Before I picked up this book I didn't know much about David Sedaris. I'd seen him on TV a few times when he was on David Letterman's show, and I knew he was supposed to be a humorist, but in his TV appearances I found him sort of odd and not very funny. When I started reading this book of essays by him, I reacted pretty much the same way. They were dark to the point of being a little creepy at times and not very funny. However, the more I read and the more I got into the rhythm of Sedaris's prose, the funnier they got. I wound up enjoying this book quite a bit. I have to wonder how much of it is true and how much is embellished for the sake of humor, but that's really not the point, I suppose. More important that it's well-written and had me laughing out loud at times. I'll probably look for more of Sedaris's books.
The best of Sedaris's pieces are the "real" stuff about his family, which are often fall-on-the-floor hilarious.
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