Smoking Gun
Chris Hitsman
October 12th

David Sedaris
“Barrel Fever: Stories and Essays”
Back Bay Books/Little, Brown and Company 1994


This was my first full length exposure to Sedaris and the only knowledge I had previously was from descriptions like funny, out there, and a must read. Luckily, this was also around the time that I had begun to fear that writers now a days are nothing more than experience thieves; living and writing only off of the world they are simply exposed to. Then I started to read actual good writing, including this book of short stories and essays, and was introduced to the concept of uniqueness through imagination and creativity. As writers we strive to take the world as we know it and mold it into something new, interesting, yet still life-like.

Sedaris has found this through an un-hindered voice that comes out through his writing. Barrel Fever’s characters become real as if they could be our neighbor just down the road or, as in Parade and Don’s Story, someone we idolize and stalk in magazines and other forms of entertainment. The majority of the essays and short stories are straight to the point telling a narrative through reflection, action, and dialogue. It was interesting to me that the other stories are written from the second person point of view, and this only adds to the closeness we feel to these characters and the world Sedaris has created for them to live in. From a homophobic homosexual informing the inquisitive public of his self imposed paranoia concerning his own sexuality and what the world thinks about it; to a nobody becoming a somebody out of a sheer abundance of strangeness and slacker pride; and even with a mother composing a family Christmas newsletter to plea for character witnesses, you can’t help but hear their voices and see their actions.

Another interesting strategy employed by Sedaris is the use of creating narrative through journal type entries. In After Malison, a young graduate student is stalking her favorite author and we see the clock hands passing as the times are given. She self destructs further and further as she strives for her misaligned goal. For My Manuscript Sedaris begins with this strategy, but strays when the story becomes much more straight forward imagery filled narrative. The only reason it works is because it’s such a strong character study, and we need this to grasp onto the point of view of this young character.

After reading ”Barrel Fever”, I definitely am interested in seeing how Sedaris would continue to work longer pieces like Santaland Diaries. His layering of details and interesting characters, each with their own personal views and feelings of the world, makes me think longer pieces would be entertaining yet still very insightful to read and dissect. Sedaris has been one of the main indicators that there is good creative writing out there, you just have to keep an open mind and search for yourself. Of course having the insight of good friends doesn’t hurt, and you might want to listen when they say things like funny, out there, and a must read.