Horseradish: Bitter Truths You Can't Avoid

Alas, another excellent but somewhat pessimistic masterpiece has been introduced to the world by Lemony Snicket (a.k.a Daniel Handler). Even though this horse-radishy book lacks the black and white pencil art of Brett Helquist ( Lemony Snicket's illustrator) it is still a stark and realistic view of life.

The book is divided into different categories, such as Family, Work and Miscellaneous. An example would be Family: "Siblings who claim to get along well are most likely hiding something.", which in my personal opinion, is both correct and incorrect. Siblings who are hiding something could act normally instead of getting along well. Also, as Lemony says, women (or maybe men) who are raising babies might say that it is an extremely hard job. "But, the people who say this have probably never worked at a comb factory or captured pirates on the high seas". Or in my case they never tried reading and writing four book reports on the last day of summer vacation.

Work: "Having a job interview can be very stressful. But, it is essential to tell the truth-if you don't, you might end up foraging in garbage cans and sleeping under trees." Every time I read this phrase, apart from being worried, I sometimes wonder: Is this realistic?

Entertainment: Entertaining may be a very useful skill, especially if you're surrounded by a pack of Hyenas or baby-siting you're younger siblings. If you do not entertain the pack of Hyenas, they might amuse themselves by mutilating and eating you ( but still I seriously doubt that rubbing garlic oil and chili pepper on yourself whilst juggling three chicken nuggets will stop them from eating you). Also, in case of an emergency Lemony Snicket suggests learning one card trick, 2 jokes and three poems in case you're stuck in an elevator.

And... A life of mystery. Even if you are an extremely unfortunate man/woman/aphrodite, you will, at least twice, come across extremely good fortune. How can those things happen? Why do these things happen? Why am I asking questions in an essay when I learned in 5th grade you're not supposed to? The world is full of surprises.

With a very sour, bitter and dry mystique, "Horseradish" is likely to keep readers glued to their seats or at least wondering the meaning of life. My only complaint is that the print is either too small or too big.