"The ending is shrouded in mystery and ambiguity, and I'm sure it will upset and frustrate a great number of people," he said. "But I have been warning them for years that there is nothing but unpleasantness in store."
It was hard to tell whether he was being sincere or slipping into a Snickety riff. Many young fans are convinced that the Baudelaires' parents, who died in a fire in the first book, are secretly alive, and a big happy reunion will bring closure to the series. Handler has all but said things won't end that simply.
Only the adventures of a teenager named Potter have outsold the Snicket "Series" overall. Handler knows that the world frequently links his series and J.K. Rowling's Harry Potter books, since the two biggest series in the history of children's literature have run concurrently for seven years.
"Mostly I feel paralyzed" when asked what he thinks about Potter, he said. "If I say something nice, I appear to be sycophantic, and if I say something mean, I appear to be catty. I certainly don't think of it as a competition, because if it were a competition, I would be losing." Giggle.
"People assume we're either very close friends or mortal enemies," he continued, "when actually we've never met. There was an event in London where we were supposed to meet, but I got sick and had to cancel. I thought that would be such an awkward first meeting, because we'd be at this large gathering and everyone would be watching us shake hands.
"I thought I would grab her and we would run out of the hall and get into a London taxi and go to a pub and have four rounds of drinks." He giggled at the fantasy. It was hard not to. FAREWELL TOUR >"For Crying Out Loud: A Reading by Lemony Snicket, With Music by the Gothic Archies, featuring Lemony Snicket on Percussion" 7 p.m. Oct. 18; doors open at 6. Ferst Center for the Arts, 349 Ferst Drive, Atlanta, on the Georgia Tech campus. Tickets $5 and $10 if ordered by phone at 404-894-9600; $9 and $14 if ordered via the Web site at www.ferstcenter.org.
Copyright 2006 The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
