Playful, Funny, Dramatic
Much like the Magnetic Fields, a band he sometimes performs with, Daniel Handler has a sensibility that's a little gothic, but also playful and clever. His specialty is balancing pathos with humor. As it turns out, this is the perfect combo for delving into the treacherous territory that is young love, which is so dramatic that it can skew schmaltzy when an author's not careful. Handler's particular brand of dramatic wit comes through most vividly in the conversations Min has with her friends. Consider this one:
"So boring," Jordan said, "my eyes are rolled into the back of my head. They are glass replicas, Min, placed in the gaping bored holes in my skull."
"Nor did you have to swear, as Lauren did, to hold Jean Sabinger's hand through six drafts of the poster as each of the decorations subcommittee submitted their comments, two of which made her cry, because Jean and I still can't talk after the Freshman Dance Incident."
"It's true, the crying," Lauren said. "I have personally wiped her nose."
"Not true," I said.
"Well, it's true she cried. And Jean Sabinger is a crier. It's these artistic temperaments, Min." (11.17 – 11.21)
In the writing, there's a real sense of playfulness, which is mirrored in the book's unique structure. The text is a letter that's broken down into chunks, with each chunk organized around an object that represents an episode in Min and Ed's relationship. The illustrations of these everyday items (like a dish towel and a coin) are playful, too—painted in a way that makes them seem almost magical, which they were (at least at one time) to Min. "Everyone's eccentric," Maira Kalman, the illustrator, once said. "You just have to find it." In Why We Broke Up, she applies the same philosophy to inanimate objects.