Adverbs is a 2006 novel by Daniel Handler. It is formatted as a collection of seventeen interconnected narratives from the points of view of different people in various sorts of love. Each of the titles is an adverb suggesting what sort of love the people are dealing with. Some people are "wrongly" in love, others are "briefly" in love, and so on. The book focuses on the ways that people fall in love, instead of focusing on who they are in love with. Image File history File links Broom_icon. ... Image File history File links Size of this preview: 397 × 600 pixelsFull resolution (429 × 648 pixel, file size: 71 KB, MIME type: image/jpeg) Source [1] This image is of a book cover, and the copyright for it is most likely owned either by the artist who created the cover... Daniel Handler (born February 28, 1970), is an American author, screenwriter, and accordionist. ... For other uses, see Country (disambiguation). ... The English language is a West Germanic language that originates in England. ... A novel (from French nouvelle Italian novella, new) is an extended, generally fictional narrative, typically in prose. ... A publisher is a person or entity which engages in the act of publishing. ... HarperCollins is a publishing company owned by Rupert Murdochs News Corporation. ... is the 156th day of the year (157th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... Year 2006 (MMVI) was a common year starting on Sunday of the Gregorian calendar. ... This article or section does not cite any references or sources. ... “ISBN” redirects here. ... // Events June 26, 2006: J.K. Rowling reaveals that two characters will die in the seventh book of the Harry Potter series. ... A novel (from French nouvelle Italian novella, new) is an extended, generally fictional narrative, typically in prose. ... Daniel Handler (born February 28, 1970), is an American author, screenwriter, and accordionist. ... An adverb is a part of speech. ...

Structure

Adverbs announces itself as a novel about love — a bunch of different people, in and out of different kinds of love. The structure is complex. Each of the titles is an adverb, presumably suggesting what sort of love the people are dealing with. Whilst the narratives interlock, they are not sequential; and not all characters who share the same name are in fact the same character - even though they may also share certain similar aspects of personality or physical features. The narrator admits as much: "At the end of the novel, it's Joe who's in the taxi, falling in love with Andrea, although it might not be Andrea, or in any case it might not be the same Andrea, as Andrea is a very common name." An adverb is a part of speech. ...

Plot Summary

In "Obviously", a teenager working at a multiplex takes tickets for Kickass: The Movie while pining for the teenage girl working the shift with him.

In "Soundly", a girl named Allison spends an evening out with her best friend Lila, who's dying of a rare disease, and they both focus on what their friendship means, particularly compared to their relationships with men. "Allison" and "Lila" both crop up again as character names repeatedly throughout the book. Handler is sometimes clear about whether he's speaking about the same people, and sometimes not.

In "Clearly", a young couple sneaks away into the woods for some risqué outdoor sex. After they have undressed, an apologetic hiker interrupts them with news of an injured friend. The couple attend to the hiker's needs, leaving their own hanging.

The female character in "Naturally" dates a man who turns out to be a ghost. When she discovers this, she ends their union.