I love David Sedaris. Lately I've been listening to more audiobooks but I can really only stand to listen to books that are 5-6 discs or less (I get kind of impatient if they take too long, unless there's a really good narrator). David Sedaris, reading his own work with a little help from his sister Amy Sedaris, is a great narrator. I think most authors reading their own work just know the correction delivery they're aiming for, and David Sedaris is better than most because he's got delivery like a stand-up comedian.

Barrel Fever and Other Stories is a collection of random bits, personal essays, and short stories. The short stories were fairly obvious because they get even more outlandish than Sedaris's own life. I loved the short story read by Amy in which the narrator has written a long letter to be read at her funeral in which she ultimately encourages everyone to throw stones at and kill the ex-boyfriend who cheated on her. The short story about the homophobia journal was hilarious as well.

I highly recommend listening to a David Sedaris book rather than reading it!

I adore David Sedaris and never expected to be disappointed in his work. Guess what?........this one did not appeal to me at all. Another reviewer used the term "sub par" and was exactly right. The stories and essays almost had a bitter tone and the humor was sparse. It just didn't read like a Sedaris book but I guess every author has a bad day and this was obviously his. I cannot recommend it to anyone who enjoys his books,

As I recalled from reading the print version several years ago, the personal stories are best. The fictional essays are decent, too, but not quite as entertaining. On audio, it’s still a “pick,” though. I love Sedaris!

This is not my favorite book of David's, but this had moments that cracked me up. He was telling a story where the father tried in vein to have an athlete in the family and he gave the son a football and that son said all he wanted to do was 'bottle and diaper it.' I nearly lost it. I was on the floor.

My second favorite story was about his youngest brother who is a foul mouth with a high pitched voice. If he likes you he will only call you 'bitch' or 'motherfucker'. The best part is he even says that to his dad. That story was hilarious. The first few stories were the best and I didn't think the stories at the end produced the same tickle effect.

Still, I had fun reading these stories. I am amused. David is quite witty.

2.5 Stars!

If you have not read Sedaris before, do not start with this book. I am a fan of him and have read most of his work, and have also enjoyed many of his colourful recitals too. The more I read of him, the more I realise that most of his work seems to veer between really funny and seriously unfunny. It’s no surprise that it took three years for this book to be published in the UK. I think in some ways, it highlights the gulf that often opens up between what passes for humour in the US and what is regarded as funny in the UK.

For want of a better expression, the opening story in this collection is just awful and I have no idea why you would put it as the opening story, let alone put it in at all. Thankfully it does pick up, though it does take a good thirty-odd pages in, when we get to “We Get Along” and it’s like Sedaris has decided to turn up and write. I was relieved to see that after wading through some really poor filler, there are quite a few good stories in here, like the dark and menacing, “Season’s Greetings To Our Friends and Family!!!”. Most of the essays are good value too, with the highlight being, “SantaLand Diaries” at the very end. Overall an interesting read, but also very inconsistent too.

very funny but with some misses. a lot of it i think is just a generational difference cause the book is 30 years old but there are so many funny bits.

my favorite story is his bit on macy santa clause’s. it’s definitely worth a read

Barrel Fever, is a collection of both stories and essays by David Sedaris, which divides the book into two parts. It is all humorous and wickedly funny and depicts how ridiculous human behaviour can be. Things we are privy to ourselves and often see, but never write about. It contains equal parts of empathy and of course wit, where you should be prepared that anything is possible and then some.

In Barrel Fever, 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; and a bitter Santa abuses the elves. It’s a book where people are just plain crazy and full of societal stupidness. If a woman wears enough makeup to paint a house, then she is wearing too much and you only are as sick as your secrets.

The essays are pure Sedaris and you can’t help but laugh and just love him for who he is. His books to me are better when he writes about his own life and his zany family antics. Needless to say, I enjoyed the essays more!!

As just about every other reviewer has noted, the tone of this is pretty different from Sedaris's subsequent work that's earned him so much adoration. It's darker, more misanthropic, occasionally shocking. But if you can resist comparing this to later books, it stands on its own. I thought some of these stories (particularly "Don's Story") were hilarious, and they were definitely unlike any other short stories I'd read—you can see why this collection made such a big impact on critics when it was released. My one complaint is that the main characters' voices in most of the stories were very similar, so it got a little samey after a while. But finishing with a few essays was a good idea. You can't really think poorly of any book that ends with "Santaland Diaries."

It has its moments but Barrel Fever is not among my favourite of David Sedaris' works. I found some of the stories long and odd...his fiction just doesn't work for me, BUT I loved it whenever he spoke about his family. They're hilarious. Also, Amy's readings of some of the stories were excellent, I love that he includes her.

Second reading: I liked it more than I expected to. The autobiographical stuff is excellent, particularly the stuff about his brother Paul, and the fiction is better than I remembered. I think the most off-putting aspect of Sedaris' fiction is that he writes characters as unlikable as possible. There's a push towards more and more grotesque character flaws and, once a reader realizes this is the case and that the character is meant to be beyond redemption, the stories are hilarious. There's just a visceral level of unpleasantness that needs to be ignored if one is going to enjoy the stories.

A collection of stories and essays - "Season's Greetings to our Friends & Family!!!" stands out in my mind. "Santaland Diaries" positively hilarious in that Sedaris manages to target the absurdity of the human condition. Dale Peck hit the nail on the head when he said in his review: "Sedaris's touch is so assured that the final impression is not just comedy but pathos." I am still laughing long after I read the last pages and yet........!

It’s always interesting to read the first book by a writer you admire. Reading these early essays, including santaland diaries, showed a Sedaris approaching but not quite becoming the writer many of us know and love. He’s even more prickly here than he is later, and the moments of beauty are harder to come by, but his eye and playfulness with words are present and accounted for. The most interesting thing about this book is getting to read his fiction, which generally feels like his essays, just written in invented voices. He toys with what a story should and can look like in fascinating ways, and while it’s no surprise he pursued essays and left fiction behind (he’s definitely better at one than he is the other) his unique approach and rough, often incomplete seeming presentation is a window into his mind and art that non-fiction alone can’t provide, even by one so gifted in that genre.

His first book, Barrel Fever is rougher, darker, more strident and slightly less than enjoyable than his later, more personal essays. Although it does contain the classic "SantaLand Diaries," which alone is enough to recommend this book.