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Bottle Grove
A razor-sharp tale of two couples, two marriages, a bar, and a San Francisco start-up from a best-selling, award-winning novelist.
This is a story about two marriages. Or is it? It begins with a wedding, held in the small San Francisco forest of Bottle Grove--bestowed by a wealthy patron for the public good, back when people did such things. Here is a cross section of lives, a stretch of urban green where ritzy guests, lustful teenagers, drunken revelers, and forest creatures all wait for the sun to go down. The girl in the corner slugging vodka from a cough-syrup bottle is Padgett--she's keeping something secreted in the woods. The couple at the altar are the Nickels--the bride is emphatic about changing her name, as there is plenty about her old life she is ready to forget.
Set in San Francisco as the techboom is exploding, Bottle Grove is a sexy, skewering dark comedy about two unions--one forged of love and the other of greed--and about the forces that can drive couples together, into dependence, and then into sinister, even supernatural realms. Add one ominous shape-shifter to the mix, and you get a delightful and strange spectacle: a story of scheming and yearning and foibles and love and what we end up doing for it--and everyone has a secret. Looming over it all is the income disparity between San Francisco's tech community and . . . everyone else.
This is a story about two marriages. Or is it? It begins with a wedding, held in the small San Francisco forest of Bottle Grove--bestowed by a wealthy patron for the public good, back when people did such things. Here is a cross section of lives, a stretch of urban green where ritzy guests, lustful teenagers, drunken revelers, and forest creatures all wait for the sun to go down. The girl in the corner slugging vodka from a cough-syrup bottle is Padgett--she's keeping something secreted in the woods. The couple at the altar are the Nickels--the bride is emphatic about changing her name, as there is plenty about her old life she is ready to forget.
Set in San Francisco as the techboom is exploding, Bottle Grove is a sexy, skewering dark comedy about two unions--one forged of love and the other of greed--and about the forces that can drive couples together, into dependence, and then into sinister, even supernatural realms. Add one ominous shape-shifter to the mix, and you get a delightful and strange spectacle: a story of scheming and yearning and foibles and love and what we end up doing for it--and everyone has a secret. Looming over it all is the income disparity between San Francisco's tech community and . . . everyone else.
240 pages, Hardcover
First published August 27, 2019
164 people are currently reading
2748 people want to read
About the author
Daniel Handler
56 books3,090 followersDaniel Handler is the author of seven novels, including Why We Broke Up, We Are Pirates, All The Dirty Parts and, most recently, Bottle Grove.
As Lemony Snicket, he is responsible for numerous books for children, including the thirteen-volume A Series of Unfortunate Events, the four-volume All the Wrong Questions, and The Dark, which won the Charlotte Zolotow Award.
Mr. Snicket’s first book for readers of all ages, Poison for Breakfast, will be published by Liveright/W.W. Norton on August 31, 2021.
Handler has received commissions from the San Francisco Symphony, Berkeley Repertory Theater and the Royal Shakespeare Company, and has collaborated with artist Maira Kalman on a series of books for the Museum of Modern Art in New York, and with musicians Stephin Merritt (of the Magnetic Fields), Benjamin Gibbard (of Death Cab for Cutie), Colin Meloy (of the Decemberists) and Torquil Campbell (of Stars).
His books have sold more than 70 million copies and have been translated into 40 languages, and have been adapted for film, stage and television, including the recent adaptation of A Series of Unfortunate Events for which he was awarded both the Peabody and the Writers Guild of America awards.
He lives in San Francisco with the illustrator Lisa Brown, to whom he is married and with whom he has collaborated on several books and one son.
As Lemony Snicket, he is responsible for numerous books for children, including the thirteen-volume A Series of Unfortunate Events, the four-volume All the Wrong Questions, and The Dark, which won the Charlotte Zolotow Award.
Mr. Snicket’s first book for readers of all ages, Poison for Breakfast, will be published by Liveright/W.W. Norton on August 31, 2021.
Handler has received commissions from the San Francisco Symphony, Berkeley Repertory Theater and the Royal Shakespeare Company, and has collaborated with artist Maira Kalman on a series of books for the Museum of Modern Art in New York, and with musicians Stephin Merritt (of the Magnetic Fields), Benjamin Gibbard (of Death Cab for Cutie), Colin Meloy (of the Decemberists) and Torquil Campbell (of Stars).
His books have sold more than 70 million copies and have been translated into 40 languages, and have been adapted for film, stage and television, including the recent adaptation of A Series of Unfortunate Events for which he was awarded both the Peabody and the Writers Guild of America awards.
He lives in San Francisco with the illustrator Lisa Brown, to whom he is married and with whom he has collaborated on several books and one son.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 151 reviews
March 15, 2021
*3.5
O que foi isso que eu li??
O que foi isso que eu li??
May 27, 2019
I had high hopes for this book because of the writing talents of Daniel Handler. However, I was disappointed, perhaps because the bar was set too high due to A Series of Unfortunate Events.
As I read, I found myself not caring about anyone or what would ultimately happen to them. I kept reading, until the very last page, because I was hoping and expecting it might develop more — the story, the characters and/or the relationships. But it never did. I neither felt invested in the story nor did it matter to me what happened next or at the end. I didn’t feel like I got to know any of the characters well enough to care. They all seemed rather selfish, entitled and self-absorbed.
At times, I found myself re-reading paragraphs several times because I was confused. Nothing seemed to flow - the story, the characters or the relationships. The story-telling felt disjointed at times leading to more confusion.. There were some great metaphors throughout the book but the writing was not up to par to what I expect from Daniel Handler.
Bottle Grove never lived up to expectations and while they may have been high, this book fell very far short.
Thank you to Bloomsbury and NetGalley for an advance reader copy in exchange for my honest review.
As I read, I found myself not caring about anyone or what would ultimately happen to them. I kept reading, until the very last page, because I was hoping and expecting it might develop more — the story, the characters and/or the relationships. But it never did. I neither felt invested in the story nor did it matter to me what happened next or at the end. I didn’t feel like I got to know any of the characters well enough to care. They all seemed rather selfish, entitled and self-absorbed.
At times, I found myself re-reading paragraphs several times because I was confused. Nothing seemed to flow - the story, the characters or the relationships. The story-telling felt disjointed at times leading to more confusion.. There were some great metaphors throughout the book but the writing was not up to par to what I expect from Daniel Handler.
Bottle Grove never lived up to expectations and while they may have been high, this book fell very far short.
Thank you to Bloomsbury and NetGalley for an advance reader copy in exchange for my honest review.
March 1, 2019
Daniel Handler has a way with words and with plots. I was glad I overlooked the other, negative reviews, and feel that part of the reason I found this so enjoyable is that living in the Bay Area and being familiar with San Francisco lends to a better understanding of what he is doing here. There are so many references to SF life that unless you have experienced them first-hand, they may fall flat. The City is not the same one of a few years ago, and the income disparity experienced by anyone who lives here for better or for worse is a reality. I know it's true of many places these days, but San Francisco is ground zero for the tech revolution, and it affects every aspect of life here. Well done.
May 22, 2022
No one, no one, no one writes like Daniel Handler. His loose, louche, luxuriously strange language manipulations ooze right deep into my brain, twisting up my own inner monologue in his image, harkening me way back to my teenage self reading Margaret Atwood, agog with the playfulness and possibilities of words and how to wield them. He is a sexy breezy twisty beautiful genius and one of my very favorites always always always.
What is this book and does it matter? Sure. It's the story of drunk desperate Padgett, secret heiress and n'er-do-well; drunk desperate Martin, arch cynical clever barman; drunk desperate Rachel, afraid of a childhood horse and always at the ready to blow up her life from the inside; plus sly wicked Reynard, perhaps possessed by an evil fox spirit; woodenly kind Ben, aspiring tech mogul; easy breezy actual tech mogul Vic, with real "Elon Musk without being a vile monster" vibes; flitty silly Nina, dour striving Lil, sexy suave Stanford, maybe a few more for good measure.
Are these characters and all the ways they come together, rend apart, fuck each and fuck each other up — is this enough? Sure. Is it also basically beside the point? Yes. Reading Daniel Handler is about devouring Daniel Handler, and being devoured by him, his slippery steady hands on your shoulders pushing you forward with firm, thrilling pressure through all his carefully constructed twisted paths.
This won't work because reading is like a bubble bath, isn't it — being sunk into it is the thing, you can't just pull out a few individual bubbles and feel the same marvel. But here are some of the lines in this book that just did me all the way in:
* ...her legs uncertain and clattery like the first time with chopsticks.
* He has the feeling, not that they fit together, but that something, some task, could be done with them both in tandem, whisk and muffin tin, paint can and mortgage, shovel and terrified witness.
* The drink has a sharp taste but a calming texture, all the soft threads of ginger like a loose ghost in the bubbles.
* She would give up anything for the power to summon a plague of snakes to venom this man, all of them, to death.
* His fingers are holding her near the knees, fairly nonsexually, like he can check a pulse or chakra or whatever she has in her besides vodka and a feeling of falling behind.
* ...the raindrops' mosaic spatters constellations on the wild nothing off the side of the road.
* Reynard widens his eyes and they're something in a planetarium, spinning and starry. She moves into orbit.
* Oh, the world is where you're flung, every day's an unfair gumball machine.
* For a minute the bar is a volcano Padgett's in, the drink arsoning down her body.
* Her stomach tumults around under her skin, like something emerging from a swamp.
* He goes, keeps walking, around the corner, a tall glass of water, a whole bottle, she thinks, of white wind down her throat, as soon as they get home.
I don't know how to describe it other than breathlessly, voraciously, desperate for more and then more and then more. I love him so much I can hardly stand it.
What is this book and does it matter? Sure. It's the story of drunk desperate Padgett, secret heiress and n'er-do-well; drunk desperate Martin, arch cynical clever barman; drunk desperate Rachel, afraid of a childhood horse and always at the ready to blow up her life from the inside; plus sly wicked Reynard, perhaps possessed by an evil fox spirit; woodenly kind Ben, aspiring tech mogul; easy breezy actual tech mogul Vic, with real "Elon Musk without being a vile monster" vibes; flitty silly Nina, dour striving Lil, sexy suave Stanford, maybe a few more for good measure.
Are these characters and all the ways they come together, rend apart, fuck each and fuck each other up — is this enough? Sure. Is it also basically beside the point? Yes. Reading Daniel Handler is about devouring Daniel Handler, and being devoured by him, his slippery steady hands on your shoulders pushing you forward with firm, thrilling pressure through all his carefully constructed twisted paths.
This won't work because reading is like a bubble bath, isn't it — being sunk into it is the thing, you can't just pull out a few individual bubbles and feel the same marvel. But here are some of the lines in this book that just did me all the way in:
* ...her legs uncertain and clattery like the first time with chopsticks.
* He has the feeling, not that they fit together, but that something, some task, could be done with them both in tandem, whisk and muffin tin, paint can and mortgage, shovel and terrified witness.
* The drink has a sharp taste but a calming texture, all the soft threads of ginger like a loose ghost in the bubbles.
* She would give up anything for the power to summon a plague of snakes to venom this man, all of them, to death.
* His fingers are holding her near the knees, fairly nonsexually, like he can check a pulse or chakra or whatever she has in her besides vodka and a feeling of falling behind.
* ...the raindrops' mosaic spatters constellations on the wild nothing off the side of the road.
* Reynard widens his eyes and they're something in a planetarium, spinning and starry. She moves into orbit.
* Oh, the world is where you're flung, every day's an unfair gumball machine.
* For a minute the bar is a volcano Padgett's in, the drink arsoning down her body.
* Her stomach tumults around under her skin, like something emerging from a swamp.
* He goes, keeps walking, around the corner, a tall glass of water, a whole bottle, she thinks, of white wind down her throat, as soon as they get home.
I don't know how to describe it other than breathlessly, voraciously, desperate for more and then more and then more. I love him so much I can hardly stand it.
February 21, 2019
Mannered ~ Literary ~ Satirical
tl:dr: Marriage can be a laugh, if you look at this a certain way.
Daniel Handler, Lemony Snicket to some of you, is a strong writer. His literary gifts cannot mask the banality of the story. This book strove for a satirical, yet compelling, look at marriage and interrelationship between groups of friends. It starts with a wedding, there is a cheating vicar, and plenty of crankiness. Oddly, while the story takes place in San Francisco, the tone of the writing has a vaguely British air, like an expat's tale of the Silicon Valley.
In the end, the quality of the writing, not the chararcters or the plot, propelled me to finish the book. (The short length probably contributed to my completion). I was truly disappointed. I wanted more. I was willing to wait for more. But, instead, this was more like a writing exercise with a few amusing reflections thrown in.
Thanks to NetGalley for an ARC in exchange for an honest review.
tl:dr: Marriage can be a laugh, if you look at this a certain way.
Daniel Handler, Lemony Snicket to some of you, is a strong writer. His literary gifts cannot mask the banality of the story. This book strove for a satirical, yet compelling, look at marriage and interrelationship between groups of friends. It starts with a wedding, there is a cheating vicar, and plenty of crankiness. Oddly, while the story takes place in San Francisco, the tone of the writing has a vaguely British air, like an expat's tale of the Silicon Valley.
In the end, the quality of the writing, not the chararcters or the plot, propelled me to finish the book. (The short length probably contributed to my completion). I was truly disappointed. I wanted more. I was willing to wait for more. But, instead, this was more like a writing exercise with a few amusing reflections thrown in.
Thanks to NetGalley for an ARC in exchange for an honest review.
February 19, 2019
Daniel Handler (also known as Lemony Snicket) is the King of Quirky. He can take the mundane and make it mystical or unusual. In his capable hands, quirk can be anything, but it's almost always charming.
That being said, this fictional story of two couples was just sort of "meh" for me.
Bottle Grove starts out with some excitement: Rachel is about to marry Ben Nickels in a ceremony at Bottle Grove, a small forest on the edge of San Francisco donated to the community years ago by a wealthy family.
There are caterers working the wedding, as well as two barmen who own a bar nearby which is also named Bottle Grove.
The head barman, Martin Icke, falls for Padgett, a wealthy twenty-something randomly hired for the catering gig who is already drunk from vodka she's sipping out of a cough syrup bottle.
A barrel of alcohol goes missing but is quickly forgotten when Reynard, the vicar who officiated the ceremony, is caught cheating on his fiancee. There's a huge scene between Reynard and Nina during the Nickels's wedding reception that leads to a car accident and Reynard goes missing.
Martin schemes up an idea after the disastrous Nickels wedding to get his wealthy girlfriend Padgett to date a ridiculously wealthy man called "the Vic" in order to get money for his failing bar. What he doesn't consider is what will happen if Padgett's greed outweighs his own.
In the years after their wedding, Rachel finds herself annoyed by her perfect husband. She doesn't know how to talk about her own problems or approach the problems she has in her marriage.
Eventually Padgett is in the middle of another dangerous scheme cooked up by Martin and Rachel finds herself in a messy situation with Reynard, the vicar from the beginning of the story, who has a penchant for shape shifting.
This was a humorous look at relationships: what drives people together and tears them apart, at times mundane and at times... supernatural.
The story is of course trademark Handler-quirky and in between the dark comedy there are some unexpected lovely sentences, like this:
"Half past five on a school day, and it's quiet in the place like it's time to turn the record over and play the other side." *
And my favorite quote, which is a simple but profound statement on relationships:
"You meet people and you tell them stories. You meet someone, you marry them, and they're part of the story you're in. They are it. You're the same story and as it changes, every living day, you can never, never keep up." *
I'm not sure what I was expecting from Bottle Grove, but this story wasn't it. It had its moments but overall I didn't feel invested in the characters or their lives.
Thanks to Bloomsbury Publishing and NetGalley for providing me with an ARC in exchange for my honest review. Bottle Grove is scheduled for release on August 27, 2019.
*The quotes included are from a digital advanced readers copy and are subject to change upon final publication.
For more reviews, visit www.rootsandreads.wordpress.com
That being said, this fictional story of two couples was just sort of "meh" for me.
Bottle Grove starts out with some excitement: Rachel is about to marry Ben Nickels in a ceremony at Bottle Grove, a small forest on the edge of San Francisco donated to the community years ago by a wealthy family.
There are caterers working the wedding, as well as two barmen who own a bar nearby which is also named Bottle Grove.
The head barman, Martin Icke, falls for Padgett, a wealthy twenty-something randomly hired for the catering gig who is already drunk from vodka she's sipping out of a cough syrup bottle.
A barrel of alcohol goes missing but is quickly forgotten when Reynard, the vicar who officiated the ceremony, is caught cheating on his fiancee. There's a huge scene between Reynard and Nina during the Nickels's wedding reception that leads to a car accident and Reynard goes missing.
Martin schemes up an idea after the disastrous Nickels wedding to get his wealthy girlfriend Padgett to date a ridiculously wealthy man called "the Vic" in order to get money for his failing bar. What he doesn't consider is what will happen if Padgett's greed outweighs his own.
In the years after their wedding, Rachel finds herself annoyed by her perfect husband. She doesn't know how to talk about her own problems or approach the problems she has in her marriage.
Eventually Padgett is in the middle of another dangerous scheme cooked up by Martin and Rachel finds herself in a messy situation with Reynard, the vicar from the beginning of the story, who has a penchant for shape shifting.
This was a humorous look at relationships: what drives people together and tears them apart, at times mundane and at times... supernatural.
The story is of course trademark Handler-quirky and in between the dark comedy there are some unexpected lovely sentences, like this:
"Half past five on a school day, and it's quiet in the place like it's time to turn the record over and play the other side." *
And my favorite quote, which is a simple but profound statement on relationships:
"You meet people and you tell them stories. You meet someone, you marry them, and they're part of the story you're in. They are it. You're the same story and as it changes, every living day, you can never, never keep up." *
I'm not sure what I was expecting from Bottle Grove, but this story wasn't it. It had its moments but overall I didn't feel invested in the characters or their lives.
Thanks to Bloomsbury Publishing and NetGalley for providing me with an ARC in exchange for my honest review. Bottle Grove is scheduled for release on August 27, 2019.
*The quotes included are from a digital advanced readers copy and are subject to change upon final publication.
For more reviews, visit www.rootsandreads.wordpress.com
October 13, 2019
Well...that was pretty much perfect.
October 8, 2023
This felt like I was reading in a dream state most of the time. I can't decide if it worked or not.
December 3, 2020
Haha, reading yet another Daniel Handler book that almost nobody seems to have liked. Which means I will probably rate it four stars. What do you want to bet?
______
Knew it!
So, while looking around at other reviews, I discovered that Daniel Handler can be an obnoxious ass--not entirely unexpected somehow, but still a little disappointing. But! Man, can he write.
This is a weird book, ostensibly about two marriages, but really more about the divide between the haves and the have nots, between technology and nature, and between order and chaos. And is there always a divide? As usual in Daniel Handler's books, it features messy characters with messy lives, and I loved how the connections between them spin out--and especially coming to understand Reynard's place in the narrative towards the end.
I think one thing I love the most about Handler's writing is how frequently a sentence causes me to pause and just admire it. There are some really gorgeous phrases here, and the way he uses language is really kind of breathtaking at times.
If only he would speak more like this in real life, eh?
______
Knew it!
So, while looking around at other reviews, I discovered that Daniel Handler can be an obnoxious ass--not entirely unexpected somehow, but still a little disappointing. But! Man, can he write.
This is a weird book, ostensibly about two marriages, but really more about the divide between the haves and the have nots, between technology and nature, and between order and chaos. And is there always a divide? As usual in Daniel Handler's books, it features messy characters with messy lives, and I loved how the connections between them spin out--and especially coming to understand Reynard's place in the narrative towards the end.
I think one thing I love the most about Handler's writing is how frequently a sentence causes me to pause and just admire it. There are some really gorgeous phrases here, and the way he uses language is really kind of breathtaking at times.
If only he would speak more like this in real life, eh?
April 1, 2020
Let me start by saying that Daniel Handler is Lemony Snicket. There. That's all you need to know. It's like his bread and butter, that is mysterious/oddly dark kids books, learned some cuss words. Is there really a story even in there? It's a lot of crappy people doing crappy things and then everyone is friends and happy? I don't know. And wtf was the foxes about, or the caged animal, or really anything. I was so disappointed. I feel like the amount of potential that was there for this was crunched into a little ball and dropped down an elevator shaft in favor of being "whimsical" or something. I don't know.
July 29, 2019
I received this ARC from Bloomsbury Publishing and had never read this author before. The book was enjoyable although strange and different. The author is the same author who wrote the Lemony Snicket books but this was definitely an adult book. Bottle Grove was a place and a bar and everything in the book revolved around these two places including the young woman who was fron the Bottle family who everything was named after. This was a really different book but I would definitely something more by this author.
January 24, 2020
Ugh, this book is so masterful! Handler succeeds in a mixture that seems almost impossible: he writes in a language that is artful and clever, his plot is full of coincidence and bizarre events, and yet the book he creates just rings with absolute authenticity. I love-love-loved! Bottle Grove.
January 21, 2020
I have never read a Daniel Handler book. This is half-true. I grew up reading and loving A Series of Unfortunate Events, written by Handler under the pseudonym of Lemony Snicket. But I have never read one of Handler's novels written for adults, under his own name. With that in mind, I really didn't know what to expect when approaching Bottle Grove, his most recent novel. The synopsis promised something along the lines of magical realism, and I was definitely intrigued to see how Handler approached writing for adults versus writing for children - would he still have lots of fun wordplay and interesting prose? Unfortunately, I didn't love Bottle Grove. I don't know that I'd say it's a bad book or anything, but it definitely wasn't what I expect and I'm not sure it's what I wanted, either.
The first thing to talk about is the novel's prose. It's written in the present tense, which is always a disarming choice in prose. Something about reading a novel written in the present tense makes my brain refuse to process it, which is weird considering how many film/tv/stage scripts I read - all of which are written in the present tense. I know Bottle Grove is not the first or only book to be written in the present tense, and many other books written in that tense have been very successful. But something about the way Bottle Grove was structured just didn't quite work for me. I wanted and expected a lot of fun wordplay in the novel, much like Handler's prose in A Series of Unfortunate Events, just aimed at an older audience. But that's not really what I got.
I found the first third of the novel almost unreadably dense. There were so many characters the story was bouncing between and it was incredibly difficult to get a grasp on how time was passing in the narrative. Frequently, Handler would be talking about what one character was doing and then very quickly switch to the point of view of another character, and it never stopped being jarring. These rapid-fire switches greatly contributed to my initial trouble following what was actually happening. By the time I finished the first chapter, I genuinely felt mentally exhausted from having tried to keep up with the quick-fire pacing of the story. Obviously, some books are gonna be harder reads than others and not every reading experience will be fun, but I just found it taxing as hell to get into this book - and I desperately wanted to.
With that said, once Handler actually settles into a groove and a plotline, the novel gets easier to follow and it becomes a much less frustrating read. Essentially, Bottle Grove is the story of two couples - Rachel and Ben, married in the first chapter, and The Vic and Padgett, a tech mogul who ends up marrying the daughter of the Bottle family - who was urged to date the Vic by a bartender she met at Rachen and Ben's wedding, Martin. The bulk of the story just follows these characters as they navigate their various interpersonal relationships - and, honestly, it does make for a fairly interesting read. After a while, you do find yourself invested in the lives of these characters; you root for them and you want to see what they're going to do or how they're going to react to whatever new thing happens to them. Most of the characters have a ton of faults and those are always the characters that are the most interesting to follow. They genuinely feel like real people, fully fleshed out and three dimensional, and it's always a joy to see such rich characters in fiction. I definitely think it's fair to say that Bottle Grove's characters are its best asset - I just wish we had more time to spend with them.
And what, I hear you ask, of the shape-shifting fox promised by the synopsis? Well, he's barely in the story and when he is, you tend to forget the character is actually supposed to be a shape-shifting fox. And it's here where I think the book's synopsis really does it a disservice. To me, the synopsis seemed to promise a story that involved the shape-shifting fox more. Perhaps he was manipulating various events? I expected something much closer to magical realism than we got. In fact, the shape-shifting fox is basically just a metaphor for temptation in its various forms. Which, I can't lie, is a good idea - and it's utilized very well throughout the story. But I couldn't help but feel disappointed in the overall handling of the fox, especially as he weaved in and out of the lives of the characters. His arc just sort of fizzles out - much like the climax of the book in general, actually - and you don't really get any satisfying answers related to him.
And that's kind of my problem with the book as a whole. Once it gets going, it does get pretty good and significantly easier to read. But it just kind of fizzles out at the end. A really interesting plotline involving a potential kidnapping is introduced, and then nothing really comes of it - due to other events that sorta put a wrench on that plan. And that, itself, isn't necessarily a problem. But we don't ever come back to that plan. We don't really check up on the characters who were plotting this kidnapping to see their reaction or if they've learned anything. The story just sort of ends arbitrarily. Only one character arc really seems to be resolved; the rest just kind of come to a stop. I suppose that's realistic, and Handler does seem to be striving for realism throughout this book, but I can't help but feel disappointed by it. It makes me feel like there wasn't a point to the story. It never really ended and most of the characters never got any kind of closure, so what was the point in telling it? What was the point in me reading it? I'm sure that kind of ambiguity will be appealing to some, but it wasn't appealing to me and I found it especially disappointing after having finally found myself interested and invested in the novel's story. I wanted an ending - even an open-ended one - and I feel like I was robbed of one.
All in all, Bottle Grove isn't necessarily a bad book. It starts off both promising and immensely difficult to read but eventually coalesces into an interesting story - albeit one with a somewhat disappointing ending. Once my brain finally adjusted to the style Handler used to write the novel, I found myself having an easier time getting into the story and enjoying it. The characters are well developed and it is easy to find yourself wanting to know what's gonna happen next to them within the story. I found the plot a little unfocused and, overall, a bit disappointing, but the novel is probably less about the actual story and more about the lives of these characters. In that regard, Handler probably achieves his goal fairly well. But this isn't really the kind of book I enjoy reading. I very nearly decided to not finish it at all. I know it's not fair to compare his adult work to his work for children, but I also don't think it's unfair to have expected something that played with language in a more fun way than this did. I'm sure this will be a novel some will enjoy, but it wasn't really my cup of tea. I can't say that it was bad, but it wasn't for me.
The first thing to talk about is the novel's prose. It's written in the present tense, which is always a disarming choice in prose. Something about reading a novel written in the present tense makes my brain refuse to process it, which is weird considering how many film/tv/stage scripts I read - all of which are written in the present tense. I know Bottle Grove is not the first or only book to be written in the present tense, and many other books written in that tense have been very successful. But something about the way Bottle Grove was structured just didn't quite work for me. I wanted and expected a lot of fun wordplay in the novel, much like Handler's prose in A Series of Unfortunate Events, just aimed at an older audience. But that's not really what I got.
I found the first third of the novel almost unreadably dense. There were so many characters the story was bouncing between and it was incredibly difficult to get a grasp on how time was passing in the narrative. Frequently, Handler would be talking about what one character was doing and then very quickly switch to the point of view of another character, and it never stopped being jarring. These rapid-fire switches greatly contributed to my initial trouble following what was actually happening. By the time I finished the first chapter, I genuinely felt mentally exhausted from having tried to keep up with the quick-fire pacing of the story. Obviously, some books are gonna be harder reads than others and not every reading experience will be fun, but I just found it taxing as hell to get into this book - and I desperately wanted to.
With that said, once Handler actually settles into a groove and a plotline, the novel gets easier to follow and it becomes a much less frustrating read. Essentially, Bottle Grove is the story of two couples - Rachel and Ben, married in the first chapter, and The Vic and Padgett, a tech mogul who ends up marrying the daughter of the Bottle family - who was urged to date the Vic by a bartender she met at Rachen and Ben's wedding, Martin. The bulk of the story just follows these characters as they navigate their various interpersonal relationships - and, honestly, it does make for a fairly interesting read. After a while, you do find yourself invested in the lives of these characters; you root for them and you want to see what they're going to do or how they're going to react to whatever new thing happens to them. Most of the characters have a ton of faults and those are always the characters that are the most interesting to follow. They genuinely feel like real people, fully fleshed out and three dimensional, and it's always a joy to see such rich characters in fiction. I definitely think it's fair to say that Bottle Grove's characters are its best asset - I just wish we had more time to spend with them.
And what, I hear you ask, of the shape-shifting fox promised by the synopsis? Well, he's barely in the story and when he is, you tend to forget the character is actually supposed to be a shape-shifting fox. And it's here where I think the book's synopsis really does it a disservice. To me, the synopsis seemed to promise a story that involved the shape-shifting fox more. Perhaps he was manipulating various events? I expected something much closer to magical realism than we got. In fact, the shape-shifting fox is basically just a metaphor for temptation in its various forms. Which, I can't lie, is a good idea - and it's utilized very well throughout the story. But I couldn't help but feel disappointed in the overall handling of the fox, especially as he weaved in and out of the lives of the characters. His arc just sort of fizzles out - much like the climax of the book in general, actually - and you don't really get any satisfying answers related to him.
And that's kind of my problem with the book as a whole. Once it gets going, it does get pretty good and significantly easier to read. But it just kind of fizzles out at the end. A really interesting plotline involving a potential kidnapping is introduced, and then nothing really comes of it - due to other events that sorta put a wrench on that plan. And that, itself, isn't necessarily a problem. But we don't ever come back to that plan. We don't really check up on the characters who were plotting this kidnapping to see their reaction or if they've learned anything. The story just sort of ends arbitrarily. Only one character arc really seems to be resolved; the rest just kind of come to a stop. I suppose that's realistic, and Handler does seem to be striving for realism throughout this book, but I can't help but feel disappointed by it. It makes me feel like there wasn't a point to the story. It never really ended and most of the characters never got any kind of closure, so what was the point in telling it? What was the point in me reading it? I'm sure that kind of ambiguity will be appealing to some, but it wasn't appealing to me and I found it especially disappointing after having finally found myself interested and invested in the novel's story. I wanted an ending - even an open-ended one - and I feel like I was robbed of one.
All in all, Bottle Grove isn't necessarily a bad book. It starts off both promising and immensely difficult to read but eventually coalesces into an interesting story - albeit one with a somewhat disappointing ending. Once my brain finally adjusted to the style Handler used to write the novel, I found myself having an easier time getting into the story and enjoying it. The characters are well developed and it is easy to find yourself wanting to know what's gonna happen next to them within the story. I found the plot a little unfocused and, overall, a bit disappointing, but the novel is probably less about the actual story and more about the lives of these characters. In that regard, Handler probably achieves his goal fairly well. But this isn't really the kind of book I enjoy reading. I very nearly decided to not finish it at all. I know it's not fair to compare his adult work to his work for children, but I also don't think it's unfair to have expected something that played with language in a more fun way than this did. I'm sure this will be a novel some will enjoy, but it wasn't really my cup of tea. I can't say that it was bad, but it wasn't for me.
July 10, 2024
I liked the cover on this one and have no other reason for checking it out other than it was on the "available now" shelf and I was hoarding books to take on vacation. It was not anything special, but it was entertaining enough.
I wouldn't quite describe it at as a character piece, but it is definitely not a plot driven novel either. If anything, it is a cautionary tale about trust and appearances: none of the characters are "as they seem". The fox is, in fact, a shape-shifter but he is the most transparent of them all to the reader.
Overall it was entertaining and quick, but nothing profound. I think it would especially appeal to those with a connection to San Fran, work in tech, or who love fancy cocktails.
As I am currently sitting in a hotel room and about to start my day, I will end there with a good quote:
"It isn't as if, Rachel thinks with her palm on the window, she doesn't know she's ridiculous. Knowing you're ridiculous is, yes, half the battle. But the other half is battling, battling with your ridiculous self."
"
I wouldn't quite describe it at as a character piece, but it is definitely not a plot driven novel either. If anything, it is a cautionary tale about trust and appearances: none of the characters are "as they seem". The fox is, in fact, a shape-shifter but he is the most transparent of them all to the reader.
Overall it was entertaining and quick, but nothing profound. I think it would especially appeal to those with a connection to San Fran, work in tech, or who love fancy cocktails.
As I am currently sitting in a hotel room and about to start my day, I will end there with a good quote:
"It isn't as if, Rachel thinks with her palm on the window, she doesn't know she's ridiculous. Knowing you're ridiculous is, yes, half the battle. But the other half is battling, battling with your ridiculous self."
"
September 9, 2022
Probably not for everyone, but a zany little piece of literary fiction for meeee. I've been conditioned since age 10 to like this man's writing and this weird satire on marriage, tech moguls, and San Francisco was music to my Lemony Snicket-loving ears.
November 14, 2024
Enormously entertaining, and messssy, and not for everyone. I feel like it should be though.
September 27, 2023
Unsure how to feel about this book - I liked the way the book was written more than I liked the content of the book. But once it hooked me I did feel hooked so there’s that
March 3, 2020
A great portion of the criticism this novel receives points to a lack of flow in the writing, that the thread connecting thoughts is so easily broken, causing readers to reread passages multiple times just to understand what was just said.
This points to a failure of Handler to keep the reader’s attention, and it is a founded criticism—not that I can repeat this objection. For some reason, the book flowed just fine for me, and in the few times it did stutter, I floundered through the past paragraph if only due to external circumstances (e.g. a loud sound caught my attention). Though i didn’t reproduce any disdain for narrative flow, I can understand why one would. A lot happens, a lot of jump cuts without clear edges.
And sure, you can obviously find examples where this unstructured writing style is intended, but you can also find counterexamples therein. These arguments do not, however, detract from the emotion, confusion, desperation, devotion, and heart-scratching that these characters and I shared.
DanHan typically introduces and exhaustively determines the characters and setting in the first pages of his novels, and though this world never expands nor contracts and always remains minimally structured, it always feels so large and important. And you almost always walk away feeling attached to a character, even if they are a complete shit. This novel is no different.
But my heart broke between parts one and two, and i think my 5 stars is due to this. Time plays a huge part in my emotional strata, and I value novels that can make me cry (not a hard thing to achieve imo). Long distances and large gaps in time act as climaxes for my emotional engagement.
I know the point of reviews is partially to inform a future reader whether the thing to which it refers is worth their time, but I am basing this review on my own personal experience and nothing else. I got too much out of this book to give it anything less. I understand the 2- and 3- star reviews and respect them, but I will stick to my 5 out of good faith.
This points to a failure of Handler to keep the reader’s attention, and it is a founded criticism—not that I can repeat this objection. For some reason, the book flowed just fine for me, and in the few times it did stutter, I floundered through the past paragraph if only due to external circumstances (e.g. a loud sound caught my attention). Though i didn’t reproduce any disdain for narrative flow, I can understand why one would. A lot happens, a lot of jump cuts without clear edges.
And sure, you can obviously find examples where this unstructured writing style is intended, but you can also find counterexamples therein. These arguments do not, however, detract from the emotion, confusion, desperation, devotion, and heart-scratching that these characters and I shared.
DanHan typically introduces and exhaustively determines the characters and setting in the first pages of his novels, and though this world never expands nor contracts and always remains minimally structured, it always feels so large and important. And you almost always walk away feeling attached to a character, even if they are a complete shit. This novel is no different.
But my heart broke between parts one and two, and i think my 5 stars is due to this. Time plays a huge part in my emotional strata, and I value novels that can make me cry (not a hard thing to achieve imo). Long distances and large gaps in time act as climaxes for my emotional engagement.
I know the point of reviews is partially to inform a future reader whether the thing to which it refers is worth their time, but I am basing this review on my own personal experience and nothing else. I got too much out of this book to give it anything less. I understand the 2- and 3- star reviews and respect them, but I will stick to my 5 out of good faith.
January 10, 2020
This book was okay, but it made walking down Polk Street at night infinitely creepier (and more fun) because every time I see a bar I find myself thinking The Fox Is Going To Get Me so thanks for that
December 26, 2021
It loses steam at the end, but easily Handler's best work since Adverbs. At his smoothest, Handler writes prose with a poet's eye for the hidden, dovetailed aesthetic and emotional structures of the world: "He takes the flask and she swears she can feel his long sip go down his throat, like a mouse in a snake" or "her mind is straining to rub the fog off the mirror" or "silly bookshelves, so modern they're just hyphens on the wall, two tables with sharp corners that will bruise you in a drunken stumble." I like, too, Handler's macabre sensibilities, the idea of this ravening man-woman-fox that is both familiar (everyone knows a predator) and alien (the shape-shifting, magickish aspects of Reynard). He knows when to keep a mystery a mystery, as with the caged thing, letting our imaginations work themselves into a lather, and when to blow apart a mundane interaction with incredible detail, as when a man and a woman have a charged interaction in a forest. It's good, it's readable, it's cynical.
January 5, 2022
I was drawn to the subject area of this book -- a commentary on society and economic inequality in the San Francisco Bay Area (the same backdrop for my own upcoming novel). The writing style is unique and engaging -- a deliberately disorienting, almost dreamy (or drunk, given the characters?) stream-of-consciousness. And I thought it did a great job capturing and critiquing the wealth stratification of the Bay Area. It almost has a timelessness (again perhaps deliberate) to the story of class and extreme wealth, like it could have just as easily been based in Victorian England. A very original story, while still providing insightful commentary on our time.
April 5, 2021
This book was a little slow to start. However once I really got into it it was a fun book that took a lot of interesting turns. And usually pretty good about being able to predict the ending but even I was a bit surprised at the ending of this book.
September 11, 2019
After reading through the beginning chapters of this book, I could not make any sense of it and stopped reading.
May 2, 2022
sorry lemony snicket but what the f was this
Read
November 4, 2022I normally enjoy both Daniel Handler's books, and those for which he pretends responsibility among grown-ups in order to help his associate Lemony Snicket remain necessarily elusive. But every now and then, his prose showmanship tips over from tripping and twisty into tricksy and twittering, and like Adverbs, which took me some years finally to slog through, this is one of those times. Albeit less so; after all, I've finished this within a week. Although part of that is for extratextual reasons: I had a reservation in for this at the library, and it was supposedly there, but some other swine beat me to it, and before I could get another chance the Event interrupted, after which that library was no longer so convenient. So, feeling recently a sense of unfinished business on that account, I bought a second-hand copy, which itself turns out to be a library copy, and one that doesn't look to have been properly withdrawn from a library somewhere I've never been, but to which I feel a connection on account of a song I love, so I wanted to get this read quickly in order that I could get in touch with them and if necessary undo the vendor's crime. A digression which, if I do say so myself, I reckon feels more like Handler on a good day than this rework of Midsummer Night's Dream (among other things, some of them eventually flagged to a cringeworthy degree) by way of the San Francisco tech boom and its attendant injustices, where Handler's usual eye for the unknown known too often stutters into platitude. Reading him when he's on form, the style of narration feels like a fascinating stranger taking you under their wing as you enter a museum; here it's more like one of those shops where the importuning staff won't shut up and let you browse, and it's doubly awkward because you've already realised you don't want anything they're selling anyway. No, that's too far: like the fox on the cover, Bottle Grove does know many little things, about love and deceit and cities and ageing. And by the end, like its characters, it settles down a little, gets over itself enough, that I suspect the opening was being annoying on purpose. But while in the abstract I can respect that sort of method work, it's still probably not one I'd recommend to anyone but other completists.
readers-advisory
February 22, 2025Handler (All the Dirty Parts, 2017), adored by younger readers for his Lemony Snicket titles, is a prolific jack-of-all-trades who also pens quirky, postmodern love stories mostly set in present-day San Francisco. His seventh novel for adults reaches deep into those modes for a drunkenly humorous blend of alcohol, entrepreneurial ambitions, and a dash of cheating. The misadventures begin on the day of Rachel and Ben’s wedding, held at a lush San Francisco park called Bottle Grove . While Martin, owner of a nearby bar, searches for some missing booze intended for the wedding guests, he meets and falls for Padgett, an astute caterer with a penchant for vodka. But the ceremony is doomed after the wedding officiant is caught in a sex act, then disappears. Everyone’s got something to hide, including a grieving Bay Area mogul, a shape-shifter, and even Bottle Grove ’s woodland critters. Handler’s clever, highly stylized prose demands alertness in his readers, who may feel tipsy trying to follow the knotted story line. Nonetheless, his quick-witted, timely characters and offbeat but perceptive one-liners make for an intoxicating delight.HIGH-DEMAND BACKSTORY: Funny, irreverent, and clever Handler is always a big lure. -- Jonathan Fullmer (Reviewed 6/1/2019) (Booklist, vol 115, number 19, p28)
February 23, 2025
I was highly disappointed with this novel as Daniel Handler is a favorite author of mine. Perhaps I went in with too high expectations…but I’m not sure.
Quite honestly this book is a mess. Every single character is unlikeable, yet also unentertaining. You can sometimes get away with one if the other is achieved; lacking both in terms of characterization makes reading this book a struggle.
Another aspect I didn’t care for, which is shocking as hugely Handler is superb at this, is the organization. Every chapter would constantly shift the character focus among every single member of its main cast (of which there’s like five or six) making it a very difficult read to follow. I feel as though a simple fix would have been to make each chapter the same events from another character’s perspective…as a major theme of the book seems to be that every single person is hiding a secret and has ulterior motives for his or her decisions in the respective relationship.
If you’re a die-hard Handler fan, then you might as well read it. I myself was pretty frustrated and felt like there was no point to any of the story as none of the characters grew and the only true message I got is people suck.
Quite honestly this book is a mess. Every single character is unlikeable, yet also unentertaining. You can sometimes get away with one if the other is achieved; lacking both in terms of characterization makes reading this book a struggle.
Another aspect I didn’t care for, which is shocking as hugely Handler is superb at this, is the organization. Every chapter would constantly shift the character focus among every single member of its main cast (of which there’s like five or six) making it a very difficult read to follow. I feel as though a simple fix would have been to make each chapter the same events from another character’s perspective…as a major theme of the book seems to be that every single person is hiding a secret and has ulterior motives for his or her decisions in the respective relationship.
If you’re a die-hard Handler fan, then you might as well read it. I myself was pretty frustrated and felt like there was no point to any of the story as none of the characters grew and the only true message I got is people suck.
December 11, 2023
I only finished this book so that I could write the most earth-scorching review possible. I hated it. Truly hated it. Nothing was clear, the narrative flowed like the author was high on something dangerous, and there were no redeeming qualities. Gross characters, no character development, no point. My condolences to A Series of Unfortunate Events for being associated with this author.
Age range: 18+
Not for kids. Not for adults either, though, so that’s tough.
Age range: 18+
Not for kids. Not for adults either, though, so that’s tough.
April 17, 2024
I loved the beginning, the language and the chaos of it. I was very interested by how SF's gentrification and tech bubble would be described. Because a distance is maintained with the characters their actions are surprising and illogical. You don't get what's underneath the surface. I didn't like the portrayal of women in this book, considering the topic is marriage, it was too bad that they seemed to lack a purpose and be so fragile, to be seen by the men as decorative. I liked that secrets are revealed at the end with a parallel dialog. I did not know what to make of the tech god, is he despicable because he is so powerful and out of touch with reality or is he actually lovable for who he is (we don't know who he is) but I will interpret it as the second option because she Padgett decides to build a life with him.
I got confused by where the evil came from (or maybe chaos is a better word) and how it got rid of (possibly through violence and lies), how is that the moral of the story?
I got confused by where the evil came from (or maybe chaos is a better word) and how it got rid of (possibly through violence and lies), how is that the moral of the story?
July 12, 2024
The premise—a novel about a bar & drinking—was a turnoff for me, but it’s Daniel Handler/Lemony Snicket, so I gave it a chance, and of course it’s a delight, a dark delight. A whisper of fantasy/fairy tale, tech boom San Francisco/yuppie satire, marriage, sex, and secrets, and yes owning a bar with a catering sideline. But it’s a weird, engaging ride. Read it. All handler is interesting, and most of it’s amazing.
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