A House Called Awful End

Honestly, I had to google A Series of Unfortunate Events to see when the first book in that series had been written, in order to determine if this book was simply a cheap knock-off.

To be fair, Awful End isn't a bad book - it's just that, when you've been reading the Snicket books, you rather have that style in your head, comparisons result, and you instinctively judge one based on the other. Both of these series are for young adults, both derive their humour from their dreary scenarios, both have an omnipresent narrator who likes occasionally to stray from the story or interject a certain detail. And both appear to be very British.

The only difference, you might say, is that Events is set after the invention of the automobile and Awful is definitely prior. However, I feel now I must ignore the comparisons and give you my humble opinion on this book properly. Here goes:

A House Called Awful End: Book One of the Eddie Dickens Trilogy. Ardagh, Philip. Henry Holt and Company, New York. 2000. (Is my citing getting better? I still haven't found my MLA Handbook - it's hidden/lost somewhere among the dusty shelves!)

Basic plot: Eddie's nutball parents send him to live with his nutbar uncle&aunt who are convinced by a nutty actor to put him in an orphanage run by nutcases. The only sane character is a stuffed stoat. Eddie finds a way out of the orphanage - the parents come to their half-senses - and everything ends on a quasi-steady stalemate.

I looked at Ardagh's bibliography and he seems quite an accomplished writer - something like 4 books per year, starting in 1995; it seems as though this was his first work of fiction, the others being history books. I have to admit I'd like to check some of those out, because his lighthearted style in Awful End would certainly lend itself to some humourous recounts of historical yarns (I love history books pretty much ONLY when they are told either behind-the-hand, tongue-in-cheek, or downright sarcastically!)

But OK I can't stand it any more!!!! YES!!! this STILL reads like a "poor man's"-Series of Unfortunate Events. I'm sorry, Mr. Ardagh - I can't get away from it. Snickett's books started in 1999, these in 2000. I'd like to think that this is all sort of a Jungian Collective Unconscious-thing, i.e. both writers were operating in a wholly separate vacuum and just happened to come up with similar books at the same time . . . but I don't know how far I can stretch that theory.

I suppose I could just admit that I like BOTH series and let it go with that. And kudos to both authors - my favourite part of both books is that many characters are named after 19th Century Authors (Eddie DICKENS, the BEAUDELAIRE orphans, etc.) - Neat job, guys! er . . . I mean, jolly good!!

VG