Let's Explore Diabetes With Owls by David Sedaris

[Courtney Whittamore]

I was initially drawn to this book by it's strange title. It made absolutely no sense to me. So it made absolute sense to me to pick it up off of the bookshelf and begin to read it. Just as the title suggests, the book is full of nonsense, but is the kind of nonsense that somehow makes everything you ever thought was ordinary and made it extraordinary.

David Sedaris is a Non Fiction writer of essays and short stories who frequents such publications as The New Yorker and Esquire with great fervor, and this book along with the gaggle of others he has penned are in part, collections of the pieces that have appeared in the aforementioned publications. But his stories are so much more than that of the average magazine column. His stories take any given mundane experience and turn it into a lesson or a laugh; often times it turns it into both.

This particular collection was comprised of several different antidotes, ranging from how Sedaris became a compulsive roadside trash collector in the attempt to make the surroundings of his new home more presentable, to his first experience in the land of the Gastroenterologist's office to receive a colonoscopy (which he oddly found pleasant). His retellings of these true to life experiences make him relatable and his stories believable. Sedaris has the ability to take events that have happened in one way or another happened to all of us and have a good laugh about it. His writing doesn't go for the cheap laugh but instead is clever in it's placement, his sarcasm just acceptable enough to avoid offense but daring enough to have you store away for when you need a snarky retort. But above all his writing demands that we take notice that life, even the most mundane parts of life that we sometimes wish away, are the moments worth writing about. Sedaris would know, he has made a career of noticing these otherwise lost moments. He so seamlessly reveals to us that we already have a life worth taking note of, but we have to be the one to take note of it first.

[michystar12]

Thanks for the review. I would totally look forward to reading this book

-- 14 Sep 2014, 22:07 --

Thanks for the review. I would totally look forward to reading this book

[amybo82]

Sedaris is my absolute favorite author! If you haven't yet read Me Talk Pretty One Day, I'd recommend it! I also recommend listening to his books on audio. To hear him read his stories is just hilarious! I've met him a couple of times at book signings, and he is just as odd and nice as you would imagine. He is a great conversationalist. If you ever have the chance to see him at a book signing or a reading, I'd highly recommend it. He's great!