So often Sedaris's phrasing is beautiful in its piquancy and minimalism...His life is extraordinary in so many ways - the drug addiction, the eccentric family, the crazy jobs, the fame, the globetrotting - but one of the more unlikely achievements here is in making it all seem quite ordinary. Ultimately, his masterstroke is in acting as a bystander in his own story * Guardian * He makes me laugh so much. In an era when US satire is outpacing our own he's a sharp, humane and hilarious voice that never fails to make you smile - and sometimes weep. Apparently effortless humour is difficult, and precious. He's the real thing -- James Naughtie * Radio Times * A deadpan, darkly comical portrait of the American underbelly . . . Sedaris shares something of [ Alan] Bennett's detached curiosity, and they both have a thirst for amusement -- Craig Brown * Mail on Sunday * I don't very often find myself moved by a book to emit loud noises in public, but when I first read David Sedaris's essays and short stories, they made me laugh so hard I had to stop taking them on the tube. All his collections are good but 'Barrel Fever * is the best * #NAME? * 'A satirical brazenness that holds up next to Twain and Nathaneal West * New YORKER * 'David and Amy Sedaris have a deadpan delivery as ironic as the words they read. The two of them create a nuclear barrage of humour you could never replicate by reading this material on your own * BOSTON Globe
