Barrel Fever

Rating:
Summary: Pretty darn funny
Review: David Sedaris has a caustic painful witty sense of humor. His book is a quickie, a comic book in its attention span. This is good because to linger in the world of these bitter, self-absorbed people would be degrading if prolonged. Sedaris can evoke the paranoia and mania of teenagehood in a convincing way.

Rating:
Summary: A-mazing. This book contains some *great* performance pieces
Review: I've read and re-read this book, and continue to be amazed by it. I've also found some amazing oral interpretation pieces from it for the high school level.

Rating:
Summary: An often misinterpreted book.
Review: I'm not sure that most people really know what to expect when they read Sedaris' work, but it seems to me that most of them just want cheap, simple humor. I feel to truly admire and understand his work you must look at the dark side of yourself, the ability to laugh at other's misfortune, a person's nature to hate someone based on a very small part of their persona, and to know that all people really care about is themselves. To read this book and laugh is to laugh at human nature, so embrace, and enjoy, how devilishly cruel it can be.

Rating:
Summary: This book must be read out loud!
Review: This book is so hilarious that it must be read out loud, and yet it's almost impossible to finish a sentence because you're laughing so hard. It's perfect for someone with a very cynical sense of humor.

Rating:
Summary: bizzare! funny! witty!
Review: i read barrel fever (1997) and can't find the best way to describe this book. too close to reality, too bitter to be a joke. great misfits. i showed the book to all my friends and then, they told me how this crazy genius make them very much alive

Rating:
Summary: A thouroughly enjoyable read -- lots of laughs.
Review: Wow, what a great book! David Sedaris' characters and stories are bizzare yet very familiar. I coulndn't stop laughing. I've been telling all of my friends to read this book. I look forward to reading his other books.

Rating:
Summary: funny as hell
Review: david is like brilliant. His stories are so damn funny. They're like watching a funny movie (but of course reading is better). Cheap dad's who sew their daughter's leg to save money; crazy sister's and their crazy boyfriends; working at Macy's (or something) and telling the kids that Satan loves them. Damn, this is so funny.

Rating:
Summary: A let-down
Review: I brought Barrel Fever and Naked but decided to read Barrel Fever first. What a let-down. I had so many high expectations about Barrel Fever (most of the reviews on Amazon.com gave 4 or 5 stars) but it wasn't exactly the laugh-o-rama I expected. I agree with at least one of the reviewers - many of the stories were mean spirited. The Christmas letter was very disturbing - bordering on racist. Does David Sedaris actually hold these views or is he trying to parody those views? It's a fine line. The Santaland diaries were OK but not the laugh out loud experience I expected. Hopefully Naked will be better.

Rating:
Summary: Funny
Review: BARREL FEVER includes some hilarious bits. The last piece, the Macy's elf bit, is hilarious. I've read parts of it countless times. The piece on his mother being a smoker is hilarious, too. Most of the rest of the pieces are ficiton, and they are only fitfully hilarious. Only sections of those are very good. Sidaris has not mastered how to construct a proper narrative arc for a piece of fiction. So his nonfiction is better. I hope he realizes his failing with fiction, and keeps working at it, because once he overcomes his shortcomings in the fiction department, I could see him writing brilliant short stories that are great from start to finish, and perhaps write a novel that would give CATCH 22 a run for its money. He has an affection for people of all types, foibles and all, and that aspect of his writing/personality alone makes you want to smile.

Rating:
Summary: A book I couldn't wait to return to each day.
Review: I have to really like a book to stay with it, and really really love it to be excited about it. And I was excited about "Barrel Fever." David Sedaris is someone I would like to know, and that's a mark of terrific storytelling. I was laughing out loud when I read this, and I would read aloud (unsolicited) to friends and even people I barely knew. It was always received enthusiastically. If you love life, or if some days you don't and you wish you did, this is a great read.