Featuring David Sedaris's unique blend of hilarity and heart, this new illustrated collection of animal-themed tales is an utter delight. Though the characters may not be human, the situations in these stories bear an uncanny resemblance to the insanity of everyday life.
In "The Toad, the Turtle, and the Duck," three strangers commiserate about animal bureaucracy while waiting in a complaint line. In "Hello Kitty," a cynical feline struggles to sit through his prison-mandated AA meetings. In "The Squirrel and the Chipmunk," a pair of star-crossed lovers is separated by prejudiced family members.
With original illustrations by Ian Falconer, author of the bestselling Olivia series of children's books, these stories are David Sedaris at his most observant, poignant, and surprising.
My thoughts:
About five or six years ago I belonged to my one and only book club. It lasted for a year and each month we lost more and more readers until at the end there were only two to four of us. One of the books we read before losing so many members was David Sedaris's Me Talk Pretty One Day. Two of the other women had read it before and raved about it. I liked the second half but was bored during the first section, granted I only gave myself two days to read it before we were meeting to discuss it, but for me it didn't get funny until half way. This was my second attempt at his books.
I'm not sure if I liked it or not. While it made me laugh a couple times it was nowhere near as entertaining as Chelsea Handler's two books. I'm afraid I loved those so much that they are now going to be the ideal I hold other books up to. It could be that this type of humor isn't for me. The stories that made the biggest impact on me were "The Judicious Brown Chicken" who keeps taking what happens to her and the other birds as lessons on what to be until she finally realizes that those things are just that, things, and she should be herself just in time to be selected by the farmer's wife for dinner. In "The Parrot and the Potbellied Pig" the pig is so dissatisfied at being called potbellied when he barely eats and exercises all the time that he is consumed with dieting to the point of anorexia instead of brushing off the label and being happy with himself. And lastly "The Mouse and the Snake" which features a mouse who keeps a snake as a pet until the inevitable happens, which she never saw coming. Even a day after finishing it I can't say if I'd recommend this or not. I liked the shortness of the stories and how they lent themselves to small moments of free time. I think I will give Sedaris one more chance and if that book doesn't grab me I will admit that he just isn't for me.
Details
•Pub. Date: October 2011
•Publisher: Little, Brown & Company
•Format: Paperback , 192pp
•ISBN-13: 9780316038409
•ISBN: 0316038407
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