Essays and Stories
Last Christmas, I asked my coworkers for a book recommendation for my sister and I for the holidays. Jennifer suggested David Sedaris, and while I didn’t get around to reading it last year, I did this year, and, well, you’ll see…
Synopsis
David Sedaris’s beloved holiday collection is new again with six more pieces, including a never before published story. Along with such favorites as the diaries of a Macy’s elf and the annals of two very competitive families, are Sedaris’s tales of tardy trick-or-treaters; the difficulties of explaining the Easter Bunny to the French; what to do when you’ve been locked out in a snowstorm; the puzzling Christmas traditions of other nations; what Halloween at the medical examiner’s looks like; and a barnyard secret Santa scheme gone awry.
Review
Thirty pages into the first story of Holidays on Ice and I had started a post-it note list of all the things I didn’t like. And then, for better or worse, I had to remind myself that this book was originally published just over 20 years ago in a less politically correct time. Swearing and such I can tolerate. Calling people with special needs retards? Not so much. Praising little girls’ looks and little boys’ brains? Further proof of what a systemic problem sexism is in our society.
And then I reminded myself that while reading this with a 2010s state of mind, in the 1990s, people would have thought twice about comments such as this. Which, while problematic, meant that I could put down my angry post-its and enjoy the humor of David Sedaris because, hopefully, we’ve reached the point this year, where everyone knows how problematic such language is. If you’re still unsure, I’ll give you a full lesson, but this is not the place for it.
I laughed my way through most of Sedaris’ stories, not all of which are specifically Christmas themed, but holiday themed which was a pleasant mix. At times it was difficult to decipher which entries were stories and which were essays, but all were entertaining in their own right. At less than 200 pages, Holidays on Ice is a quick and (mostly) enjoyable read, and I would pick up one of Sedaris’s other works to further explore his writing, though I would definitely pick a more recent publication.
Rating: 7 out of 10 stars
Celebration of Books 