Let's Explore Diabetes With Owls

I enjoy David Sedaris but have never quite shared the enthusiasm that so many people have for him. Yet when I saw he had a new book out, I immediately went to find it. (I mean it is David Sedaris.)

Let's Explore Diabetes With Owls is pretty standard David Sedaris- a collection of funny personal essays with a couple of satire pieces. There was a fictional correspondence from one sister to another that's humorous and then two others. There's one called "I Break For Traditional Marriage", that I didn't like at all. It's very over the top and dragged on way too long. "Health-Care Freedoms and Why I Want My Country Back" on the other hand I loved. It was short but funny.

As for the personal essays which make up the bulk of the book, there are great ones and others which aren't as good. Generally I liked the stories about the present such as "Author, Author" and "#2 to Go." I cared less for the ones about his childhood such as "Loggerheads" and "Memory Laps." I couldn't help thinking, "Oh c'mon, David.. you've written how many books and you never told this story before now? And you expect me to believe this?" And that's really at the heart of my tepid enjoyment for Sedaris-- I'm always suspect to anything that is supposed to be autobiographical. There are so few times I can remember exactly what is said in a given situation it seems strange to me that entire conversations are presented as a slice of history rather than an interpretation of what happened. That said, I still enjoyed the book.