Barrel Fever

David Sedaris (1995)

Those of you who’ve heard his monologues on National Public Radio will enjoy revisiting David Sedaris’ work on the written page, the now famous Santa Land Diaries being the obvious highlight. All that’s missing is Sedaris’ distinct voice, which you can almost hear speaking the words aloud in your head as you read along. If these essays are new to you, you’re in for a treat of off beat (and sometimes off color) humor. In addition to the Christmas classic mentioned above, in which Sedaris hilariously tells of his stint as one of Santa’s elves at Macy’s in NYC, I’d also single out the darkly comic send-up of a family Christmas letter as a personal favorite among this collection.