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Post by Dante on Oct 13, 2012 2:21:58 GMT -5
I don't accept their criticisms of ASoUE in the first paragraph; we find out nearly everything there is to know about V.F.D. (only the schism remains unclear), and as for the Great Unknown, you can bet your bottom dollar that if Handler had explained that then they'd have criticised him for ruining the mystique and cited it as an example of where best to leave things to the reader's imagination. Still, it's good that they liked WCTBATH.
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Post by Kit's tits kick ticks on Oct 13, 2012 3:14:14 GMT -5
I don't really see it as criticism in the first paragraph, it doesn't sound like they think it's bad that there are unanswered questions. I don't like the criticism about the definitions in ASOUE in the fourth paragraph, because most times they are not like the definitions you find in a dictionary but give some extra information for the word in the context.
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Post by B. on Oct 13, 2012 3:43:01 GMT -5
I agree with Dante, and I too didn't like the criticism of the word definitions. Quite often they would expand on the story, and if not it was at least instantly recognisable as Snicket, like a trademark.
I did like the review, however, and the new information. And it was good to see an extra full page illustration, too.
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Post by Hermes on Oct 13, 2012 12:18:04 GMT -5
They did sound like criticisms to me - they are like criticisms that are often made - and they also seem to have fallen into the trap of thinking 'If he writes another book, perhaps it will explain...' . And indeed we do know why everyone is frightened of the Great Unknown - because it swallows people, and it is Unknown what happens to them - though not what the GU actually is. (And Lemony actually tells us in TGG that he won't tell us what it is. So really, it should not have been a surprise.... grump, grump.)
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Post by Christmas Chief on Oct 13, 2012 16:19:39 GMT -5
I think it's good news, nonetheless, that those frustrated with ASOUE might still enjoy ATWQ. I also think the line about the puzzle being more important than the solution is quite relevant to this series, and sheds some perspective on what might constitute as a "wrong" question.
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Post by Christmas Chief on Oct 18, 2012 16:51:08 GMT -5
Here's another from just today: www.latimes.com/features/books/jacketcopy/la-ca-jc-lemony-snicket-20121021,0,6108653.story 'Who Could That Be at This Hour?' is Lemony Snicket fun'Who Could That Be at This Hour?' marks the welcome return of Lemony Snicket, who narrates a mystery tale from when he was 12.By Susan Carpenter, Los Angeles Times October 18, 2012 What is a bombinating beast, and why would anyone make a statue of it, much less steal it, in a city nowhere near an ocean that's nevertheless known as Stain'd by the Sea? These, and other alliterative oddities, are at the center of "Who Could That Be at This Hour?" — a Pink Panther-esque page turner that marks the return of eccentric narrator Lemony Snicket, who was last heard from six years ago with "The End" to his 13-book "A Series of Unfortunate Events." The events in "Who Could That Be at This Hour?" are no less fortunate. They do, however, turn back the clock to a time when phones plugged into the wall, music was played on vinyl records and Snicket — self-described as an excellent reader, good cook, mediocre musician and awful quarreler — was just 12 years old. Despite his tender age, Snicket is an apprentice in a secret organization who, as he's constantly reminded by his chaperone, asks all the wrong questions as he attempts to discover why someone would " say something was stolen when it was never theirs to begin with?" The kickoff to the new four-book illustrated series titled "All the Wrong Questions" opens with an introduction that would likely be dismissed as third-grade drivel if not for the notoriety of the author who penned it: "There was a town, and there was a girl, and there was a theft. I was living in the town, and I was hired to investigate the theft, and I thought the girl had nothing to do with it. … I was wrong." So begins a contrarian story that unfolds near a sea with no water, a forest without trees and a city that's mostly unpopulated. The few people who live there are, of course, strange. There's typewriter-toting tween journalist Moxie Mallahan, "sub-librarian" Dashiell Qwerty and a pair of kids named Pip and Squeak who operate the town's sole taxi with one sitting in the driver's seat atop a stack of books and the other down below, working the pedals. The Snicket style of storytelling is exceptionally literary and entirely singular. Characterized by linguistic playfulness and an appreciation for the archaic, "Who Could That Be at This Hour?" is frequently laugh-out-loud hilarious, as Snicket spars with his delightfully inept chaperon, who makes their investigation into the whereabouts of the missing statue far more complicated than it needs to be. Leave it to S. Theodora Markson to suspect the burglar must have broken into the mansion where the statue — "valued at upward of a great deal of money" — was supposedly stolen by sawing a hole in the ceiling and replastering it. When Snicket suggests a door was the more likely entry point, Theodora inevitably responds with an over-the-top dressing down. As in "Unfortunate Events," there are page-long digressions detailing Italian pasta recipes and a plethora of highfalutin vocabulary words, which are always defined, often in the bicker-banter of dialogue. The black, gray and blue illustrations by celebrated cartoonist Seth only add to the throwback gumshoe vibe of this outrageous, long-overdue, middle-grade follow-up series from a truly beloved narrator.
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Post by Dante on Oct 19, 2012 3:08:58 GMT -5
I spotted that one just now, Sherry Ann; thanks for being on the ball. Edit: A couple of new reviews in from sources which apparently don't understand the concept of a "series." Because didn't we all just hate it when Harry didn't defeat Voldemort for good in the first book? What was that all about? Snicket's ReturnThe arch narrator of "A Series of Unfortunate Events" is back in a pre-teen noir. Many young readers will rejoice to hear that author Daniel Handler has returned as Lemony Snicket, the droll pseudonymous narrator of the "Series of Unfortunate Events" books. And at first, "Who Could That Be at This Hour?" (Little, Brown, 258 pages, $15.99) seems to offer everything we want from the Snicket oeuvre: eccentric characters, witty wordplay and a confiding, urbane authorial tone. Alas, it also leaves us with something we don't want: enough dangling narrative threads to throttle an ox. This opening volume of a new series for 9- to 14-year-olds, titled "All the Wrong Questions," introduces us to Lemony Snicket when he is not quite 13. We quickly come to understand that he is a boy of mysterious origins and unusual education who has just been apprenticed to an unnamed organization of an unspecified nature. Assigned to an incompetent middle-age chaperone, Snicket finds himself in the depressed town of Stain'd-by-the-Sea, where the principal industry of extracting ink from octopi has all but dried up. There he encounters a number of cool, resourceful peers and a few adults (mostly feckless, addled or scheming) as he seeks to understand the value of a much-stolen piece of sculpture. The story rolls out with an archness that will gratify Snicket enthusiasts, but the unresolved elements may irritate and mystify children coming to the author for the first time. We never find out why that sculpture keeps getting purloined, and "Unfortunate Events" veterans have cause to worry that we never will. Atmospheric illustrations by the artist known as Seth provide a feeling of welcome specificity to this cheeky but inconclusive exercise in pre-teen noir. online.wsj.com/article/SB10000872396390444734804578062641169608804.html Who Could That Be at This Hour? by Lemony Snicket (Little, Brown) – Snicket returns with the first in the projected four-volume All the Wrong Questions series, supplying "autobiographical" accounts of his unusual childhood. Nearly 13 when the book opens, Snicket is beginning his apprenticeship for a mysterious organization under the tutelage of dimwitted S. Theodora Markson, who is ranked dead last in effectiveness by the agency but who may be the source of Snicket's tic of defining vocabulary pedantically. Straight answers are hard to find as Snicket and Markson investigate a theft in a seaside town that's been drained of its sea, encountering deception and double crosses at every turn. Full of Snicket's trademark droll humor and maddeningly open-ended, this will have readers clamoring for volume two. www.publishersweekly.com/pw/by-topic/industry-news/tip-sheet/article/54305-pw-picks-the-best-new-books-for-the-week-of-october-22-2012.html
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Post by Christmas Chief on Oct 20, 2012 12:10:27 GMT -5
Just pointing out also that this is an Editor's Choice in the New York Times."The tween Lemony is lively and endearingly peculiar." Edit: A couple of new reviews in from sources which apparently don't understand the concept of a "series." Because didn't we all just hate it when Harry didn't defeat Voldemort for good in the first book? What was that all about? I noticed that trend as well. I think it's because it's Lemony Snicket; people are looking for unanswered questions more than they would with any other author.
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Post by Dante on Oct 22, 2012 2:21:31 GMT -5
A.V. Club review this time. Positive, but there's a possible spoiler in there. www.avclub.com/articles/lemony-snicket-who-could-that-be-at-this-hour,87673/ by Noah Cruickshank October 22, 2012 Lemony Snicket’s A Series Of Unfortunate Events books are a pessimist’s response to Harry Potter. Instead of an orphan triumphing over evil with the help of his adult mentors, they tell the story of three orphans terrorized by nefarious forces, unaided by the bumbling grown-ups who are meant to serve as their guardians. While the Potter series took its time teaching children that the world is a dark, dangerous place, the Unfortunate Events novels dove right into that darkness, with Snicket ( Daniel Handler’s occasional alter ego and nom de plume) dolefully warning away readers who hoped for something less gloomy. But Handler’s irony and wit kept the books from becoming moribund. Snicket’s narrative voice is unique: He’s funny, empathetic, emotionally engaged with his characters, and perfectly happy to define hard-to-spell words for his readers. But he remained on the sidelines throughout the series, never interacting with the books’ protagonists, the Baudelaire orphans. His character was defined through asides, offhand comments from minor characters, or clues imbedded in the text. Six years after the original series ended, Handler has decided that Lemony Snicket deserves his own story. The first of the All The Wrong Questions quartet, Who Could That Be At This Hour?, takes place long before the Baudelaire children were born, when Snicket was an adolescent working for the mysterious organization known as VFD. Readers might be tempted to look at this new series as a set of prequels, but Handler deftly deals with those expectations by starting the book with an attempted poisoning and an escape through a bathroom window. Questions about the Baudelaires are left far behind in the quick action. After his narrow escape, Snicket begins an apprenticeship with the contrarian S. Theodora Markson, who whisks him to a lakeside town whose lake has dried up. Charged with retrieving a stolen statue, Snicket discovers chicanery much more dangerous than petty theft. Unlike Unfortunate Events, which resembled Edward Gorey stories blown up into novel form, Who Could That Be is something of a noir for kids—there’s even a character named Dashiell, after crime writer Dashiell Hammett. While Snicket was a hapless writer in the first series, here, he’s a gumshoe. Like any good crime novel, the book zooms along at a breakneck pace. It’s a quick read, both for its large-print type and the way Handler throws out twist after twist. But what makes Who Could That Be a small masterpiece is how well Handler balances every other aspect of the book. His meticulous brilliance begins with recreating Lemony Snicket. In Unfortunate Events, Snicket tended to be overly dramatic. He was older, bereft after losing his true love (the Baudelaires’ mother) and wading through a world in shambles. He was also disingenuous, describing himself as a coward, though there was plenty of evidence to the contrary, and purposefully withholding information about himself. As Unfortunate Events progressed, Handler got a better sense of his literary alter ego, but he had boxed himself into a corner by then, and there wasn’t room for Snicket to grow as a character. By changing the focus to Snicket’s childhood, Handler frees him. Unlike his depressed older self, the young man is courageous, romantic, and has a razor-sharp tongue. Most of the humor in Unfortunate Events comes from Snicket’s ironies, especially when he pleads with readers not to continue with his books. There’s a bit of that humor in Who Could That Be, but Handler has mostly traded it in for wisecracks, which pay dividends. Snicket is as smart-mouthed as Sam Spade, and has no interest in keeping quiet. His penchant for talking back gets him in trouble on a number of occasions, but makes the book a joy to read. Snicket is in many ways a typical 13-year-old (albeit one with special spy training): He’s worldly enough to call the adults around him into question, but not experienced enough to know when to hold his tongue. Handler rounds out the cast with a fantastic collection of oddballs, each of whom has a role to play here, and presumably more so throughout the series. Moxie Mallahan is a young reporter spitfire, who pesters Snicket with questions while tapping away at her portable typewriter. S. Theodora is Snicket’s tenuous link to VFD, but mostly gets in his way as he tries to retrieve the stolen statue. A pair of brothers, named Pip and Squeak, drive the town’s only cab, one working pedals while the other steers. No noir is complete without its femme fatale, and Who Could That Be has one called Ellington Feint. A teenager like Snicket, Ellington is also after the statue, though her methods for getting it are as dark as the coffee she continually drinks. With all the Dickensian names, odd factoids, and intriguing setting of a town on its last legs, the book may seem like simply a rousing jaunt. It is for children, after all, and that may ward off readers who assume the book must be childish. But whatever faults Unfortunate Events had, Handler proved he could provide real pathos in a story supposedly just for younger readers. And while Who Could That Be doesn’t feature the death and destruction of the previous series, real danger lurks around each corner. The book’s final twist reveals that Snicket may be in over his head with the various schemes encircling him, and that people he cares about will suffer because of it. It’s heavy stuff, but told in a way that amps up the tension even more, making the wait for the next book all the more nerve-racking. Edit: Review from The Baltimore Sun, taking even more objection to the book on the same confusing grounds I discussed above. I genuinely don't understand this criticism. You're not allowed to have ongoing mysteries in a mystery series? Anyway, it's tagged for spoilers, so watch out. New Lemony Snicket book a disappointment
By Dave Rosenthal
I have great respect for Daniel Handler, creator of the wildly popular Lemony Snicket books (and a fellow alum of Wesleyan University), but I couldn't help but feel let down at his newest: "Who Could That Be at This Hour?"
When I was finished with the book, which will be released Tuesday, all I could think was: "Why Did I Spend Time Reading This?"
That may be the wrong question, but I couldn't get it out of my head. The book, written for kids on kid-sized pages, didn't take long to read -- just a round-trip flight from Baltimore to Connecticut. And I did enjoy Handler's clever writing, his colorful characters, and his references to children's classics such as "Johnny Tremain" and "The Wind in the Willows." Like J.K. Rowling, Handler has helped create a new generation of readers.
But, ultimately, I felt cheated by WCTBATH, the first of four books in the All the Wrong Questions series.
Young, apprentice Snicket is charged with solving a mystery: the theft of a small, sea-serpentine statue in a quirky, mostly deserted town. Meanwhile, he is preoccupied with a larger mystery that is only mentioned in the sketchiest of terms, and with other characters including faux parents. All of this provides a peek (we hope) at the back-story to Snicket and his later role in the "Series of Unfortunate Events" series.
I didn't mind the mystery within a mystery. But I wanted the statue case, at least, to be tied up at the end. When it wasn't, I felt as though I had read a 272-page teaser for the new series, and that the publisher's marketing department was snickering at me. It was a bit like being served a tasty appetizer, preparing to tuck into a tasty meal, and abruptly getting the check.
Even the first books of The Hunger Games or Twilight series came to a conclusion, though they were plainly meant to seed the ground for upcoming books. Die-hard Snicket fans might not mind the teasing foreplay in WCTBATH, but I certainly did.
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Post by Christmas Chief on Oct 22, 2012 15:27:11 GMT -5
It also, I think, conflicts with the NY Time's statement that "By the end, you will know the identity of the statue thief. And you will have had a great time getting there." Isn't that stating the statue case is indeed tied up at the end?
I believe the reviewer's criticisms lie not in the book having unanswered questions, but in not balancing those questions with enough answers. I can understand that, even if I don't agree with it. It's necessary for a series to show some sign that, even if the mysteries aren't solved in the first installment, they will be in future installments. I have confidence WCTBATH provides those signs of progression, but sometimes it takes a keen reader - or "Die-hard fan" - to see them.
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Post by Hermes on Oct 22, 2012 15:51:01 GMT -5
Possibly we end up knowing who stole the statue but not why?
I do get the impression from several of these reviews that this book is very open-ended, more than books in series tend to be - and perhaps that ATWQ is better seen as a work-in-parts like Lord of the Rings, rather than a series like Narnia or Harry Potter or whatever. The early books of ASOUE did each have a conclusion, in that a particular dastardly scheme of Olaf's was thwarted in each one, even though each looked forward to further events. I'm not sure we have the same thing here.
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Post by Dante on Oct 22, 2012 15:51:52 GMT -5
Well, you won't have long to wait to find out for yourself.
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Post by Christmas Chief on Oct 23, 2012 5:11:27 GMT -5
books.usatoday.com/book/lemony-snickets-%E2%80%98who-could-that-be-at-this-hour-is-nigh/r848402If the great hard-boiled detective novelists Dashiell Hammett (The Maltese Falcon) and Raymond Chandler (The Long Goodbye) had a dry sense of humor and wrote for kids, the results might be something like Who Could That Be at This Hour? It's the first book in a new four-volume series by Lemony Snicket, pen name and alter ego of Daniel Handler. It's also a prequel to Handler's best-selling A Series of Unfortunate Events, which featured Snicket as adult narrator and a character. In the new mystery, Snicket recalls when he was almost 13 and started an apprenticeship with an enigmatic secret society. His chaperone defines apprentice as "a word which here means 'a person who works under me and does absolutely everything I tell him to do.'" Snicket replies, "I'm contrite, a word which here means — " "You already said you were sorry," the chaperone shoots back. "Don't repeat yourself. It's not only repetitive, it's redundant, and people here have heard it before." Vocabulary lessons were never so much fun. Snicket ends up in a strange seaside town (with no sea), assigned to recover a black statue of a mythical beast, which may or may not have been stolen. It's noir for tweens who embrace and even enjoy discovering that the world isn't as simple and pure as grownups have led on. With illustrations by the cartoonist known only as Seth, it's complex and confusing — but that's the point. It's for young readers who appreciate word play. A bowl of peanuts is "either salty or dusty." Along the way, Snicket confides: "Knowing that something is wrong and doing it anyway happens very often in life, and I doubt if I will ever know why." He also meets a girl, about his age, who writes and reports for a newspaper that's gone out of business because of the lack of ink. She hands him a card. "MOXIE MALLAHAN. THE NEWS." "The News," Snicket repeats. "What's the news. Moxie?" "That's what I'm trying to find out," she replies. The good news is that Handler is up to his old tricks in new territory. "The map is not the territory," Snicket's chaperone advises him. "That's an expression which means the world does not match the picture in our heads." After racing through Snicket's misadventures, readers likely will have their own questions, including: When can I read Book Two? All the publisher is saying is 2013.
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Post by Dante on Oct 24, 2012 2:41:14 GMT -5
These reviews don't contain spoilers, but actually it makes the page more navigable if I put them in spoiler boxes. ‘Who Could That Be At This Hour?’ by Lemony Snicket By Chelsey Philpot
‘This much-anticipated new series is, frankly, none of your business,” Lemony Snicket writes on the website for his latest book, “Who Could That Be at This Hour?” However, despite the tongue-in-cheek attempt at dissuasion by Snicket (a literary persona of author Daniel Handler), young fans of his “A Series of Unfortunate Events” books may not be able to help themselves.
While the characters in this “All the Wrong Questions” series opener are not as immediately arresting as Snicket’s Baudelaire siblings and evil Count Olaf, it has a contagious kinetic energy, as if it were written on a steady diet of espresso and sugar. The sophisticated novel demands to be read twice: once for the laughs and the second time for the clues.
Readers left frustrated by the unsolved puzzles in the “A Series of Unfortunate Events” books will find some explanations and a new set of mysteries and in this “autobiographical” account of Snicket’s early years. Twelve-year-old Lemony has recently completed his “unusual education” and joined an unnamed organization to conduct clandestine missions. His first assignment? To journey with his mentor to Stain’d-by-the-Sea, a downtrodden town no longer actually by the sea (it was drained), to recover a statue of the mythical Bombinating Beast.
The undertaking becomes complicated once Lemony realizes he does not know whom he can trust. Throw in an aspiring young news reporter, a strange sub-librarian, a local bully, a villain called Hangfire, an enchanting girl desperate to find her father, and a host of other quirky individuals and Lemony has to face some tough questions indeed; one of them, of course, is echoed in the title of the book. But what you will wonder is what is Lemony’s secret agenda and who is the beloved person he laments leaving behind?
There’s an old-fashioned noir quality to the story (complete with shady personalities and snappy dialogue), but the exact time it takes place is difficult to pin down. A typewriter, telegram, and phone booth all play a role in the plot, but so does an elaborate coffee machine that puts Starbucks to shame. The black, blue, and white illustrations by Seth feature characters in newsboy caps and bowler hats.
Lemony and the other young characters (save for the bully) are the heroes here. The adults are inept and/or their honesty dubious. The husband-and-wife police team bumbles; Lemony’s chaperone is useless; and as for his parents, “They’re helpless.” “The children of this world and the adults of this world are in entirely separate boats and only drift near each other when we need a ride from someone or when someone needs us to wash our hands,” Lemony concludes.
As in “A Series of Unfortunate Events,” Snicket challenges even as he entertains. In this title, allusions to children’s literary classics are scattered throughout. Lemony takes a break in the library to “read about someone who was a true friend and a good writer who lived on a bloodthirsty farm where nearly everyone was in danger of some sort.” That’s probably the best summary of E.B. White’s “Charlotte’s Web” I’ll ever encounter.
The humor is what we have come to expect: equal parts wit and absurdity. His jokes work on many levels, but he’s not afraid to be thoughtful, too. “Knowing something is wrong and doing it anyway happens very often in life, and I doubt I will ever know why,” young Lemony concludes.
For every question “Who Could That Be at This Hour?” answers, it creates two new ones. Is the charming girl a friend or foe? Who is Hangfire? And will Lemony complete his personal mission? If these, too, are the wrong questions, then I suppose I’ll just have to wait for the next three books for the right ones. “WHO COULD THAT BE AT THIS HOUR?”
By Lemony Snicket
Just in time for Halloween, renowned trickster Lemony Snicket hands out his latest treat: “Who Could That Be at This Hour?,” the first in a planned four-book series called “All the Wrong Questions.” Here, Snicket shifts from the Baudelaire orphans of his deliciously dark “A Series of Unfortunate Events” to the chronicler of their adventures: Snicket himself, almost 13 years old. All this may seem straightforward, except that “Lemony Snicket” is actually the nom de plume of Daniel Handler, who also pens acclaimed YA fiction under his own name, including this year’s Printz Honor-winning “Why We Broke Up.” What we have in Snicket’s tale of boyhood sleuthing is “a riddle, wrapped in a mystery, inside an enigma” (to borrow a phrase from Winston Churchill) with a dollop of Franz Kafka and a dash of Dashiell Hammett. It’s the sort of goodie savored by brainy kids who love wordplay, puzzles and plots that zing from point A to B by way of the whole alphabet. In a decrepit town close to a “sea without water and a forest without trees,” young Snicket and his “strange, uncombed” mentor have been hired to find a stolen figurine called the Bombinating Beast. Allies, who seem as suspect as enemies, include a leather-jacketed librarian, two taxi-driving tweens and a few troublesome dames his age. This surreal fictional memoir holds a funhouse mirror up to our own world, as the narrator describes a forgotten suit as being like “an empty person” or reflects on children and adults in their “separate boats,” drifting close only “when we need a ride from someone or when someone needs us to wash our hands.”
— Mary Quattlebaum
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Antenora
Detriment Deleter
Fiendish Philologist
Put down that harpoon gun, in the name of these wonderful birds!
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Post by Antenora on Oct 24, 2012 14:17:35 GMT -5
From the Boston Globe review: While the characters in this “All the Wrong Questions” series opener are not as immediately arresting as Snicket’s Baudelaire siblings and evil Count Olaf... I think that's completely backwards. One of the things that really sets ATWQ apart from ASoUE (especially the earlier books) is the richness of its characterization.
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