Wow, this book is incredibly disturbing! Instead of Sedaris's usual personal essays, here are dark, dark fables starring talking animals, each story brimming with all the horrible things people say and do to each other, and ending with an even more horrible zinger. The writing is clever, and I even chuckled occasionally, but I just couldn't get past the subject matter. (Picture adorable children's picture book pig Olivia with her eyes plucked out, and you have an idea about Ian Falconer's creepy accompanying illustrations.) The narration was the best part—Sedaris is so good at reading his own material, though in this case he only reads a couple of the stories, and Elaine Stritch, Dylan Baker, and Sîan Phillips join him, and ably, for the rest—but they were still reading really disturbing stuff. Usually, Sedaris has me laughing helplessly. This time, I was just wincing and waiting for it to be over.