Let's Explore Diabetes with Owls: Essays, Etc. in Reading with Style

Jun 02, 2016 Whitney rated it really liked it

I have a feeling this could be my favorite David Sedaris book. Two topics close to my heart feature in a good portion of the essays here: England and the author's cool mom!

Note: Even though Sedaris does not have wonderful things to say about England, he makes jokes that seem gentle. Sure, he says the nation is full of rubbish and nasty snack items, but these bits of information are tame beside the levels of sublimated anger that are leveled against David's own father.

For all the moments where D I have a feeling this could be my favorite David Sedaris book. Two topics close to my heart feature in a good portion of the essays here: England and the author's cool mom!

Note: Even though Sedaris does not have wonderful things to say about England, he makes jokes that seem gentle. Sure, he says the nation is full of rubbish and nasty snack items, but these bits of information are tame beside the levels of sublimated anger that are leveled against David's own father.

For all the moments where David's mother seems cunning and witty, his father seems like a terror. This kind of humor I cannot stomach well. I don't laugh at awful men. I want to put them away where they can die quietly.

Sedaris somewhat approaches this topic in the essay "Standing Still," the one where his sister Gretchen is "attacked" by a man, but she fights and runs away. The whole Sedaris family reacts, trying to find the culprit, scolding Gretchen for attempting to buy groceries so late at night, scolding David for not accompanying her . . . David writes how he wishes this weren't true, but yes, the rules have always been different for girls and women. During childhood, it was David's sisters who encountered perverts exposing themselves in cars; David himself never saw any of this. When young David approached his father with his question, good ol Dad answered, "Well, think about it. Exposing yourself to a girl is one thing. Doing it to a boy, though — the guy would have to be perverted."

David adds: "Then there were the strangers who called the house. 'You want to eat my WHAT?' I once heard my mother say into the receiver. 'Buddy, if that's what you're after, you are talking to the wrong lady.' Then she laughed, not cruelly but in a way that seemed genuine. Had she said, 'Here, let me put my daughter on the phone,' it wouldn't have surprised me."

Hilarious, but awful. And it does show how damn cool Mrs. Sedaris was.

David explains that his mom was a great storyteller. The lady loved an audience, and she could spin a tale to bring out the most possible shock reaction. David growls about how SOME people who wait in line for coffee are some of the loudest, most dull people on the planet. They go yammering on about their average offspring who is looking for a job—"No one cares!" David wants to yell. David KNOWS how to tell a story. He learned the talent from his mother. He writes: "In my mother's version, the underemployed son would sleep each day until dusk, possibly in a dank basement, with the leg of a dismembered child in his mouth." What a fun way to villainize your family! Dark humor indeed.

I also laughed at the essays on travel—both about learning new languages and about poor David's struggle with passports. When he needed to get a new picture of himself taken, he lamented at the result: "I look like a penis with an old person's face drawn on it."

We've all been there. Or if we haven't, someday we will, I can only assume. ...more

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Jun 06, 2013 Juniper rated it liked it

Shelves: 2013-books, nonfiction, owned

this was okay -- not quite as funny as some of his other books, but there were a few moments that made me laugh out loud. this book also seemed to contain a few more political outrages and moments where he was saying some pretty outrageous things not-so-sublty cloaked in humour...those chapters didn't work too well for me. but, sedaris is and interesting guy and his brain seems to be a fascinating, exhausting place. ...more

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Jul 11, 2023 Joanna rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: audiobooks, nonfiction, biography-memoir, essays, rws-2023-summer

I heard David Sedaris do a reading last spring and was reminded how funny he is. I enjoyed listening to him read these essays. I like it best when he's giving his own brand of cutting remarks about the people and situations around him. In several of these essays, he lets out his obvious anger at people arguing against gay marriage, reminding readers that if you don't want to marry a homosexual man, then don't do it, but what business is it of yours really if someone else does want to. But Sedari ...more

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Mar 12, 2013 GONZA rated it really liked it

As for me I think Sedaris has found the right mix of autobiography and short stories and as far as I'm concerned every book is a great pleasure.

Per quanto mi riguarda credo che Sedaris abbia trovato il giusto mix di autobiografia e racconti, fatto sta che ogni suo libro é un grosso piacere. ...more

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