Snicket's latke's a tasty morsel

The Latke Who Couldn't Stop Screaming: A Christmas Story
by Lemony Snicket; illustrations by Lisa Brown

McSweeney's Books

What, a Lemony Snicket picture book? Oh please, pretty please, may I have one?

Or not. Shrug.

The publisher not being the usual sort to make the kidlit blogging circuit, I had no idea if a review copy would be forthcoming. It was.

And, joy of interfaith joys, the book is indeed wryly funny and lightly philosophical, and by this I mean that it gets its point across without bruising you with repeated beatings.

Its billing as a Christmas story should alert Jewish readers that the story isn't necessarily aimed at them; it's designed to give Christians a feel for being on the outside looking in. By now, many people will know that Snicket is the pseudonym for Daniel Handler, and his wife illustrated this stocking-stuffer-sized book about feeling left out, misunderstood and literally out in the cold.

"This story ends in someone's mouth, but it begins in a tiny village more or less covered in snow."

This is one of the better opening lines I've read, smartly setting up my expectations without giving too much away. There's only one house in the village that isn't all lit up for Christmas, and us grownups know why, of course. Inside that suspicious house, a potato pancake leaps from the frying pan out into the peppermint-scented night, where he meets various Christmas decorations.

If the hot oil starts his screaming, the unknowing and pat attitudes he gets about his particular holiday get him boiling mad. "I'm not hash browns!" he yells at one point. The explanations of Hanukkah are terse and hasty -- not likely to fill in blanks for "you're-basically-hash-browns" ignoramuses -- and at one point Handler mistakes the Talmud for the Torah (my husband does the same), but all comes out right at the end.

Handler, in the forlorn, wistful narrative voice that's signature Snicket, has some kind and thoughtful words for both faiths, followed immediately by the ending he promised, made funnier because we anticipate it.

There's some wonderful legerdemain with a pine tree, and the many pages of that screaming starch patty should induce fits of giggles. But is this really a kids' book?

If your Jewish child is old enough to feel his patience wearing thin at Christmas time, or if your Christian child wonders what's up with those pathetic dorks who don't put up blinking lights like normal people, then this might be one darkly humorous way to deepen that conversation.

Rating: *\*\*\

Comments

[Tricia]

Sounds interesting. I'm not Jewish, but know the difference between the Torah and the Talmud, so wouldn't you think a smart editor should have caught this?

[Anne]

I would've thought so. The line read something like the Jews had to study the Talmud secretly in caves ... but of course the Talmud was written many centuries later.

With Wikipedia around, I don't think anybody has an excuse anymore.

[brettdl]

Except when Wikipedia is wildly wrong, which it often is.

[Kelly Fineman]

I thought it was clever and funny, and my kids both adored it.

[beth]

Actually, he's not really wrong. The Jews who "study Torah" are often arguing Talmud more than Torah.
Anyway... LOVE this book, bought it already though my daughter is only one - love the tree referencing pagan rituals, love the "basically hash browns" conversation, love the ending, in which Snicket points out that its hard being told what you are by people who don't understand you.
Brilliant.