Who am I to write any sort of critique on the work of David Sedaris? It's akin to reviewing "The Confessions of Nat Turner" or " Huckleberry Finn." Perhaps I am cocky enough to write about Mark Twain or E.B. White, but from "Stuart Little" and "Charlotte's Web" to "One Man's Meat" and "The Second Tree From The Corner" there is no one in the Western World who does not already know and love Edwin Bains White. David Sedaris is in the same category; what am I to say now? Who am I to say anything? In the early 1990's I could have pulled this off because he was not as widely known then and the review of "Barrel Fever" or "Naked" would simply say, "You've never read anything like this; I promise you will laugh." To write about him now takes a lot of gall.
So why am I doing it? In part it's because there's a small part of me that hopes that Mr. Sedaris will actually read this either in The Boston Tab or on Amazon, where the VINE program sends me an endless line of books, DVD's and small electronics about which I must write a minimum of 200 words (this is barely an introduction) and cover as much about the product to touch on every type of person who may find themselves curious about the product. So in case Mr. Sedaris happens to stumble upon my words then let me add my opinion that he will go down in history beside Mark Twain, E.B. White and Shirley Jackson as a gifted writer who is not only capable of reaching people but he touches upon those quirky elements inside of himself that most of us share but dare not mention.
"Let's Explore Diabetes with Owls" is a title no more insane than any of his other books nor are his topics any less bizarre. Yet each one hits home and we all have found ourselves in his position time after time after time. He has become the humorous voice of wisdom for the new century. In the same volume we hear about his experience with the 2008 presidential election as seen through the eyes of Europeans and we laugh. We read about his search for a stuffed owl as a Valentine's Day gift for Hugh where in an out of the way taxidermy shop in London there is something about Sedaris that causes the proprietor to share with him several disgusting products: the skeleton of a pygmy hunted for sport, the head of a fourteen year old South American girl from four hundred years ago and the pickled forearm of a Victorian man who lost his arm in a bar fight. We think about the time our own passport was stolen and like he, we were trapped in London, losing money on a Chunnel ticket to Paris as we sat for two days in the American Embassy beside an attorney. An AMERICAN Attorney at that.( Spoiler Alert: Diabetes isn't a main subject ever.) Something as simple as getting in line behind an idiot when all you wanted was coffee can fill eight hilarious pages and every one of us has been there, dying for a coffee or pack of cigarettes at the convenience store just behind a man who is not only spending his life savings on Lottery tickets but is picky as hell as to which, how and when. (The Lottery is a tax for people who are really bad with statistics, though spending a single dollar for the opportunity to dream for three days seems like a small price to have a dream) As you can see, Sedaris' world makes us connect and reflect on ours because the underlying essence is this: The only difference between us and David Sedaris is that this man is smarter than we; he's a much more gifted writer than we; and he is able to publish all of his shortcomings where the rest of us tend to try to hide them. (As I write this I am in bed, watching "The Drew Carey Show" and chain smoking natural tobacco cigarettes; I haven't shaved since Thursday and just ate a bowlful of Mango chucks out of Tupperware. There. The truth. In another two hours, I can take more Dilaudid, something else that comes up in Sedaris' book.)
Aware that many acting students have been cutting his essays and using them in competitive monologues, he has included a few written specifically for them. His ability to write in another character and still hit upon the absolute humor of current events and current attitudes is nothing short of remarkable. A piece involving a man who, upon the discovery that Gay marriage is now "okay" decides then that murder is fine as well. He takes out his "fat, lazy" daughter", his "obnoxious wife" along with his "broken hipped mother-in-law" who has replaced his cars in his garage. He is taken down when he picks off a "slow summer school student" when he blows past a bus with red flashing lights. I'll save the last line for you because it's another famous Sedaris belly laugh.
Sedaris is the most gifted person alive at self deprecating humor; he's able to tell us the most embarrassing things about himself and his family - and indeed we've gotten to know his family over the years, Lisa, Amy, Gretchen and his younger brother Paul- and the way his generation was raised. Sedaris pokes fun at the lunacy of Gay Marriage and even writes a wonderful depiction of the First Black American President from the view of the French and the English. AS the English are overjoyed that America wasn't indeed so racist after all, Sedaris thinks to himself, "Get your OWN black President!"
He buys a four hundred year old home in Sussex England (David and Hugh seem to move a lot) where nearby is an air glider field; those lustful, weaving planes riding on the current of air are indeed as silent as nature, just as the realtor promised. The planes that take them up there, however, are " as loud as flying chainsaws." Sedaris can describe something with analogies that not only DESCRIBE it but causes you tyo laugh out loud.
And out loud it is. This is an embarrassing book for a doctor's waiting room or a Library and certainly at one of the game tablers in Washington Square Park, where - if you're seated alone with npo chess pieces, your guffaws will make you fit right in. If you happen to be someplace where it's rare to see someone with a book (let's say, Cortland, New York where Sedaris' grandmother lived) Then you'll be labeled as insane for not only reading but laughing out loud atop of it. Despite SUNY Cortland, this region of New York State, Central, not Western, as he called it, is perhaps the one place on the planet where my review might be helpful because the people there haven't all become aware of Amazon, let alone this brilliant new writer, David Sedaris, who will join the ranks of the finest writers to have ever lived.
This book is a must and for those of you who are familiar with his work it is quite possible that this is his finest collection to date. (Huh. His first colonoscopy!)
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I expected very good condition ! This looks like it was run over by the truck !I will look for the seller and not buy from them again !
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Glenn Braley
Another fantastic collection of bittersweet comic essays from Mr Sedaris
Reviewed in the United Kingdom 🇬🇧 on November 16, 2018
