Squirrel Seeks Chipmunk: A Modest Bestiary

If you are familiar with--and like--the other works of David Sedaris, this might not be the book for you. Perhaps you have to know the old bestiary tales for this to be the book for you; the old Aesop or Reynard the Fox tales. Because this is a bestiary--The tales put human thoughts and actions into the mouths and beaks of animals. By doing this, the writer can better show hypocrisy and foibles and other negative attributes of humans. It works here, and it is sometimes funny, but it seems to lack the heart and good-natured observation about the human condition that is the hallmark of Sedaris' other work. There seems to be, hiding behind the device, a sense of cruelty hiding behind the stories. This is not the David Sedaris I know, and I feel uncomfortable hearing it. His voice is here, but something unnameable is missing.

I returned this book almost immediately. It was really bizarre and crude. Do not recommend

Too dark and bizarre for me. After many years of Simply Audiobooks membership, this is the first selection I have sent back before finishing. I can usually find some redeeming quality,, but not this time.

I like listening to David Sedaris who often takes a very cynical look at life, poking at the idosycrities of people, like, and modern society. These stories continue with this, but seem to really focus on a darker vision of human interaction. They lack the sparkle of his usual humor, becomeing not just dark humor, but more simply 'dark.' Not unpleasant, not unamusing or invalid, but not something one should listen to in order to cheer up. If listen to do so in spurts, and have something cheerful or antidepressant on hand.

I was sucked in to thinking this was going to be a cute, funny book by the first few stories. But, actually, this is a horrid book full of sad, repulsive stories. Maybe some of this is a real part of the animal world, but by no means is it humorous. I wasted money in both listening to only half of the cds and by purchasing what I thought was going to be a great gift for my daughter.

This book was funny. It was strange too, but so are people...I mean animals... I kept picturing the humans he must have based his characters on and that just made me laugh more. I listen to these books on my commute, so I wish it could have been longer, but I was very amused!