As a lover of
sarcasm, black humor, and dry wit, Lemony Snicket’s books have always appealed
to me. I loved A Series of Unfortunate
Events, featuring the Baudelaire orphans and the wicked Count Olaf.
Snicket's latest novel,“Who Could That
Be at This Hour?” is in the same vein, and I wouldn’t give it any points
on dramatic originality when compared to former work. Still, it’s plenty of
fun.
Like ASOUE, in this, the first installment in
the All the Wrong Questions series,
we have a young protagonist who has to make his way in the world with little
help from adults. The time period and location is ambiguous, sometimes feeling
like the 1930s, sometimes like the modern day. There’s the same intriguing
secret society that hovers around the edges of the tale, but never comes into full
view. Lemony Snicket, who is the narrator and main character, loves books,
hates coffee, and has had a very unusual education. He also has a female friend
who never appears (for ASOUE fans, I
suspect this might be the elusive Beatrice.)
