Let's Explore Diabetes with Owls

Who am I to write any sort of critique on the work of David Sedaris? It's akin to reviewing "The Confessions of Nat Turner" or " Huckleberry Finn." Perhaps I am cocky enough to write about Mark Twain or E.B. White, but from "Stuart Little" and "Charlotte's Web" to "One Man's Meat" and "The Second Tree From The Corner" there is no one in the Western World who does not already know and love Edwin Bains White. David Sedaris is in the same category; what am I to say now? Who am I to say anything? In the early 1990's I could have pulled this off because he was not as widely known then and the review of "Barrel Fever" or "Naked" would simply say, "You've never read anything like this; I promise you will laugh." To write about him now takes a lot of gall. So why am I doing it? In part it's because there's a small part of me that hopes that Mr. Sedaris will actually read this either in The Boston Tab or on Amazon, where the VINE program sends me an endless line of books, DVD's and small electronics about which I must write a minimum of 200 words (this is barely an introduction) and cover as much about the product to touch on every type of person who may find themselves curious about the product. So in case Mr. Sedaris happens to stumble upon my words then let me add my opinion that he will go down in history beside Mark Twain, E.B. White and Shirley Jackson as a gifted writer who is not only capable of reaching people but he touches upon those quirky elements inside of himself that most of us share but dare not mention. "Let's Explore Diabetes with Owls" is a title no more insane than any of his other books nor are his topics any less bizarre. Yet each one hits home and we all have found ourselves in his position time after time after time. He has become the humorous voice of wisdom for the new century. In the same volume we hear about his experience with the 2008 presidential election as seen through the eyes of Europeans and we laugh. We read about his search for a stuffed owl as a Valentine's Day gift for Hugh where in an out of the way taxidermy shop in London there is something about Sedaris that causes the proprietor to share with him several disgusting products: the skeleton of a pygmy hunted for sport, the head of a fourteen year old South American girl from four hundred years ago and the pickled forearm of a Victorian man who lost his arm in a bar fight. We think about the time our own passport was stolen and like he, we were trapped in London, losing money on a Chunnel ticket to Paris as we sat for two days in the American Embassy beside an attorney. An AMERICAN Attorney at that.( Spoiler Alert: Diabetes isn't a main subject ever.) Something as simple as getting in line behind an idiot when all you wanted was coffee can fill eight hilarious pages and every one of us has been there, dying for a coffee or pack of cigarettes at the convenience store just behind a man who is not only spending his life savings on Lottery tickets but is picky as hell as to which, how and when. (The Lottery is a tax for people who are really bad with statistics, though spending a single dollar for the opportunity to dream for three days seems like a small price to have a dream) As you can see, Sedaris' world makes us connect and reflect on ours because the underlying essence is this: The only difference between us and David Sedaris is that this man is smarter than we; he's a much more gifted writer than we; and he is able to publish all of his shortcomings where the rest of us tend to try to hide them. (As I write this I am in bed, watching "The Drew Carey Show" and chain smoking natural tobacco cigarettes; I haven't shaved since Thursday and just ate a bowlful of Mango chucks out of Tupperware. There. The truth. In another two hours, I can take more Dilaudid, something else that comes up in Sedaris' book.) Aware that many acting students have been cutting his essays and using them in competitive monologues, he has included a few written specifically for them. His ability to write in another character and still hit upon the absolute humor of current events and current attitudes is nothing short of remarkable. A piece involving a man who, upon the discovery that Gay marriage is now "okay" decides then that murder is fine as well. He takes out his "fat, lazy" daughter", his "obnoxious wife" along with his "broken hipped mother-in-law" who has replaced his cars in his garage. He is taken down when he picks off a "slow summer school student" when he blows past a bus with red flashing lights. I'll save the last line for you because it's another famous Sedaris belly laugh. Sedaris is the most gifted person alive at self deprecating humor; he's able to tell us the most embarrassing things about himself and his family - and indeed we've gotten to know his family over the years, Lisa, Amy, Gretchen and his younger brother Paul- and the way his generation was raised. Sedaris pokes fun at the lunacy of Gay Marriage and even writes a wonderful depiction of the First Black American President from the view of the French and the English. AS the English are overjoyed that America wasn't indeed so racist after all, Sedaris thinks to himself, "Get your OWN black President!" He buys a four hundred year old home in Sussex England (David and Hugh seem to move a lot) where nearby is an air glider field; those lustful, weaving planes riding on the current of air are indeed as silent as nature, just as the realtor promised. The planes that take them up there, however, are " as loud as flying chainsaws." Sedaris can describe something with analogies that not only DESCRIBE it but causes you tyo laugh out loud. And out loud it is. This is an embarrassing book for a doctor's waiting room or a Library and certainly at one of the game tablers in Washington Square Park, where - if you're seated alone with npo chess pieces, your guffaws will make you fit right in. If you happen to be someplace where it's rare to see someone with a book (let's say, Cortland, New York where Sedaris' grandmother lived) Then you'll be labeled as insane for not only reading but laughing out loud atop of it. Despite SUNY Cortland, this region of New York State, Central, not Western, as he called it, is perhaps the one place on the planet where my review might be helpful because the people there haven't all become aware of Amazon, let alone this brilliant new writer, David Sedaris, who will join the ranks of the finest writers to have ever lived. This book is a must and for those of you who are familiar with his work it is quite possible that this is his finest collection to date. (Huh. His first colonoscopy!)

If I could give this 4.5 stars I would. I don't think it made me laugh as much as Naked did. But I smiled a lot. And I identified sometimes, and this is always a plus. Sedaris is not that far from my generation--just nine years younger than I am. We're both familiar with corporal punishment. We both had parents who attacked us both physically and verbally, making the coddled children of today look like Little Lord Fauntleroy. I loved the way he said that so many children today have presidents' names--Madison, Lincoln. Many reviewers criticized the fact that much of the book was taken from everyday experiences--so much the better as far as I'm concerned. Costco is a funny place already, but Sedaris makes it even more hilarious. The colonoscopy chapter was cute although I would have enjoyed even more details. Many reviewers found much of this book to be "cringe-worthy"--this was the case for me maybe 15% of the time. I have a fairly high threshold for so-called disgusting things. I, like Sedaris, have lived in many countries, so his expat tales of all types of food and the animals that provide it, aren't that nauseating for me. I love the stories from his childhood as well as the more recent ones. I did get a little bored with his pet turtles, but I must say I was impressed with his mom who was so accommodating. I kept thinking that it was good that I had a daughter, not a son. Sedaris makes me feel as though I could sit down and chat with him for quite a while. I'm retired from driving--he never learned--neither of us have cell phones, we're both disturbed by littering, we've lived overseas, and we've overcome difficult childhoods, to name a few similarities. I love him. He's so honest and forthright about his life and his quirks. He can be judgmental and critical but when all is said and done, he has a live and let live attitude. I'm probably not finished with Sedaris. Although his books aren't non-stop hilarity for me, they make me smile and laugh quite a bit, and in our world today we're not always given an abundance of laughter-producing material. He's not for everyone. But if you're not too squeamish, he might amuse you.

My love of David Sedaris has caused me to break one of my 2013 resolutions. I had challenged myself to stop buying new books (the exception being few digital downloads for my Kindle while on vacation) and to plow through the books already on my shelves. I just couldn't hold out for my upcoming summer trip to Europe and had to purchase the latest Sedaris book NOW!!!!​ As with all of his previous essay collections, humorist Sedaris reaches into the seemingly bottomless well of quirky personal stories for his latest book, "Let's Explore Diabetes with Owls". ​ I've had the pleasure of seeing ​Sedaris read at UCLA for the last three years. I'm not a big fan of audio books, but Sedaris reading his own essays would be a big exception. I probably heard him read about 1/3 of this book over the years at UCLA and as I was reading them now, I could recall his cadence and tone. Sedaris is as much of a verbal storyteller as he is an author and nothing in my imagination can match his unique form of sarcasm and wit. These stories beg to be heard, not just read! It's hard to pick a favorite from the collection, but if pressed, "Understanding Understanding Owls" is a stand-out. I heard Sedaris read this one at UCLA and even though I knew where the story was going, it still put me in a giggle fit. It's about the perils of being known for collecting a particular object and the joy of finding the perfect Valentine's Day present, even when that present comes from a taxidermy shop. Actually, Especially when that present comes from the taxidermy shop. ​ The collection isn't strictly non-fiction. Sedaris also write pieces that at the start of the book he states are intended to be read as monologues. One of my favorites is the character of Cassie Hasselback, a fervent Christian, ranting about her views on modern society in the piece "If I Ruled the World". It's dripping with sarcasm and utterly hilarious.​ I love the way Sedaris' brain works and how he can just riff on everyone and everything. He has such a great perspective. Although his writing is often comedic, it is just as likely to have a serious undertone. It's this ability to balance between the two that really draws me to his work. Another great collection from a fantastic author. Please visit my blog for more reviews and thoughts.

I've always enjoyed Sedaris's humor, and there are a few gems in this collection. I especially liked the piece about the French medical system. And the piece about owls was funny, as was the essay about the reaction to Obama's election in France. But that was pretty much all I can remember that made me laugh out loud. I listened to the book on CDs in my car, and what I wanted was to hear something that would raise my spirits on the way to work. There was some of that, but there was more that dragged you down. I'm sorry that Sedaris's dad was such a jerk, but in order to make personal pain into art, there has to be something that transforms it into something other than an expression of pain and contempt. The portrait of his father that came out in the piece on Sedaris's colonoscopy was a relief, but this was about Sedaris's now 89 year old dad, and they seem to be getting along better. OK, to be fair, some of this was amusing. As a card-carrying liberal, I was particularly distressed by the portraits of right-wing gun nuts and tea-partiers. Of course these people exist, but it's too easy a target. Looking at opponents of gay marriage and showing us how foolish they are is really preaching to the choir. In his rant he put in the mouth of a hater of gays, the speaker shoots his wife and kills his mother-in-law with an ice pick because, if gays can marry, there's no morality any more, so we can do whatever we want. Why not kill people? Maybe the folks who gave the book 5 stars actually LIKED this heavy-handed piece? Hard to believe. One gets the impression that Sedaris's observational life is more or more looking down on people of all races and nationalities rather than finding their humorous contradictions. I did like his genuine expression of love for his partner, Hugh, so I hope that Sedaris hasn't completely gone over to the Dark Side! Cheer up, David! You're rich and famous and loved! Why so nasty?

After the disappointing Squirrel Meets Chipmunk, Let's Explore Diabetes with Owls has restored my faith in the writer I rank among my very favorites. This collection of personal essays is the funniest book I have ever read, and is either my favorite Sedaris collection or a close second to the masterful Me Talk Pretty One Day. I finished this book in one day (something I'm not wont to do) and read the final words with sadness, wishing there were more. The essays contained within are not only consistently hilarious but often moving. For me, "Loggerheads," "Easy, Tiger," "A Guy Walks into a Bar Car," "Author, Author," and at least three or four others will go down as classics of Sedaris's ouvre. It is true that this book is more explicitly political than his others. While this didn't bother me, I can see how it might alienate new readers who do not agree with Sedaris's politics. If you're coming to Sedaris for the first time, perhaps you'd do better to start with a different collection, like Me Talk Pretty or Dress Your Family in Corduroy and Denim. The collection also includes six pieces of short fiction and a poem. The poem, for me, was the weak point of the book, but then I'm not really one for poetry. The fiction pieces, six short stories of super-black comedy, I found funny and engaging. Some have likened them to the fables in Squirrel Seeks Chipmunk, but they reminded me far more of his earlier work, from Barrel Fever and Holidays on Ice. They were refreshing and vivid, proving Sedaris is a competent fiction writer. My only reservation about this collection, as well as Sedaris's other work, is that some of his essays are a little light on ideas, that they care too much about making us laugh and not enough about saying something interesting. As a work of entertaining comedy, however, Let's Explore Diabetes with Owls is an unwavering success. Where other writers would let down such a title as "America's preeminent humorist," Sedaris upholds it with some of his strongest work yet.

I greatly enjoy David Sedaris' humorous writings, as well as his pitch-perfect readings. Whenever new material is released, I immediately purchase it, and then force myself not to read it in one sitting. I had the same experience with "Let's Explore Diabetes with Owls," and I'm glad that I meted it out slowly, giving myself some time to savor the book. The observational essays here cover, in a manner familiar to his fans, one of three periods of his life: David as an insecure child/teen; David living an aimless life in his 20s and 30s; and David's current success as a writer living and traveling abroad with his boyfriend, Hugh. I always admire his ability to evoke laughs from the most mundane of situations, such as his search to find the 'perfect' gift for his boyfriend. Sedaris manages to find the inherent truth in any situation, such as his description of his liberal friends: "The people I hung out with in my early twenties...all turned our backs on privilege, but comfortably, the way you can when you still have access to it." He also is not afraid to poke fun at sacred cows; when describing his father's overly critical style of parenting, he notes that "this all happened before the invention of self-esteem, which, frankly, I think is a little overrated." He even wrings pitch black humor from a dramatic evening when his sister was almost raped. Nothing is safe from his pen. Overall, then, I think that there will be much for Sedaris' long-time fan base to love. Why only four stars then? I usually give his works 5 stars, but I did detract one this time. The lowered rating is mostly for a series of six 'brief monologues' in which Davis takes on different persona. These stories are weaker than materials based on his own life and just did not work very well for me. Note: This review is for the Kindle version. I read this book on the Kindle fire and did not notice any discernible errors or formatting problems. It includes a table of contents, with links to each story. Oddly, the TOC is at the END of the book, although you can access it through the Kindle's menu, so it does not make much difference, I supppose.

Good news for this author if he's planning another trip to China: the Chinese and the Indians are in a race to see how quickly they can sanitize their respective countries. They are competing to see who can build the most toilets. No more making do with a hole in the ground, or what my niece, who spent six months in China calls a 'squattie' (she accidentally dropped her cell phone in one). Don't do what I did and read "#2 to Go" while eating lunch. Not only does David talk about Chinese sanitary habits, he also dives into the dark side of their cuisine. Fried rooster blood, anyone? The owl in the title is stuffed. The author's partner, Hugh collected owl knick-knacks (not voluntarily--people started giving them to him when they found out he liked owls) and David wanted to top off his friend's collection with a stuffed owl. Unfortunately, taxidermists are not allowed to stuff owls in this country, even if the bird died of old age. When David and Hugh moved to France, they were stymied by the same law. However, although you can't kill an owl in England, you can have it stuffed once it's dead. David's trip to the English taxidermy shop is one of the highlights of this book: "'If you like the odd bits and pieces, I think I've got something else you might enjoy.' The taxidermist retreated to the area behind his desk and pulled a plastic bag off an overhead shelf...From the bag he removed what looked like a platter with an oblong glass dome over it. Inside was a man's forearm, complete with little hairs and a smudged tattoo..." The severed arm had a story behind it as do all of the odd bits and pieces that this author collects and shares with his readers. Some of the essays in "Let's Explore Diabetes with Owls" are fantasies of what life might be like for a red-neck, right-wing voter. This is where the author ventures into Jonathan Swift's territory: heavy-handed satire, but witty. Very witty. These essays made me wonder what Sedaris thinks of the current Republican candidate for President. I hope he writes an essay (or an entire book about the 2016 Presidential Race). He's one of the few authors who could do this subject justice. Meanwhile, read this book and find out what David Sedaris thinks of the Chinese, Germans, the English, dentists, book tours, the lines at airports, and Pygmy skeletons.

This collection is classic Sedaris: witty, neurotic, eccentric, and laugh-out-loud funny in places. Fans of his earlier books will feel right at home with the blend of: awkward childhood memories bizarre travel experiences (Japan, Australia, China, and beyond) family dynamics (quirky, chaotic, and tender in their own way) sedaris-style social commentary, often delivered with dark humor