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In David Sedaris' world, no one is safe and no cow is sacred. A manic cross between Mark Leyner, Fran Lebowitz, and the National Enquirer, Sedaris' collection of essays is a rollicking tour through the national Zeitgeist: a do-it-yourself suburban dad saves money by performing home surgery; a man who is loved too much flees the heavyweight champion of the world; a teenage suicide tries to incite a lynch mob at her funeral; a bitter Santa abuses the elves. David Sedaris made his debut on NPR's Morning Edition with "SantaLand Diaries", recounting his strange-but-true experiences as an elf at Macy's, and soon became one of the show's most popular commentators. With a perfect eye and a voice infused with as much empathy as wit, Sedaris writes stories and essays that target the soulful ridiculousness of our behavior. Barrel Fever is like a blind date with modern life, and anything can happen.… (more)
User reviews
Sedaris' view on life is wonderfully human and fallible. A great humorist.
I enjoyed reading this book so much that I have to put it up for mooching so others can
The only downside to this book is the radical changes in tone and character make some stories shine above the rest and others seem repetitive and hammering home the point a bit too hard.
A/B(plus)
(To be fair, when I wrote this review the only Sedaris I had read was this book in which he portraits himself as little more than an apathetic junkie. With the passage of time, he has
So I read the paper edition to fill in what the audiobook omitted.
July 2007