This book is pretty good, though I didn't really find my stride until we moved out of the realm of fiction, and into the world of creative non-fiction. His essays were absolutely great, while his early pieces seemed to be written solely for the author. I'd recommend Me Talk Pretty Some Day, or Dress Your Family in Corduroy above this one.

Sedaris' first book and it shows. I am glad that he switched to the autobiographical stories and left the straight up fiction behind. reads like a john waters film, but could be better. i'd say this book is for sedaris completists and that others should just stick w/Naked.

Very weak. Just go ahead and read the later books.

Written before Sedaris the author had fully settled on Sedaris the character but displaying occasional glimpses of the biting wit we'd come to know and love, this collection of essays and short stories covers familiar, but uneven, ground. I was curious to read his fiction, but during the stories I found myself counting pages until the next essay. At least in the case of the eccentric, one-of-a-kind Sedaris family, fact proves stranger -- and definitely more entertaining -- than fiction.

If I’m ever lost, stranded in the desert, dehydrated, impacted wisdom teeth, severely burnt skin, half-transformed into a blue bird of paradise, fully delirious, I hope that I am fortunate enough to have a single page of David Sedaris flutter past me in the hot dry wind. After I’m done reading, I’ll use the page as a tissue to wipe my final tears, and die contented (and to be very clear, in this scenario I would not have died happy if it weren’t for the final reading of David Sedaris)

Il primo libro di Sedaris che io abbia letto, e rischia di restare l'unico. Questo racconto semi-autobiografico a singhiozzo, nonostante alcuni momenti resi godibili dall'acuto spirito di osservazione dell'autore, mi ha talvolta irritato ma più spesso annoiato. Può darsi benissimo che io non capisca il suo senso dell'umorismo, sempre che a infastidirmi non sia stato invece il gigantesco e sfacciato egocentrismo di cui mi pare dia prova il narratore, e che solo a tratti viene interrotto da benvenuti ma troppo rari momenti di autoironia.

i love this book david sedaris is absolutely hilarious couldn’t put it down

this shit is crazy. would read again and again. too disgusting for 5 stars.

After reading Sedaris's much better written (and funnier) Me Talk Pretty One Day earlier this year, his debut book of stories and essays is disappointing. The short stories, in particular, are uneven, many of them contrived, failed attempts at being whimsical, absurd or shocking. I guess he's just not very good at making stuff up.

The one gem is the final piece, the now famous SantaLand Diaries, chronicling his experiences as a 33-year-old working as an elf at Macy's elaborate holiday display. The tone is witty and self-deprecating, the pacing immaculate, the observations detailed, vivid and pee-your-pants (um, like one of the SantaLand visitors) hilarious.

I only wish the rest of the book had been this good.

love me a little David Sedaris humor

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.

The books begins with a tempestuous tabloid recount of the author's numerous affairs with famous figureheads, including boxer Mike Tyson who apparently has a softer, gayer side that none of us knew about. Throughout the first chapter, the most prevalent thought in my mind was "What the fuck am I reading?" But of course, this is David Sedaris we're talking about here, and perhaps the barrage of non-fiction literature I've been reading up to this point hadn't prepared me for the silliness.

Although the book was clever and funny and everything you'd expect from Sedaris, I didn't enjoy it as much as Naked, Holidays on Ice, or my absolute favorite, Dress Your Family in Corduroy and Denim.

After the WTF wave passes, there are a few gems toward the end of the book. He bemoans the use of repetition to make a point, saying people must have learned to do this from watching bad TV. Instead of saying a cliche a second time to emphasize it, people should just say something original once if they really want to grab their listener's attention.

He also calls out my favorite pet peeve, people who refer to themselves as crazy. I feel like I've run into these types all too often. "I am wearing two different socks, I'm so crazy!" "I've got a pet iguana, look at me! I'm nuts!" "I got drunk at a bar with my friends and we made a scene because we're so crazy!"

If you have to tell me you're crazy, you aren't crazy enough.

And on the topic of smoking, a touchy subject whether you do it or not, he slashes a non-smoker who asks the narrating character, "Could 'we' make this a non-smoking park bench?" As Sedaris indicates, you're not doing a smoker any favors by asking him to put out his cigarette. He won't be profusely thanking the kind stranger who added 15 seconds to his life further down the road. You're merely giving him an extra 15 seconds to hate your guts and think up ways to subtract at least as many seconds from yours.

His final essay recounting his days spent as an elf in a department store Santa wonderland provided a few good laughs. My favorite line was, "I couldn't tell where the retards stopped and the regular New Yorkers began." Although it's an overstatement, it goes to show just how much fodder that city provides for an aspiring writer working at minimum wage.

Honestly, i love this man. i love reading narrators who are TRASH people, and this is what this mostly was. Reading about other people’s trash lives makes me feel a bit better about mine own, i guess? anyway, i was a bit surprised when i first delved in because it’s the first sedaris i’ve read where not all of the stories are about him/his life/his family. I opened the first thought ‘this doesn’t seem like david’ but then i finally grasped that i had been a moron. The collection closes with a story about David working at Santa Land called ‘SantaLand Diaries’ which i’ve been looking forward to reading for a while now and it did NOT disappoint. He knows exactly how obscene the general public can be, and puts it into words excellently.