Book 36 - Barrel Fever - David Sedaris
This first book of David Sedaris' short stories and essays took me a little by surprise. I had thought that his work was basically autobiographical essays, and in my review of When You Are Engulfed in Flames (http://the52booksin52weekspersonalchallenge.blogspot.com/2010/10/book-26-when-you-are-engulfed-in-flames.html), I wondered how much embellishment he added to these personal stories. Of course there were times that he was obviously exaggerating for comedic effect, but other times I wasn't sure if he was making it up or if he was just a magnet for bizarre experiences. After reading Barrel Fever, I'm even less sure of the line between truth and fiction, as the first twelve pieces in this book are purely fictional, albeit told in first person.
That being said, the opening story "Parade," although obviously fictional, appears to be told as Sedaris himself. It is an over-the-top piece in which he inflates his celebrity status and engages in a name-dropping extravaganza in which he claims to have had homosexual affairs with Bruce Springsteen, Charlton Heston and Mike Tyson. The rest of the fiction stories have different narrators. In "My Manuscript," Chad Holt introduces us to various people in his life, and then relates the twisted fantasy he has imagined for them as characters in the manuscript he is writing. In "We Get Along," the narrator is a son coping with his mom after his father's death revealed his serial infidelity. "Jamboree" is a white-trash tale worthy of Maury Povich, told by the younger brother of a teen girl who moves out of the house and has a kid with her deadbeat boyfriend. The boy leaves home too, moves in with his sister, and winds up taking care of the baby, because both parents lose interest in the child and its welfare shortly after it is born.
I was pleasantly surprised to encounter the story "Season's Greetings to our Friends and Family!!!" I had heard this years ago on the NPR show "This American Life," but I wasn't really aware that it was David Sedaris' work, seeing as it was performed on the show by Julia Sweeney. It takes the form of a Christmas Newsletter, written by the wife of a family that has just been enlarged by the addition of an illegitimate twenty-two year old daughter, conceived when the husband was serving in Viet Nam. The wife shares all the details of their dysfunctional family life and subsequent legal problems with the folks on her Christmas card list, in one of the most sordid holiday tales ever. If you are in a holiday mood and want to check it out, here is a link to Sweeney's reading of it:
You'll notice I said that "Seasons Greetings" was one of the most sordid holiday tales ever written. That's because this book contains another. It is called "SantaLand Diaries," and one of Sedaris' first breaks was his reading of this on NPR's Morning Edition. It is the true account of his time working as an elf in SantaLand at Macy's in New York. NPR often trots this recording out for the holiday season, so if you are a listener you might encounter it. If you just can't wait and/or don't want to leave it to chance you can find his reading of it here:
Trust me, this is one of the stories that greatly benefits from hearing it in Sedaris' voice.
In my opinion, this book is hilarious, but it is not for the timid or the homophobic. This book is even edgier than the other one I read, and seems bent on shocking and offending. Personally, I like my humor that way, but it's not going to be for everyone.
No comments:
Post a Comment