The book recalls Handler’s own experience with a mysterious mental illness that gave him hallucinations and path toward becoming a writer, as well as lots of cultural exploration.
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Here is a statement from Handler about his latest memoir:
“I think to a certain extent if you're not scared, you're not really writing. Previously, people have suggested that I write a memoir, and all I could think of was books with, ‘Chapter one, I am born. Chapter 187, what I had for lunch last week,’” he adds. “And so I didn't want to write a book like that, but as soon as I saw that the book could be guided by the literature that I love, that was interesting to me.”
Handler hopes that the book finds readers who fall in love with it just like they have with his Lemony Snicket creations:
“You can have that feeling that the reality of the book is more pressing to you, more immediate than the actual world,” Handlers explains. “You can think, ‘I can't wait to be done with the stupid stuff that I'm doing so I can go back and reopen the book and see how it is.’ …I just think that ought to be a kind of goal for every writer because it's such a powerful experience.”
Daniel Handler's memoir "And Then? And Then? What Else?" is now available wherever books are sold.
Here is the goodreads synopsis of the memoir:
A bold, candid, vulnerable, and entertaining memoir of the literary life of Daniel Handler, the writer otherwise known as Lemony Snicket
Part memoir, part inspiration for aspiring writers, And Then? And Then? What Else? traces Daniel Handler’s sometimes challenging and often amusing path toward one of the most spectacularly successful writing careers of the twenty-first century. Declaring his love of strange literature, Baudelaire’s The Flowers of Evil in particular, Handler reflects on the life experiences―some of them deeply personal and revealed for the first time―and the cultural influences that shaped his writing, both under his own name and under his pseudonym Lemony Snicket.
Source: People