Watch Your Mouth

Watch Your Mouth is a novel by Daniel Handler, which he has described as an “opera in book form”, about Joseph, a young student staying at the home of his girlfriend, Cynthia Glass, one summer.

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The first part of the novel is laid out as an opera, each of the characters being assigned a singing voice. Joseph quickly discovers that Cynthia's family is unusual, not to say bizarre, with interests ranging from incest to the Kabbalah. Aside from the (off-stage) sexual interactions, Cynthia's mother, Mimi, turns out to be building a golem. The first part of the novel ends (operatically) in death. The second part is presented somewhat more conventionally, as Joseph attempts to recover from the events of the first part.

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• Watch Your Mouth ISBN 006093817X