In this story, the Baudelaire orphans move back to
the city of their happier days before their parents perished in a fire. They become the wards of Esmé and Jerome
Squalor, who live in the penthouse apartment of 667 Dark Avenue. Esmé is obsessed with being fashionable, and
so is very keen to fill her life with items that are “in” and to rid herself of
items that are “out.” Fortunately
(perhaps) for the Baudelaires, orphans are in. 
So are aqueous martinis and pin stripe suits, and the children soon find
themselves drinking the former and wearing the latter.

It is hard for the children to settle into their new
lives with relish, however. They can’t
summon up much enthusiasm for being in, and they don’t have much opportunity to
do what they love – inventing, researching, and biting – except when they make
their discovery about Count Olaf, and then they are too focused on the
desperate necessity of success to take pleasure in the use of their
skills. But most of all, they are
preoccupied with the fate of their friends the Quagmire triplets, whom they
know are in the clutches of their subdolous relative, Gunther, better known as
Olaf. They feel responsible for the
Quagmires, not just because Dunan and Isadora ended up being kidnapped when
they were helping out the Baudelaires. 
Mr. Poe and the police are searching for Count Olaf and the Quagmires,
but they have been entirely unsuccessful in the past, and there’s no reason to
be optimistic about their chance of success now.

For the most part, this book relies on the same plot
and stylistic devices that previous books in this series have developed, but
there are some new developments. The
youngest Baudelaire, Sunny, plays a greater role in this story than she has in
previous events. Jerome Squalor is very
friendly to the children, but he is no help to them, because he hates to argue
with people, and so he never stands up for what he thinks is right.

The Ersatz Elevator is a pleasure to read. It’s also very enjoyable to listen to the unabridged audiobook; actor Tim Curry takes up
the role of narrator again, and does as excellent job as he did in the first
two audiobooks of the series. His
rendition of Mr. Poe’s coughing is quite frightening. Author Lemony Snicket may be resting a little on his laurels, and
one might speculate that he might have even fenced himself in with the rather
predictable plot structure of each book in the series, but Snicket is clever
enough a writer to spot this danger and avoid it in future books of this
series.

Links:

• Excerpt
  from chapter one 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.

© 2002 Christian Perring. First Serial Rights.

Christian
Perring, Ph.D., is Chair of the Philosophy Department at Dowling College,
Long Island. He is editor of Metapsychology Online Review. His main research
is on philosophical issues in psychiatry. He is especially interested in
exploring how philosophers can play a greater role in public life, and he is
keen to help foster communication between philosophers, mental health
professionals, and the general public.

Categories: Children