Negative Positive
Title: Inchoate humor...
Review: This was the last Sedaris book I read, and I guess I was just spoiled by his other works. Sedaris shines when regaling us with the autobiographical stories of his family, his boyfriend, or his experiences...just about everywhere.His fictional offerings are a bit useless. The charm of his dark, sardonic wit is in his skewed perspective of reality. When this translates to fiction it loses its validity. There's nothing funny about fake cynnicism. Barrel Fever is mostly fictional short stories, so there's not much here that will captivate you.The same could be said of Holidays On Ice but that book retains a fairly steady degree of humor and themes that redeem the fiction. Go read "Naked" or "Dress Your Family in Cordury and Denim". His later works are far superior to this.
Is the review positive or negative? 