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Life less ordinary

Last Updated 04 July 2015, 15:12 IST

We Are Pirates
Daniel Handler
Bloomsbury
2015, pp 288, Rs 499

Verily, we are all pirates in search of freedom and happiness! And, in their own disparate ways, so are all characters in We Are Pirates by Daniel Handler. So much so that to 14-year-old Gwen, even “the ocean seemed to be having a better time, waving and crashing and making cappuccino foam on the pilings”. And this makes her jealous of the sea (“how stupid was that”) since it seemed to have the freedom to do anything and create a schedule for itself while she was not allowed to get even a bus pass for herself!

Handler is better known for his best-selling A Series of Unfortunate Events penned under the pseudonym Lemony Snicket; the book was turned into a film and may become a TV series as well. He has acknowledged being influenced by Roald Dahl and Edward Gorey for his Lemony Snicket series and this influence seems to permeate We Are Pirates as well.

Practically all characters in this piece of fiction are in search of treasure: real or metaphorical. Phil Needle is a radio producer striving to find the ultimate big show that will get him the fortune he aspires for. His teenage daughter Gwen is on the cusp of becoming a rebel and feels claustrophobically cloistered in with her parents and the discipline they seek to impose on her. Her rebellion manifests as shoplifting at the local drugstore, following which her liberties, whatever little they may be, are curtailed even further by her parents Phil and Marina. To atone for her shoplifting sins and expose her to another world beyond her limited self-centred insulated life, Gwen is sent to volunteer at an old age home to briefly act as a companion to Errol, a geriatric with memory lapses, who has a stash of pirate books.

A bond forms between the two lonely people. Away from the old age home, Gwen also finds a kindred soul in Amber, another ‘lost’ teenager with a father and a Stepmonster (her stepmother). Gwen’s fertile imagination creates a piracy plan in which old Errol is the captain of the ship and she and Amber are his grommets who will plunder, loot, conquer in order to seek the happiness and freedom they all desire. Into the motley group enter more random people, some serendipitously and others by circumstance. The plan is put into action in San Francisco Bay and causes mayhem in the lives of everyone.

The entire tale is narrated with an undercurrent of wit that makes it extremely entertaining. However, one keeps waiting for the Guffaw Moment that never really comes; it does keep you on the edge of a laugh and smile though. At the same time, it does not turn into a hahaha kind of a story. Vital and serious concepts come to the fore: the desperation of not only Gwen and Phil, but also other characters such as Manny and Alma Levine, not to forget Errol.

Gwen’s angst forms the crux of the novel as she genuinely believes she is a mistake in the lives of her parents, who themselves are going through a phase of marital boredom. Manny is an immigrant with his own set of problems; Amber has a Stepmonster to deal with; Errol’s happiness was stolen when his wife died; Alma wants out too and takes to drink. Basically, at this point in history (as the author likes to repeat), everyone has turned into a desperate outlaw and is scouting for happiness and freedom from their respective prisons.

The story careens away in a droll manner when … WHAM … all of a sudden it takes a turn for the horror! It may have been a perfect read for all ages, but at this stage in the book, parental discretion is definitely advised. The humour continues, but under that now lies the macabre, the gore, the gruesome! The slight underlying menace may not make your heart go thump-thump, but it will definitely beat a wee bit faster and the nails will gradually be tempted towards the mouth to be gnawed. Is it a horror story? Is it a coming-of-age saga? Is it a social commentary? I swear by my drawn cutlass that it’s tough to slot this dark book in a specific genre.

Handler’s prose brings sympathy to all characters caught in their own traps: whether it’s the teenage anxieties of Gwen, Amber and Cody or the tired desperation of Phil’s dead-end career. They have reached that point where “one day you have taken enough, and you begin to take it all back”. And it is not the adults who have the guts to do so but Gwen who had “boredom just set upon her with a fierceness”. However, the courage and spirit turns the tale into a dark novel with an unexpected end. Read it.

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(Published 04 July 2015, 15:12 IST)

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