Rating: 
Summary: Insightful & funny & probably very right on at times.
Review: Hey, I haven't read this yet (but I can't wait) and I'm just as homophobic as the next person, but I've heard this guy on NPR, and find his radio broadcast insights, descriptions and portayals absolutely delightful and often right-on-the-money. Dare I say in this age of deconstruction (or whatever age we're presumed to be in now) that I often find a universality in much of what he says? Yes, I dare. Can't wait to read it.
Rating: 
Summary: Not really worth it...
Review: Mr. Sedaris seems like a nice enough fellow. Most of the stories and essays are workman-like and quickly forgotten. SantaLand Diaries is the one great thing in here and it's worthwhile reading. Go, Crumpet.
Rating: 
Summary: Hilarious.
Review: If ya' need something for drama or ya' feel like you are living a mundane life, get into Sedaris. This book is drenched with laughter and 'weirdness'. I suggest that if you want something different to read, READ THIS!
Rating:
Summary: A great intro to a talented writer
Review: I admit that I first read Naked and Me Talk Pretty before I picked up this collection of Sedaris' early stories and essays. Since Naked and Me Talk Pretty were written in the first person like a warped memoir from Sedaris' life, and were at times more designed to create laughter than to savage human nature, it took a few chapters for me to adapt to Sedaris taking on the voice of various crackpots and losers rather than himself. Sedaris' stuff that is displayed in Barrel Fever takes a sharper aim at the shallowness, self-importance and bitterness contained in his characters than Naked and Me Talk Pretty, but the sidesplitting humor in his later works only rears its head from time to time in Barrel Fever, most notably during the near-legendary "SantaLand Diaries" story. Sedaris is a talented writer who lets his characters grind an axe or two now and then.
Rating:
Summary: David Is The Master Of Hilarity!!!
Review: He never ceases to amaze me with his "warped" humor and distinct outlook on life. He can find someting funny in any subject and when teamed up with Amy, his sister, you just wonder how the family made it this far. Talk about disfunctional!!! But in a "good" way....
Rating:
Summary: Same David Sedaris I know & love...
Review: I am amazed at other reviews here that SLAM this collection of stories but praise his others...some reviewers complain about the mixing of fiction with non-fiction essays, etc. I can only read such reviews in disbelief and ask myself "are we reading the same author here?"; To me, this is vintage David Sedaris...he's just as darkly funny here as he is in _Me Talk Pretty One Day_, his latest work, which I've also read. I just finished the abridged Audio version of _BARREL FEVER_ and found it just as enjoyable as his other works...all new material I'd never heard before, etc. I can't for the life of me understand why anyone would object to the mingling of fiction & non-fiction here...David's autobiographical non-fiction is so completely weird and surreal it might as well be fiction...one hardly notices the difference. David Sedaris is not for the faint hearted. He IS funny, but he is also gritty, brutally realistic, sardonic and unsentimental. Only his sister Amy, who now has her own bizzare show on Comedy Central (_Strangers with Candy_) is probably more "out there" than David. I love their collaborative work on these audiobook versions of his stories...including her contributions on this audiobook,_Barrel Fever_. Sedaris' delivery is so deadpan and straightforward that you begin to believe even the most outrageous of his fictional stories MUST have autobiographical sources...of course people will stare at you if you're listening to this audiobook on a portable walkman and suddenly laugh out loud. The point is, those people would STILL stare at you if they actually HEAR what you are laughing AT. That's Sedaris' genius, in an nutshell.
Rating: 
Summary: Surprisingly unfunny!
Review: I was extremely excited to receive my copy of Barrel Fever. After having read "Naked" and "Me Talk Pretty One Day" I was thoroughly looking forward to another laugh out loud event. I was severely disappointed however when I finally got to read "Barrel Fever" strikingly not funny and dark to a fault, I had to force myself to read the whole collection. The stories that were the first and main part of the book were depressing and twisted. It was easy to tell that it was attempting to be humor but was falling drastically short. Three of the four essays that concluded the book were flat and boring and made me regret buying the book at all. The final essay however, "Santaland Diaries" was the diamond among all of the coal. Wonderfully funny, this last essay reminded me that, yes, I was still reading David Sedaris. If you are thinking about buying the book, borrow it from a friend and read "Santaland Diaries", but skip the rest.
Rating:
Summary: Brilliant and hysterical
Review: I am convinced that this is one of the funniest collections of autobiographical tales ever written. The Santaland Diaries has to be considered an American classic, right along with the stories of Faulkner and Bierce.
Rating:
Summary: Good God is this Funny!
Review: This collection of short stories is absurd! I mean that in the best possible way! David Sedaris is brilliant. I laughed out loud while reading this book. Read it!
Rating: 
Summary: Not the caliber of "Naked"
Review: Having laughed out loud non-stop with "Naked", I was really looking forward to this book. What a let down! Can you say "disappointed"...? I knew you could. Many of the essays seem to be the exact same basic idea that Sedaris develops so well in Naked, except that in Barrel Fever they are not developed, they lack the humorous punch, and they taste like warmed-up left overs that pale compared to the original meal. For me, the fact that the essays were presented as an autobiographical theme was possibly what made Naked hysterically funny. In Barrel Fever, by contrast, autobiographical essays follow fictional essays, which makes the book somewhat disconnected and the reading less fluid. Perhaps it's inclusion of fictional essays that also leaves one with a bitter (almost hemetic) taste in one's mouth. It is one thing to laugh at someone's funny recounting of their amuzingly crazy family (and who cannot relate?) and quite another to laugh at the antics of a family (of which we know nothing and has no relationship wioth the narrator) which may include drowning a baby in a washing machine... Black humor is a fragile craft indeed, one that blows up if not handled carefully.
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