Let’s Explore Diabetes with Owls
Wednesday, June 12th, 2013
The Short Take:
It’s Sedaris at his absolute best: insightful, delightful and exceptionally thoughtful. Every time you finish one of his wonderful essays you are torn between reflecting on the bigger issues behind it and diving right into the next one. That’s the kind of conflict one can love.
Why?
I admit to being very disappointed in Sedaris’ last book with its anthropomorphic chipmunks and other assorted animals. This outing more than makes up for it. While his essays are just as personal as ever, they also seem to have even more of a world view than usual.
His observations about everything from air travel to Chinese food to colonoscopies certainly made me reconsider a lot of things. For example, Sedaris’ essay, Obama !!!!!, pretty much explains why Obama received the Nobel Peace Prize, without ever mentioning that honor.
That’s the kind of writing that makes you just love this man.
A Little Plot:
There isn’t a plot of course. However, don’t be overly concerned about the title — there is an essay revolving around owls but they don’t have diabetes. If there was any reference to diabetes at all, it was so minor as to pass unnoticed.
Along with his essays drawn from real life, there are a few fictional short stories, written in the same first person style but adopting personas as different as a teen girl, a father, and a woman.
I found no real website for Sedaris, but a simple Google (or Bing) will bring you more information than you could wish for.