Book Review: "Adverbs," by Daniel Handler

Hm...how to describe this...um...well...

It's about love and lots of people who may or may not be the people you think they are because it's a series of love stories with people who often have the same name as people in other stories, but they may not be the same people, as some of them have common names, and everyone has similar stories in their lives, what with love and non-love and catastrophes and all. And some of the stories may or may not be dreams, and some of the people may or may not be ghosts (they may just be ghosts from people's pasts), and some of these things may or may not take place at different times. It's called "Adverbs" because the story isn't really about the nouns. They're all the same. "The miracle is the adverbs, the way things are done." That's what makes these stories different.

I enjoyed it. It's a very quick read, and mostly fluffy. My favorite adverbs were "obviously," about a high schooler and the girl he's madly in love with (who obviously is dating some other guy) and "soundly," about a couple girl friends who love each other soundly through all the ups and downs each one has gone through. I recommend the book, but I also recommend skipping "briefly" and "symbolically" (the gay chapters), and the first two pages of "clearly." (There are a few other little not great things here and there, too, just to give you a fair warning.) If you're looking for something light and different and don't care if things are confusing (because after all, love is confusing), I'd say go for it.