Holidays on Ice
1997 • 176 pages
Ratings53
Average rating3.8
15
Ratings53
Average rating3.8
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 ("Us and Them"); the difficulties of explaining the Easter Bunny to the French ("Jesus Shaves"); what to do when you've been locked out in a snowstorm ("Let It Snow"); the puzzling Christmas traditions of other nations ("Six to Eight Black Men"); what Halloween at the medical examiner's looks like ("The Monster Mash"); and a barnyard secret Santa scheme gone awry ("Cow and Turkey"). No matter what your favorite holiday, you won't want to miss celebrating it with the author who has been called "one of the funniest writers alive" (Economist).
Reviews with the most likes.
I like the non-fiction stories so much better than the fiction; if this was just the non-fiction it would be a solid 5 stars.
The first story was fantastic. The holiday letter was pretty good, though the end felt a little like Sedaris was trying to be shocking. The rest were either okay, bad, trying too hard, or I've already forgotten them. I felt like the word choice at times was problematic, and some of the attempts at dark humor seriously missed the mark. It's clear it was published in the 90s.
First off, the “edition” I have lists on one of the the inside title page that it contains 6 new stories (from his other books), which are not mentioned on the actual cover.
I really liked the “SantaLand Diaries” (the first part), but I did not like the “Season's Greetings to Our Friends and Family!!!” story at all; it was way too dark and twisted. The rest of the original 6 were pretty good. The 6 from the other books were all pretty good and they had a note of familiarity about them, which when reading I chalked up to having heard them as segments on NPR, but when I looked at the copyright page, is when I realized why they looked familiar–I had read them before in his other books.
Ok, I have a confession to make, I only made it about half-way through this book. I just couldn't take any more of it, and I don't take abandonment of books lightly. I know there are many people out there who love David Sedaris and love this book (at least there are on Amazon) but I am not one of them.
I give this book one star because I couldn't give it zero stars for being offensive, unenlightening, boring, and just humorless in general. If you want to read my reasons why you can at: https://collectedstoriescom.wordpress.com/2017/12/22/book-review-holidays-on-ice/
