At 337 pages, The Slippery Slope is the largest yet
in the Series of Unfortunate Events, although it is still a long way off from
Harry Potter size.  It is consistent with the other books in the series in its
fantastic imagery and humor, and there’s enough character development for it to
be more than simply a repetition of the earlier plots in a different setting. 
Sunny, who was a baby at the start of the series, continues to develop and to
use language, while Violet is becoming open to some romance. At the end of the
last book, we were left with Klaus and Violet separated from Sunny, hoping that
they might be able to be reunited as a family.  They travel to Mount Fraught on
the Mortmain Mountains, on their way to the VFD headquarters.  Sunny is the
prisoner and servant of Count Olaf, his girlfriend Esme Squalor and the rest of
their unpleasant gang, and they force Sunny to cook for them.  In their
adventures, Klaus and Violet encounter both old friends and enemies, and
although they manage to stay alive and solve some problems, but it will be no
surprise to readers that there is no happy ending to the story.  The greatest
pleasure from reading this tale of woe comes from the smart and knowing humor
and the social criticism implicit in it.  Violet and Klaus meet a group of Snow
Scouts and have to endure the recitation of their silly pledge to be
"accommodating, basic, calm, darling, emblematic, frisky, grinning, human,
innocent, jumping, kept, limited, meek, nap-loving, official, pretty,
quarantined, recent, scheduled, tidy, understandable, victorious, wholesome,
xylophone, young, and zippered–every morning, every afternoon, every nights,
and all day long!"  On hearing this, the Baudelaires look at each other,
and wonder how it is possible to be both calm and frisky, and how a group of
scouts could avoid being young or human.  And of course, it just makes no sense
at all to pledge to be xylophone, which isn’t even an adjective.  Terrific
stuff for nascent nerds. 

Links:

• Publisher’s
  webpage for The Slippery Slope
• Review of
  The Carnivorous Carnival
• Review of
  The Hostile Hospital
• Review of
  The Vile Village.
• Review of
  The Ersatz Elevator.
• Review of The
  Austere Academy.
• Review of The
  Miserable Mill.
• Review of The
  Wide Window.
• Review of The
  Reptile Room.
• Review of The
  Bad Beginning.
• Lemony
  Snicket web site.

© 2004 Christian
Perring. All rights reserved.

Christian
Perring, Ph.D., is Academic Chair of the Arts & Humanities
Division and Chair of the Philosophy Department at Dowling College, Long Island. He is also
editor of Metapsychology Online Review.  His main research is on
philosophical issues in medicine, psychiatry and psychology.

Categories: Children