“It make one’s mouth hurt to speak with such forced merriment.”

holidays on ice.jpgBooks on Tap read  David Sedaris’s essay collection Holiday’s on Ice  at Champion Brewery on December 5. Originally published in 1997 the dated bigotry leaps from the page in 2019. Overall we found the humor crueler than we expected and liked his personal stories better than his fiction. While we didn’t all finish each essay, we did agree that the popularly staged “Santaland Diaries”  had the funniest moments, especially when performed by Sedaris with his Billie Holiday impersonation. We also recommend listening to Julia Sweeney’s  reading of “Season’s Greetings to our Friends and Family!!!” and seeing Sinterklass in action in the Netherlands. 

Sedaris’ favorite character is his mother, who appears in almost every personal story. His parents are awful in his recounting and we assume Sedaris is using humor to cope. But that is part of the appeal: the universality of the screwed up family and the relief in finding out that ours isn’t the worst. 

More Information:

About the author 

About the book 

Other works 

Other humorous authors book mentioned:

Ian Fraser

Woody Allen

Roz Chas

Jenny Lawson

Tina Fey

Dave Barry

Bill Bryson

Trevor Noah

 

 Books on Tap Information:

  • No January meeting
  • An American Marriage by Tayari Jones (February 6)
  • Same Page Title TBA (March 5)
  • Lab Girl by Hope Jahren (April 2)
  • There, There by Tommy Orange (May 7)
  • Clock Dance by Anne Tyler (June 4)

 

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