Rating: 
Summary: Not for some... maybe not for me
Review: Although I had only heard the name David Sedaris in passing (maybe from NPR), it had come up enough times that I was prompted to pick up Barrel Fever. Modern humorous fiction (especially the depraved kind) usually ends up being just right for my twisted mind, but...Sedaris' humor isn't too dark for me. I don't think there is such a thing as "too dark" when you're blasting everyman/woman and the world they live in. It's just that the literary tricks used here to mimic the character sometimes borders on annoying. Example: When an excitable youth is the narrator, Sedaris doesn't mind in the least dropping a half-dozen exclamation points at the end of all-capital sentences. While there's nothing inherently wrong with it, it's none too subtle...come to think about it, nothing is too subtle about this collection of freaks, dreamers and psychos.
What is definately great here (and I noticed that I'm not the first to think so) are the non-fiction essays detailing the author's life cleaning apartments in NYC and working as an elf at Macy's department store. In these pieces Sedaris lets some heart shine through while he's looking down his nose at the losers around him. There's a little needed affection for those involved, regardless of how sad the circumstances...the very thing that's missing in many of the short stories. I enjoyed the collection enough to want to pick up another of Sedaris' work and give myself a second opinion. At its best it's reminiscent of singer/songwriter Dan Bern, namedropping celebrities and shocking lines for the sake of the lesson (not just out of meanness). I just wasn't hooked by this one.
Rating:
Summary: A wierd collection!
Review: As with most collections of essays or short stories, there are good, bad and middling parts of this book. To be fair, I only found that one or two of the stories in "Barrel Fever" failed to hold my attention at all.
This is a strange anthology, ranging from gay fantasy, through satire and the macabre, to the "hell" of modern family life. Sedaris succeeded in amusing and shocking me at times. The shining jewel in this collection is, however, "The Santaland Diaries", a superbly hilarious account of the author's job as an elf in Santa's grotto in Macy's department store. What is more horrific - the kids, the parents, or just modern Christmas itself? Worth taking a look at "Barrel Fever" for that alone.
Rating: 
Summary: Sends you to sleep
Review: Maybe I have to read more books of Sedaris to discover where all the laughter is but, from my experience, I can tell you that this guy is a master in keeping it out of your reach.
There was not even one chapter or essay that could twist my mouth into the most subtle smile, and that is an achievement 'cause I'm the sort of guy who can laugh at the most stupid gags.
If you liked American Pie, The Naked Gun series, and that kind of movies, then you're probably feel very dissapointed by this book. If you are a fan of Sedaris, sorry, you read the wrong review.
Rating:
Summary: Readers new to Sedaris, start at the back of the book.
Review: First let me say I am big fan of David Sedaris, and never more so than in first-person voice on NPR. Alternately hilarious and touching, he has a healthy sense of the absurd, not least in his own actions. Unfortunately, I can only half-heartedly recommend this particular book - and the half I can recommend is the Essays. These include Santaland Diaries, perhaps the definitive Sedaris essay and worth the price of admission alone.
The Stories, by contrast, are largely a disappointment. Normally I'm a voracious reader of short stories, but I struggled to finish several of these offerings. Filled with stupid and shallow characters lacking in any sense of self-awareness or growth, few of the stories give us any reason to care what becomes of these people. Amateur psychologists might guess that in many of these stories Sedaris is working off parental resentment that he still harbors from a difficult, closeted adolescence, but if so he is doing it in a way that defensively distances himself emotionally from all of the events and personalities involved. If he had managed to invest the same sense of personal insight into his fictional characters as he does into his essays, the stories would have been moving. Instead, they come across as mostly mean and bitter.
Next time, David should write Stories OR Essays. Readers new to Sedaris should read the Essays first to discover what all the fuss is about. Leave the stories to last. Or better yet, just leave the stories.
Rating: 
Summary: Great collection
Review: I first saw David Sedaris on a late night talk show and thought the story he read was hilarious. It was an excerpt from "Me Talk Pretty One Day" and the next day I went to the library and got it. I read through it in a day, laughing out loud for the better part of the book. I bought "Barrel Fever" and began to read. I must say that I thought the book was extremely funny, but not as funny as "Me Talk...". Not because Sedaris did a bad job, but because I have a preference for essays while the majority of this book is short stories. That being said, it is still a great book. Its probably not for those that don't have a dark or twisted sense of humor. If your idea of hilarity is "Family Circus" then you probably won't enjoy the book. However, if you like witty and humorous stories about alcoholics and dysfunctional families, you will like this. I showed one of my favorite parts to a friend and she replied that I have "one sick sense of humor" but she was laughing right along with me. And so if that description could apply to you, I highly recommend this book.
Rating: 
Summary: A Must Read
Review: I was given a copy of BARRELL FEVER as reading material while i recuperated in the hospital after an operation. I'd never heard of David Sedaris before so my decision to read this collection of essays was reluctant at best. I read "The Last You'll Hear from Me" first and was immediately hooked. This collection is deliciously wicked and absolutely hillarious. I literally screamed as I read (due in part to pain but primarly from amusement and delight). If there is healing power in humor, this was the perfect medicine.
Rating:
Summary: I savored reading treat
Review: Barrel Fever is marvelous read, poignant and poisonous simultaneously! A great start for the uninitiated, but great, nevertheless.
Rating:
Summary: Like water in a desert
Review: It's such a relief to read David Sedaris's work. There are so many people that claim to be funny but are just painfully dull. This book is painful, but in a good way, because it physically debilitates you with laughter. Need I say more?
Rating:
Summary: It was good, but...
Review: not as good as Naked. I think that it lost some of the with and replaced it with shock.
