Despite it’s childish
nature, even when it is describing things like oral sex and hardcore internet
pornography, there is something about Daniel Handler’s slim 135 page novel All
the dirty Parts that feels very real. It is a major improvement over his first
novel and the only other book of Handler’s that I have read The Basic Eight. With
the character of Cole, a young teen whose sexual appetite feels more like an
infection than a natural outgrowth of puberty, Handler presents a person who is
at times clueless of the consequences of his actions but also sympathetic because
of how little the world around him has anything to offer. I was worried coming
into this book knowing Handler’s politics, but this is not a treatise on sexual
assault or an indictment of male sexuality (thank god), but it goes much deeper
and asks important questions about where sexual attraction and love correlate
and don’t and how to possibly find a balance between these two natural human
feelings that more often than we want to admit lead us astray. This is a short
book not just in length, but also in its structure, with scenes lasting from a
few pages to a few sentences. It becomes tawdry at times, but not as much as I thought
it would, especially during a section where something happens between him and Alec,
which reveals Cole’s detachment from his world. And once Cole meets Grisaille, whose
implications are predictable, Cole’s armor and the full weight of his behavior
comes back to hurt him in ways that are expected but still very sad. He
reminded me a bit of Telly from Kids but not nearly as monstrous. It ends sadly
in a whirlwind of confusing emotions, but one gets the sense that Cole has
learned a valuable lesson. This is a book with a lot of heart and that is unexpectedly
warm despite its coarse and sometime unappealing subject matter.
Rating: 4/5
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