Let’s Explore Diabetes with Owls
by David Sedaris, Nonfiction – Memoir (Released April, 2013)
Bottom Line: Skip it.
Summary: Sedaris’ latest collection of essays on experiences from his life, as well as a few fictional short stories told in voices that are clearly not Sedaris’.
My Thoughts: I have to preface all my comments with the fact that this is the first Sedaris book I have ever read (I know that’s kind of amazing since I write a book blog, but it is what it is!). Many of the reviews I read on Amazon referred to Sedaris as the “leading humorist in America”. I thought some of his essays were funny, but “leading humorist in America”?? I definitely wouldn’t go that far. I thought this book was a bit hit and miss…like a restaurant where your appetizer and dessert are delicious, but the entree is just so-so. I thought his pieces with a humorous take on the minutiae of daily life were enjoyable and relatable, if not laugh out loud hilarious like people claimed. I particularly liked his essays on his life growing up in Raleigh (“Attaboy”, about wimpy parenting styles today compared to when he grew up, and “Memory Laps”, about dueling country clubs in Raleigh and the summer league swim team), the trash situation in the English countryside (“Rubbish”), and the disgusting hygiene habits in China (which I also read about during the 2008 Beijing Olympics). However, I think he and his editor made a huge error with this book. He includes six fictional short stories that students could use in some sort of speech/debate competition called “Forensics”. I guess he was doing this as a charitable donation of some kind, but they do not fit in with the rest of the book at all and are frankly awful. Although he does warn the reader in the Author’s Note at the beginning of the book, the individual stories are not called out specifically when you get to them and they’re randomly scattered throughout the book. Each time I started one, I shook my head in confusion before remembering why the story made no sense and it seemed the narrator was a woman or some other character that clearly wasn’t Sedaris. The other thing that bothered me was the book is heavily loaded with politics. I just didn’t expect that in a book that was billed to be a collection of humorous essays about daily life and I have no idea if his other books contain as much politics as this one did. Needless to say, it rubbed me the wrong way. I didn’t hate this book, but I definitely don’t think it lives up to all I’d been hearing about David Sedaris. Maybe I just picked the wrong book of his and I should give Me Talk Pretty One Day a shot at some point.
