Humour Books > S Humour Books > David Sedaris

Advantages: Interesting, unusual style and content
Disadvantages: A one-off type of book, when really you could do with a series of 2 or 3 to enjoy.

...just the style that made me think of this point though – when I was at school I would have been admonished (in the days before I knew that 3 syllable words existed) for flitting between 1st and 3rd person, and from past to present to future tenses, all within one story. Sedaris, though, gets away with this all in the name of “art” and to be honest, the result isn’t as horrifying as it could be. I saw this book in the British Bookshop on Vienna’s ...
...took me until 7 months later to get a copy of it because I was holding out for the mainstream paperback edition to be released. When it was, it didn't appear in highstreet bookshops for quite a few days showing that despite the famous author, it's not quite a Bridget Jones / Harry Potter release. Once it was within my grasp, it was read from cover to cover in 3 nights, with every morsel being savoured and enjoyed. Think Bill Bryson without quite ... Read review

Advantages: Strange and funny.
Disadvantages: Maybe too strange for some.

...reading from this particular book, Dress Your Family in Corduroy and Denim, and after that I “ran” to my favourite online bookstore to place an order. David Sedaris (born 1956 in Binghampton, NY) is a talented humorist and for inspiration he often uses his family, his Greek heritage, his homosexuality and the problems that come with moving to another country as he now lives in France with his partner Hugh. However, he is also a radio commentator ...
...I soon will. Dress Your Family in Corduroy and Demin is a collection of autobiographical stories from his past and even though the “characters”, i.e. his family members, are the same throughout, they are separate stories instead of one long one. Growing up in a family with four sisters and only one brother, and being gay at that, is a good basis for many stories that might seem mundane on the surface, but told with the dry sense of humour that David ... Read review

Advantages: The Santaland Diaires, gives 'freaks' a voice
Disadvantages: Some stories are too dark and disturbing to be funny

Barrel Fever is a collection of short stories that have come from the twisted mind of David Sedaris and some essays that have come from the equally twisted life of David Sedaris. His humour is bleak, dark, disturbing and also laugh-out-loud funny. In his stories Sedaris writes as a horny teenager, a waster, an unloved suicidal woman, a father who's doesn't bother with hospitals because he believes he can treat everything himself - each one an American ...
...the wonderful Santaland Diaries, detailing Sedaris' time working in Macy's as an elf - you'll never think of the department store Santa in the same way again! His humour is very near the bone and sometimes Sedaris goes too far and repulses his readers. But in the end the writer's unusual way of looking at things and clever obsevations save the day making this a must-read book. ... Read review

Advantages: It's not terribly expensive
Disadvantages: It's not terribly funny

For years, a friend of mine kept going on about a book that was a parody of "The Lord of the Rings". At the time it was out of print, but he would quote one of the lines from it at every opportunity and bemoan the fact that he never had a copy of his own. Fortunately, the surge of interest in the original books when the films were being made resulted in a republication of the parody and so he was finally able to own his own copy of "Bored of the ...
...about it, so was I. Following rather loosely the plot of "The Lord of the Rings", Frito Bugger is charged with a quest to travel across the world and destroy a ring. He is accompanied on his quest by his friend Spam, the magician Goodgulf and a couple of rather annoying boggies, Moxie and Pepsi. Legolam the elf, Gimlet the dwarf, Stomper the Ranger and Bromosel complete the party. We get to follow their journey from the boggies' home in the Sty, ... Read review

Advantages: Compact - some sensible advice to pick the bones out of
Disadvantages: Avoiding alien abduction?

When the original Worst Case Scenario Survival handbook was published, it covered emergencies many of which were only the kind experienced by Ray Mears and that ilk. The issue of a Travel version or sub-section makes all kind of sense, since most of the scrapes that the Man On The Clapham Omnibus will get into are more likely to occur whilst travelling to, or actually being in , foreign climes. I think someone gave me this book as a stocking ...
...such it's lain around in the bed-side table just waiting to come to the top of the pile as a bit of 'loo-time' reading. Any book thus designated must know that if found wanting, its pages may get used for something else. In fact, since this is the Travel edition of the "W-C S S H*", it even suggests doing this in the section on lavatorial emergencies. *(If you think I'm going to type out 'Worst-Case Scenario Survival Handbook' every time, think ... Read review