author: david sedaris
completion date: 03/09/10
method: purchased
i remember listening to this book on a family trip to detriot. there were moments of brilliance that i remembered but i slept through most of it because we were driving so late and i had probably not slept very much previous to it.
its difficult to me not to compare this collection of stories to the collection compiled by david foster wallace i had read previously. the two authors are both similar personalities but have extremely different writing styles. they are both hopelessly maladjusted misanthropes who are also slightly agoraphobic. in one of his stories, sedaris talks about how his boyfriend is always walking so far ahead of him and getting lost and whenever he is searching for hugh, he makes up his mind that he's going to end the relationship, only to realize that without hugh he's have nowhere to live, and be completely un able to live on his own because he needs hugh so much. he and wallace don't seem to have much in common on the surface but i felt like they were connected.
sedaris tends to skip around in his stories. he begins in one place and ends in a completely different place (quitting smoking then beating a woman with downs at the y. at swimming... not physically). but you never feel like he loses you. his transitions are all very smooth.
what i wonder about his stories is how true they are. they all feel like they are very truthful but it seems like a lot happens to him for someone who hate being around most people (similar to wallace who describes it as mild agoraphobia). i feel like they are all based on something that happened to him or a friend of his and are richly embellished. however that doesn't at all detract from the joy of reading this novel.
xo-ellebee
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