A Book A Week - Week 21: Let's Explore Diabetes with Owls

This week's book:
    Let's Explore Diabetes with Owls   by David Sedaris

Grade: A, of course

I'm a David Sedaris fan.  I'm also a fan of his sister, Amy, which really has nothing to do with this book, I just thought it merited a mention.  They're a funny family, what can I say?

No news here, Mr. Sedaris has another winner with 'Let's Explore Diabetes with Owls.'  As with his previous books, he presents a series of unconnected or barely-connected essays, all of them hilariously funny, and most of them extended anecdotes about his life.  He's a keen observer of humanity, the kind of guy who would watch a line of ants instead of a parade, because, let's face it, the ants really are more interesting.

If you've heard the author on NPR, or seen him on TV, I have to say that his essays actually read better when you don't have his voice relating them.  All apologies to Mr. Sedaris, but he's not an actor, and he doesn't really do justice to his own writing when he reads it aloud.  The gems come fast and furious, every page.  Some of my favorites:

On his high-school 'sweetheart' (Mr. Sedaris is gay)
     '... so why not have a two-hundred-fifty pound girlfriend from the wrong side of town?'

On a revealing encounter in a London taxidermy shop:
    '... with no effort whatsoever [the taxidermist] looked into my soul and recognized me for the person I really am: the type who'd actually love a Pygmy and could get over the fact that he'd been murdered for sport...'

On being a victim of crime:
   'There are plenty of things I take for granted, but not being burgled was never one of them.'

I laughed out loud the entire time I was reading this book, and I don't really do that, at least not often.  But the best humor comes from pain, and I get the feeling that the author is in constant pain.  Not physical - though he did have dental implants - I mean he's in existential pain, a deep kind of sadness and despair that he can only release through these essays.  Balling up all the darkness inside him and pasting it on the page, as it were.  I get the feeling that I wouldn't want to be inside his head.
   For that matter, I wouldn't want to be part of his family, they're often the subject of his reminiscences and the fodder for his wit.  After all, there's no better way to get back at an emotionally abusive father than to expose him for who he is to millions of strangers.

If you know who David Sedaris is - and if you like his work - then I don't need to tell you to get this book, you probably already have.  If you're on the fence, maybe you've heard of him but not heard him or read him, then by all means do so, and this book is as good a place to start as any.  If you don't like David Sedaris then... well... what can I say?  You're dead inside, the man's brilliant.

Next week:
   Fifty Shades of Grey  by E.L. James
   I said I would read it, so I'm following through, getting it done.  Not looking forward to it, though...