Barrel Fever, by David Sedaris

I listen to NPR sometimes, and therefore I have heard of David Sedaris. I’ve heard some of his funnier commentaries, and many have told me his writing is funny, hysterical even.

So, I was excited to have been given Barrel Fever a collection of short stories and non-fiction by Mr. Sedaris for Christmas. Since I really like short stories, non fiction and humor, seemed like a shoe-in.

It wasn’t a shoe-in. Some of the non-fiction really caught my attention and tickled the funnybone—The SantaLand Diaries, which is validation for anyone who has ever worked in a department store—but most of it seemed kind of, well…bitter. Working as an apartment cleaner, he almost burns someone’s apartment down because he is slacking in front of the TV when he is being paid to work. I know that this last sentence makes me sound like I’m 125 years old and grouchy, but really—if you are being paid to work, work. Detailing how you almost burned a house down instead of working just doesn’t strike me as funny, or irreverent, just kind of irresponsible. But again, this is possibly me being old and grouchy. Most likely just me.

The fiction was okay to a point. The basic ideas of the stories were interesting, and most were about gay men which was an interesting change-up for straight midwestern broad like me. But I think Sedaris could have used a good editor—there are several places where the same descriptive phrase is used only paragraphs apart (and not for effect) and there are some bits of story that could have been edited out altogether. That’s the thing with short stories—they are short, you don’t have much room to work, so each image, each word has to count. Also, in After Malison the story I liked least, he takes a crack at Flannery O’Connor. Now, this isn’t the reason I liked this story the least, it seemed unfocused and was too obviously trying to hard to get at something, but it certainly didn’t help. I do see that Sedaris was playing with the O’Connor setup of smug self-satisfaction, then terrible consequences, which lead to a moment of grace and salvation--but I couldn’t see the grace in this story, only an empty thud as a sense of self is shoved out of the way by disappointment and humiliation. Give me Davy Rothbart’s fiction any day.

Several of the stories were interesting and bordering on bittersweet, if that isn’t too cliché to use. “We Get Along” was my favorite. A kind of tender story about a kid trying to grow up and into his mother’s sadness, while carving out tiny childish revenges against his Aunt. The title story was also interesting if a little too broad for a short story. Several I just either didn’t get, or didn’t like—Glen’s Homophobia Newsletter, Don’s Story and Music for Lovers just weren’t my cup of tea.

While not a shoe-in, Barrel Fever was enjoyable and poignant by turns, especially The SantaLand Diaries, and We Get Along, both of which I heartily recommend.