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beckca03's review against another edition
3.0
I enjoyed it, but compared to Dress Your Family, I didn't think it was nearly as humorous.
lauraborkpower's review against another edition
3.0
Of course Sedaris is frequently hilarious--laugh-out-loud funny--and sometimes poignant. This collection, though it starts well, didn't really hit its stride until about the middle. Some of the essays seemed a bit too late-era Simpson-ish, beginning one place and ending somewhere on the other side of the universe, and taking a bit too long to bring the circle back around. The journey, though, is of course enjoyable, but there were a few too many times I found myself wondering, "What's this story about again? And how did he get onto the topic of spiders?" There's a lot of reflection about Hugh and their middle-aged relationship, which I really enjoyed (always super curious about Hugh). And the "Smoking" diary that ended the collection was the best: blatantly meandering and perfectly episodic. Not his best work, but if you're a fan of Sedaris, you're not going to turn this one down.
jimbowen0306's review against another edition
3.0
Anyone who lives in the US and listens to NPR (the closest American equvalent to the BBC) will have heard of David Sedaris. He is a regular contributor to "This American Life," a show hosted by Ira Glass that looks one aspect of American life each week. The show can vary from the the deep (how people adapt to grief in their lives) to the humourous (what happens to teens in the run up to their prom). The show is segmented, with a number of stories told. Sedaris is used in the show when he has written some story about the topic at hand. His stories typically cover some aspect of his life (though I suspected they have been "amped up" for effect) and are read in the form of a monologue.
This book is a collection of essays that talk about aspects of his life. They are lightly amusing tales, but I don't think it's necessarily a good thing to read the stories in quick succession. The problem is that if you read one story it can be funny. If you read two they can be humorous. Read 3 or more in succession and I suspect that you're going to think he's whiny.
Don't get me wrong, it's not a bad book, just a book that works best in short doses. Incidentally, the title comes from those terribly polite (and poorly translated) instructions that you see in Japan. It told him what to do if his hotel room was on fire.
This book is a collection of essays that talk about aspects of his life. They are lightly amusing tales, but I don't think it's necessarily a good thing to read the stories in quick succession. The problem is that if you read one story it can be funny. If you read two they can be humorous. Read 3 or more in succession and I suspect that you're going to think he's whiny.
Don't get me wrong, it's not a bad book, just a book that works best in short doses. Incidentally, the title comes from those terribly polite (and poorly translated) instructions that you see in Japan. It told him what to do if his hotel room was on fire.
mbpartlow's review against another edition
5.0
I received this book as a Christmas gift.
Obviously, the person who gave me this book loves me more than any other person I've ever met in my whole life.
My daughter, Thing 2, took the book away from me one noontime. I was reading it while eating lunch, and she was afraid I would choke to death because I was laughing so hard.
Not every essay is a laugh riot. Some are small and quiet and thought-provoking.
This book left me feeling as though I must rush out and immediately read everything of his that I haven't already consumed.
Obviously, the person who gave me this book loves me more than any other person I've ever met in my whole life.
My daughter, Thing 2, took the book away from me one noontime. I was reading it while eating lunch, and she was afraid I would choke to death because I was laughing so hard.
Not every essay is a laugh riot. Some are small and quiet and thought-provoking.
This book left me feeling as though I must rush out and immediately read everything of his that I haven't already consumed.
annenichols's review against another edition
funny
lighthearted
reflective
medium-paced
4.25
I enjoyed this book immensely. Sedaris writes very well, and his observations are usually funny, sometimes poignant. I did laugh out loud. Recommended.
knitnetic's review against another edition
4.0
This is the latest offering from one of America's best-loved humorists, the author of the hilarious Me Talk Pretty One Day -- if you haven't read it, do it. Now.
This latest collection of stories is not as funny as Sedaris's earlier works. Instead, the stories reveal the full potential of strangeness and emotional depth only hinted at in previous collections. This is clear from nearly the very start of the collection. While the first story of the collection is about tapeworms and catching crabs (I did mention his strangeness, yes?) the second, entitled "Keeping Up" is a funny and ultimately touching tale of modern coupledom, of the things that keep us from running out on each other, even though we may fantasize about it on a regular basis.
Another overarching theme of the book can be found on its cover: death, and the various ways it affects life. Sedaris's humor has always walked the line between normal and morbid and this collection is no different. From the tale of buying his boyfriend a skeleton to his misadventures working in a morgue over Halloween, death touches nearly ever story in the collection. These build up to the final story, an 80 page opus documenting his journey to Tokyo to quit smoking. This story, which also tells of Sedaris's successful attempts to quit drinking and using drugs, is interspersed with the author's realization of his own weakness and mortality. This leads to a poignant, though not depressing, end to the collection.
Overall, though the book is not as amusing as some of Sedaris's other collections, it's still immensely entertaining and worth an afternoon of your time.
Final Opinion: Go buy it, sit down, and enjoy. Unless you have a weak stomach. Then you might want to think twice.
Sorry for the lack of posts this week -- I've been preparing a longer post about my trip to Milan this January. I'm now realizing that that post is much too long for any single day -- expect it to show up in installments this week.
This latest collection of stories is not as funny as Sedaris's earlier works. Instead, the stories reveal the full potential of strangeness and emotional depth only hinted at in previous collections. This is clear from nearly the very start of the collection. While the first story of the collection is about tapeworms and catching crabs (I did mention his strangeness, yes?) the second, entitled "Keeping Up" is a funny and ultimately touching tale of modern coupledom, of the things that keep us from running out on each other, even though we may fantasize about it on a regular basis.
Another overarching theme of the book can be found on its cover: death, and the various ways it affects life. Sedaris's humor has always walked the line between normal and morbid and this collection is no different. From the tale of buying his boyfriend a skeleton to his misadventures working in a morgue over Halloween, death touches nearly ever story in the collection. These build up to the final story, an 80 page opus documenting his journey to Tokyo to quit smoking. This story, which also tells of Sedaris's successful attempts to quit drinking and using drugs, is interspersed with the author's realization of his own weakness and mortality. This leads to a poignant, though not depressing, end to the collection.
Overall, though the book is not as amusing as some of Sedaris's other collections, it's still immensely entertaining and worth an afternoon of your time.
Final Opinion: Go buy it, sit down, and enjoy. Unless you have a weak stomach. Then you might want to think twice.
Sorry for the lack of posts this week -- I've been preparing a longer post about my trip to Milan this January. I'm now realizing that that post is much too long for any single day -- expect it to show up in installments this week.
benleon97's review against another edition
emotional
funny
reflective
relaxing
fast-paced
3.25
hard to believe this stuff really happens to him. overall very funny but I feel some of the stories you can see how he’s lost touch the more successful he got in life and that takes away from the book. Or maybe you are also a rich snob and can relate to it
trin's review against another edition
4.0
Another immensely enjoyable Sedaris collection. Most of the laugh out loud moments for me revolved around jokes about shit, pee, the flatulence of elderly women, ass boils, and camels, but that’s just because I’m sophisticated like that.
Although actually: actually, one of the amazing things about Sedaris is that he attains emotional depth in essays nominally about ass boils—“Old Faithful,” one of my favorites in this collection and the only one I had read previously, is somehow one of the sweetest love stories I’ve lately encountered. And the final, sprawling essay about quitting smoking and living in Japan, is wonderfully complex and detailed. I already want to read it again. Too bad the public library discourages stealing.
Although actually: actually, one of the amazing things about Sedaris is that he attains emotional depth in essays nominally about ass boils—“Old Faithful,” one of my favorites in this collection and the only one I had read previously, is somehow one of the sweetest love stories I’ve lately encountered. And the final, sprawling essay about quitting smoking and living in Japan, is wonderfully complex and detailed. I already want to read it again. Too bad the public library discourages stealing.