Lileks has only one child, which allows him the mental clarity to poignantly describe the links between modern children's literature and the great classics of the West:

Tonight I took Gnat up to my room to play while I crunched some video. She started taking down Penguin paperbacks from the shelf and reading them out loud. They all had the same plot and the same conclusion.

Plato’s Republic: the spider went down the spout and they all lived happily ever after. The end.

War and Peace: the spider went down the spout and they all lived happily ever after. The end.

Every novel by Turgenev: the spider went down the spout and they all lived happily ever after. The end.

“The Nun,� by Denis Diderot: the spider went down the spout and they all lived happily ever after. The end.

She handed me the second volume of Les Miserables. “You read it,� she said.

“Le spider, Javert, went down the spout, so to speak, and they all lived happily ever after. Fin.�

“That’s a wonnerful book,� she said. I agreed that it was.