the classic first book of stories from one of america's premiere living humorists. dark, twisted, cringe-inducing at times, you'll nonetheless find yourself laughing out loud on almost every page here. a great, great introduction to sedaris' work.

A collection of short fiction pieces – parodies, flights of fancy bordering on the absurd, and the blackest of black-humor riffs on dysfunctional families – followed by Sedaris’ debut and best-known memoir, “SantaLand Diaries,” and a few other humorous essays.

As a great fan of Sedaris, I’ve read all of his work, and enjoyed this book the least. As a fiction writer, Sedaris makes a damn fine essayist; I found his stories to be either too fantastic to be meaningful (“Don’s Story,” in which an obnoxious unemployed man is fawned over by Hollywood, and everyone else, for no reason at all; “Parade,” in which an obnoxious man has a series of unlikely lovers, from Charleton Heston to Mike Tyson), or simply too grim to be funny (“The Last You’ll Hear From Me,” in which a woman plans to incite violence at her funeral, “Season’s Greetings,” a truly repulsive story in which a psychotic woman kills a baby by putting it in the dryer and tries to blame it on her husband’s Vietnamese war child; “Barrel Fever,” in which a man recalls his mother’s passive-aggressive nastiness, and defends his own obnoxious behavior when drinking).

Of course there’s humor to be found in dysfunction – it’s what Sedaris made his career out of – but in fiction, Sedaris treats his demons not as things to be deflated through observation, but as therapy. “SantaLand Diaries,” which I’ve heard before, was fantastic, and the other essays, about smoking, being an apartment cleaner in New York, and writing for a kink magazine, were good as well, but they did not make up for the sour taste the stories left.

I've just reread this after having read Theft By Finding (his collection of early diary entries). I ended up skipping the short fiction stories after just a few. They came across as trying too hard, which is maybe to be expected for his first collection of stories.

But, the section of autobiographical essays still holds up. Wisely, the books following this are all autobio (well, except for that book of animal fables).

Definitely Sedaris' worst book. The stories are occasionally interesting and hilarious, but are, more often than not, half baked ideas with a little bit of angst-ridden humor that just doesn't work for the most part. The essays, on the other hand, are were Sedaris succeeds. He is funny and captivating and insightful. The way that Sedaris sees life is staggeringly original and thought provoking and it's no wonder his later books have been so popular and sold so well. It is a shame that his fiction does not benefit from his ability to see things in his life with such compassion and humor, and fall into 2D sketches.

Sedaris fiction = 1 star, non fiction = 5 stars (actually had to skip through a few fiction essays due to boredom)

3.5/5
Okay I'm a huge David Sedaris fan (I grew up listening to his audiobooks in the car which was a questionable parenting decision but I'm not complaining), but this was not his best. I think I strongly prefer his nonfiction because his fiction is just too outlandish. For example, one of these stories is just about a man who is in a relationship with Mike Tyson and there's no plot it's just talking about how the narrator accidentally swallowed Tyson's gold teeth, etc etc. His nonfiction is what really makes me laugh, especially because he usually portrays the South so well and so nuanced. His take in this book was just "Southerners are all rednecks" and then beats that joke to death. This is his first collection and that definitely shows.

The first few short stories weren't that funny; however, my the middle of the book, I was convulsing with laughter. So, if you read this book and don't find it funny at first, skip ahead to Glen's Homophobia Newsletter and Don's Story. Also, two of the stories appear in Holidays on Ice, but they were so funny that I laughed again when I re-read them.

E' il secondo che leggo, di suo, e credo che Sedaris si meriti un posto tra gli autori da seguire con più attenzione.
E' umorismo americano ben fatto e soprattutto ha la capacità di passare da uno stile all'altro, da uno stereotipo o un linguaggio a un altro, mantenendo una buona qualità del racconto.
Ripeto quanto già detto altrove: trovo che negli ultimi anni ci sia stata una bulimia editoriale. Non basta un libro, deve uscire la trilogia. Non bastano 100 pagine, bisogna infarcirle di aggettivi ed avverbi inutili per farle diventare 300. Risultato? Noto che mi sto indirizzando sempre più spesso sui racconti, le novelle, i romanzi brevi. Apprezzo chi riesce a farmi sussurrare "ah!" con poche battute. I racconti di Sedaris ci riescono, anche se qualche volte l'americanità è troppo forte, troppo sboccata. Immagino che dopotutto stia mimando la sua cultura, anche quegli aspetti che non ho ancora assimilato tramite film e telefilm.

Aggiungo che la traduzione mi sembra davvero ben fatta. Il prossimo passo sarà provare a leggerlo in lingua originale e puntare al suo famoso Me Talk Pretty One Day.

E poi diciamocelo... è l'unico scrittore a cui è stato intitolato un camion della spazzatura!
http://time.com/3062558/garbage-truck...

I can count on one hand how many books I have ever issued a two star rating. This was just... Ugh. I hate giving up on books, but I simply don't have the heart to do so. I tried to stomach the rest of it, but it became increasingly more difficult with each page. Sedaris is typically brilliant and hilarious, but this had the feeling of trying too hard. It rubbed me the wrong way from the onset. I am rarely this disappointed in a collection of short stories, especially from an author I am familiar with, but... Well, here we are. Give Sedaris a try, just not this one.

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.

Another "bestseller" from the humorist; I bought this in blind faith only because it was a Sedaris. However, I admit I was a tad disappointed. In some of the essays, it felt like he was trying too hard to be funny; the stories seemed to lack the punch found in "Naked," "Me Talk Pretty One Day," or "Holidays on Ice."

If you must read this, borrow it from a library or buy it used. It works well as a paper-weight.

I listened to the audiobook and, because I believe it is an abridged version, I decided to not give it a star rating. But I didn't enjoy this: the jokes were forced and there was nothing particularly interesting in the stories.