Barrel Fever and Other Stories (Audible Audio Edition) David Sedaris Amy Sedaris Hachette Audio UK Books
Download As PDF : Barrel Fever and Other Stories (Audible Audio Edition) David Sedaris Amy Sedaris Hachette Audio UK Books
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 behaviour. Barrel Fever is like a blind date with modern life, and anything can happen.
Barrel Fever and Other Stories (Audible Audio Edition) David Sedaris Amy Sedaris Hachette Audio UK Books
Reading Sedaris is like accepting a ride from a stranger because he is headed in your general direction. You may end up someplace else, but the ride was worthwhile.This book is divided into stories and essays. The stories are as weird as Sedaris' thought process. The essays top out with the Santaland Diaries, a true account of his experiences as a Christmas elf at Macy's.
Sedaris is an acquired taste, one that I enjoy immensely. I like Stilton cheese, too.
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Barrel Fever and Other Stories (Audible Audio Edition) David Sedaris Amy Sedaris Hachette Audio UK Books Reviews
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.
Even though this is one of David Sedaris's earliest offerings, I did not read it first. I came onto Sedaris's sardonic wit through the fantastic essay collection "Me Talk Pretty One Day." After laughing my way through those 200 plus pages I was hungry for more by the author. Being a completest, I usually read everything I can by authors that I enjoy.
Coming from the high that was "Me Talk Pretty..." I was a little put off by "Barrel Fever," the next title I attempted from the author. Where as "Pretty" contains mostly true stories about Sedaris's life, the first section of Barrel Fever (and the largest chunk of the book) was made up of fictional essays. The essays are still hilarious and after having re-read them since, they hold up as some of the craziest writing that I've read to date. It's clear that the earlier Sedaris was a bit more daring and willing to go for some shock value within his writing.
In fact, upon re-reading Barrel Fever, I find the true stories, which make up the second half of the book to be almost lackluster compared to the zany writing up front.
Overall, a solid collection of stories, but not his strongest work, in my opinion. Will you laugh while reading it? Oh, yes you will. Will you remember these stories after checking out some of his other works? Eh, it's not likely.
If you enjoy the first half of Barrel Fever, then I recommend following this book with Sedaris's "Holidays on Ice" which also contains several essays that are just... well... out there.
I didn't realize the majority was his fiction, which I don't care for though I love his essays. However I also bought 'Holidays on Ice' at the same time which contains a story & longest essay (& not his best) from here. Very disappointed not to have much to read, especially coming off the other which was thin & also not a favorite for much the same reasons.
The Pat Parker/Vito Russo Library book discussion group met in April 2016 to read this book. It was a good sized group that had a lot to say about the stories. (This is why we attend book group, because a lot of great ideas appear only when we bring them to light and talk about them.)
The general consensus was that that these are early stories and essays. Sedaris has grown a lot since these stories were originally published in 1994. He's grown more skilled in telling stories and making them realistic. The crowning accomplishment in the book is the final story "The Santaland Diaries." As he's grown, more of his recent stories sound more like this very successful and constantly funny story.
Most of the readers liked the stories and essays but didn't initially have a lot to say about the stories. As the conversation went on, we discussed how negative and how sad many of the stories seem. Yes, he has a "dark" sense of humor, but they're almost universally about stalkers, death-obsessed losers, and delusional (or ultra-delusional) specimens. We may chuckle or even laugh out loud at some of the one-liners but this is exaggerated "hospital humor" that focuses on the detritus of life.
Sedaris makes fun of people he views as inferior to himself, and this brings up the issue of anger in his stories. His humor is a response to his internalized anger.
And then we also talked about his lack of sentimentality (which is less contrived in his later books). We even compared his conscious lack of sentiment to Meursault, the narrator of Camus's "The Stranger." It may seem like a bit of a stretch at first, but the characters aren't that different.
Finally, most of us liked the book and laughed at times but recognize that much of the book is filler required before "The Santaland Diaries." Obviously, we loved "The Santaland Diaries." The rest of the stories wobbled between OK ("We Get Along" and the title story "Barrel Fever") and poor ("Music for Lovers" and "Firestone"). The book "Barrel Fever" is for completists.
Reading Sedaris is like accepting a ride from a stranger because he is headed in your general direction. You may end up someplace else, but the ride was worthwhile.
This book is divided into stories and essays. The stories are as weird as Sedaris' thought process. The essays top out with the Santaland Diaries, a true account of his experiences as a Christmas elf at Macy's.
Sedaris is an acquired taste, one that I enjoy immensely. I like Stilton cheese, too.
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