(Acquired while staying at a friend's house who wanted to get rid of a bunch of books.) I've read most of David Sedaris' books and essays in the New Yorker. They don't make me laugh out loud like the critics' quotes on the back cover say, but they are amusing. This early collection was free and only just under 300 pages, so I figured why not? The autobiographical pieces follows Sedaris from his childhood to various bizarre work experiences to the final title story where he spends a week in a nudist colony. I enjoyed the chapter on his eccentric old-world grandmother moving in with the family the most. The work chapters were kinda funny but only raising a mild smile for me. His employors and co-workers are all eccentric and/or borderline psychotic. One gets the feeling that either he's exaggerating a bit or he stays with them just to get a good story out of the experience.
The penultimate chapter on his sister getting married while his mom is diagnosed with an inoperable tumor is the perfect blend of black humor and unsentimental pathos.
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