Customer Reviews

Barrel Fever: Stories and Essays

5 star:		(43)
4 star:		(27)
3 star:		(33)
2 star:		(19)
1 star:		(9)

 

 

I first saw David Sedaris on a late night talk show and thought the story he read was hilarious. It was an excerpt from "Me Talk Pretty One Day" and the next day I went to the library and got it. I read through it in a day, laughing out loud for the better part of the book. I bought "Barrel Fever" and began to read. I must say that I thought the book was extremely funny, but not as funny as "Me Talk...". Not because Sedaris did a bad job, but because I have a preference for essays while the majority of this book is short stories. That being said, it is still a great book. Its probably not for those that don't have a dark or twisted sense of humor. If your idea of hilarity is "Family Circus" then you probably won't enjoy the book. However, if you like witty and humorous stories about alcoholics and dysfunctional families, you will like this. I showed one of my favorite parts to a friend and she replied that I have "one sick sense of humor" but she was laughing right along with me. And so if that description could apply to you, I highly recommend this book.

Barrel Fever

It's probably best to read Barrel Fever AFTER you have read all of Sedaris' other works. As other 3-star reviewers note, Sedaris' more recent collections are far funnier and better crafted and stylized. If you pick up Barrel Fever and have not read Me Talk Pretty One Day, you may get the false impression that Sedaris is a so-so writer whose is variably funny and witty. I prefer to look at Barrel Fever as an early photograph of what Sedaris would eventually fully develop and polish.

Many of the stories/essays in this collection are too short to give more than a cursory glance at their subjects. When you finally get to the last work, SantaLand Diaries, you feel like Sedaris has finally reached you as a reader, and you (hopefully) will forgive the previous missteps and awkward experiments in style. Barrel Fever has plenty of funny moments, but it is simply not nearly as mature as Sedaris' later books.

I am amazed at other reviews here that SLAM this collection of stories but praise his others...some reviewers complain about the mixing of fiction with non-fiction essays, etc.

I can only read such reviews in disbelief and ask myself "are we reading the same author here?"; To me, this is vintage David Sedaris...he's just as darkly funny here as he is in _Me Talk Pretty One Day_, his latest work, which I've also read. I just finished the abridged Audio version of _BARREL FEVER_ and found it just as enjoyable as his other works...all new material I'd never heard before, etc.

I can't for the life of me understand why anyone would object to the mingling of fiction & non-fiction here...David's autobiographical non-fiction is so completely weird and surreal it might as well be fiction...one hardly notices the difference.

David Sedaris is not for the faint hearted. He IS funny, but he is also gritty, brutally realistic, sardonic and unsentimental. Only his sister Amy, who now has her own bizzare show on Comedy Central (_Strangers with Candy_) is probably more "out there" than David. I love their collaborative work on these audiobook versions of his stories...including her contributions on this audiobook,_Barrel Fever_.

Sedaris' delivery is so deadpan and straightforward that you begin to believe even the most outrageous of his fictional stories MUST have autobiographical sources...of course people will stare at you if you're listening to this audiobook on a portable walkman and suddenly laugh out loud. The point is, those people would STILL stare at you if they actually HEAR what you are laughing AT. That's Sedaris' genius, in an nutshell.

I admit that I first read Naked and Me Talk Pretty before I picked up this collection of Sedaris' early stories and essays. Since Naked and Me Talk Pretty were written in the first person like a warped memoir from Sedaris' life, and were at times more designed to create laughter than to savage human nature, it took a few chapters for me to adapt to Sedaris taking on the voice of various crackpots and losers rather than himself.

Sedaris' stuff that is displayed in Barrel Fever takes a sharper aim at the shallowness, self-importance and bitterness contained in his characters than Naked and Me Talk Pretty, but the sidesplitting humor in his later works only rears its head from time to time in Barrel Fever, most notably during the near-legendary "SantaLand Diaries" story.

Sedaris is a talented writer who lets his characters grind an axe or two now and then.

Within a few pages of this David Sedaris book, I was seething with rage. "This is about as funny as a car wreck," I said to myself. Although I hate to start a book and never finish reading it, I tossed this one aside in disgust, vowing never to return to its poisoned pages. Well, I did pick it up a few days later and I am glad that I did. The problem was the first few stories. The humor in the first three or four stories is juvenile and just plain dumb. It is the style of humor one finds in our middle schools. Once you get past those clunkers, the following stories and essays crackle with humor and dark emotion.

My favorite stories were his holiday stories, namely "Season's Greetings," and "The SantaLand Diaries (this story is why I originally wanted to buy the book)." I don't think I really need to go into the SantaLand story since it popular enough that most people have heard of it or read it. As someone who did the retail thing, I recognize many customers and personality types in this story. I am surprised more people haven't mentioned "Season's Greetings." This story is an absolute scream. It is written in the form of a Christmas card-type letter written by Jocelyn Dunbar. Poor, poor Jocelyn. Her family is sorry to announce the arrival of Khe Sahn (!), a Vietnamese strumpet who turns up on the Dunbar doorstep. Khe Sahn is the illegitimate daughter of Clifford, Jocelyn's husband, conceived during his tenure in Vietnam. I don't want to ruin the whole story for you, but I will say the way that the story is written adds greatly to the humor. The breezy, forced joviality of the letter just killed me.

Other stories in this collection are just as entertaining, although much darker and thoughtful. "After Malison" tells the story of an arrogant literary jerk and an encounter with her favorite post-modern writer. "Don's Story" reveals the vacuous nature of Hollywood. "Jamboree" is a depressing story about an unwanted child and his jerk parents. All of the stories will arouse some type of emotion in you, whether it is rage, happiness, or tears depends on the type of person you are.

Sedaris does have insightful perception on various aspects of society and when he is writing at top form, he shines. My advice on reading this book: expect good stories, but expect to read awhile before you get to them.

I must agree with many of the reviewers, after reading "Naked" and "Dress Your Family..." I expected this book to have me laughing out loud. I am now on page 79 and have smiled once - I don't remember at what.

In other books that Sedaris wrote, he turns ordinary real-life events into hilarious encounters. I read his other books and found myself rereading lines to friends as we both laughed out loud. Instead of writing about his life (and the lives of others around him), Barrel Fever is a collection of mostly fiction stories (12) with four essays at the end of the book. I found none of the fictional stories to be funny, nor any of the essays.
If you want to laugh out loud, read "Naked" and "Dress Your Family in..." If you must read "Barrel Fever," borrow a friends copy so you won't feel guilty about wasting your money.

While I have been a longtime fan of David Sedaris's, this book was clearly a first effort. There are some wonderful essays such as "Seasons Greetings to Our Friends and Family!", as well as his masterpiece, "The Santaland Diaries", but the rest were dead in the water. I understand them, they are to show us the hiden perversions in us all, but the above named essays would later reappear in his holiday collection for a reason: They were much funnier and more deserving of aclaim. Still, it was a good first effort, and I'm glad he became more polished and articulate.

What a tremendously disappointing read. If it weren't for the final story, Santaland Diaries, I would have only given this book one star, and only then because I couldn't give it less. I was not looking for a re-tread of "Me Talk Pretty One Day," but I was looking for something of comparable quality (which in "Pretty" was stellar), and this was NOT it. Meandering, pointless, humorless ramblings from someone who is capable of much better writing.

Only in Santaland Diaries do we get to see the Sedaris that crackles with dark humor and hilarious cynicism. I loved every word of this story and couldn't help but wish that the rest of the book had been this wonderful. My heartfelt advice is that you borrow Barrel Fever from the library, memorize Santaland Diaries, and ignore the rest.

I bought all his books thinking they are the same. Barrel Fever was only essays written in first person fantasy. Not based on reality. The ones based on his reality are the ones I find hilarious.

I LIKED:
Dress Your Family in Corduroy and Denim
Me Talk Pretty One Day
Naked
When You Are Engulfed in Flames


DIDN'T LIKE:
Children Playing at the Feet of Hercules
Barrel Fever
Holidays On Ice
The Book of Liz

If you haven't read any other Sedaris, this isn't the book for you. Go pick up "Me Talk Pretty One Day" and "Naked." If you are already a fan of the witty self-deprecating voice from his memoirs, then give this a shot. This is very different from the humor in his memoirs, and some of it just borders on bizarre. I'm a huge fan and I was put off by some of the crass and downright weird stories.

There are a few gems, and any Sedaris fan should hunt them out. "The Santland Diaries" is the most famous, having been read on NPR, and that's a true winner (but it is also republished in the highly recommended Holidays on Ice). Another one I particularly enjoyed was "After Malison," which is told from the point of view of a rabid fan of the author Malison, who thinks no one else can understand her precious writer, and who self-implodes with her antics.