Holidays on Iceby David Sedaris
This is a great little short read, a collection of short stories by very funny David Sedaris. He never fails to entertain me. Even if it's not the holiday season, this is a collection of short little stories that are humorous and no sappy, unrealistic messages at the end. These stories are real life. The continuing life of David Sedaris.
In my opinion, the best story in this bunch is SantaLand Diaries. David recalls his experiences while working as an elf in the SantaLand section of a large department store. Just the idea of this iteself is amusing. Sedaris' recollections of overbearing parents posing their frustrated children on Santa's Lap so that Photo Elf can snap a picture of them are hilarious. We have all seen those people in the lines and some of us may have been those parents when our own children were little. I wasn't, though ;)
The elf training class cracked me up because I have worked some lame jobs in my life and know just how seriously they take this crap. There are rules and instructions that supervisors expect you to follow to a T. And those who work in these ridiculous jobs bend and break the rules, and then write about their experiences in books later in life. They provide for good material, because many people have been in the similar job situations.
The story Let It Snow brought back memories about how when I was little my siblings and I would pray for snow to keep coming down until we were buried in the stuff, immobilized and not able to ever go to school again (much to the angst of our housebound, kid-crazed parents who desparately needed us to go back).
Six to Eight Black Men brought up the subject of cultural differences at the holiday season and Season's Greetings could have been written about my own family. This book would make a great stocking stuffer that I may give to several family members next Christmas.
I highly recommend this little gem.
4 comments:
Sedaris is very funny. I still talk about 6 to 8 black men with friends who have either read it or heard him tell it. I highly recommend that people listen to his audio books. His delivery is so dry and hilarious. It adds so much more to the experience.
I will have to get one of his books on audio. An author is so much more expressive when reading his or her own books than some unknown reader.
If you can get him reading "The Rooster" with his sister Amy doing the voice of the Rooster, you will be very pleased.
Rooster was hilarious. Reminds me of a member of my own family. I think everyone has a Rooster in his or her family.
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