Almost as good as new York review of books personals

Book: squirrel seeks chipmunk
Author: David sedaris
Method: gift (mum)

David Sedaris is a wonderfully confusing human. He is such an interesting and bizarre character, and his stories always reflect his borderline insanity. My parents got me this book at a Sedaris book reading and signing. They said that he was so awesome, because he would actually talk to every person, and signs every book you brought if you brought books from home. My books autograph says 'dear Lindsay, your mother and I have a special relationship' which just tickles me every time I see it.
I don't know why I thought that these stories, or fables would be light hearted, seeing as they were written by David freaking Sedaris, but live and learn. I was a little taken aback by how dark they were. Sedaris sits with Dahl in the camp of authors with a very grim very of humanity. The animals in these stories are often Selfish or cold hearted or mean creatures. They aren't very forgiving, or likable, and some of the stories are down right depressing.
Just like any collection of short stories there are highs and lows, but each of these stories are interesting in their own right. There are a few that are very light hearted and interesting, and a few that are very disturbing. For example, the story about the bear whose mother died and whose laziness and felling sorry for herself ends with her ending up in the worst possible place for a bear to be. Sounds cryptic I know, but I'm always afraid of giving stuff away...
I feel that this book is exactly the kind of thing you want in your bag to read snippets of on your lunch break, or waiting for the bus. If you read it all in one go, it can be a bit of a downer, but spaced out the stories are witty clever and heartbreaking.


xo- ellebee