Let’s Explore Diabetes with Owls is David Sedaris’s literary contribution for 2013. The majority of the book is non-fiction accounts of his life, snippets from his childhood, his young adulthood, and very recent times. Topics vary from the serious vein of racism, sexism and drug addiction to the mundane-made-funny vein of colonoscopy, computer theft and roadside trash.
Sedaris mines his family memories for many of the stories and shares that his father doesn’t like his books. He ponders that perhaps it’s because of Sedaris’s portrayal of the father that the father doesn’t like the books?
There are several fiction essays at the end of the book, taking a republican, narrow-minded perspective on topics of health care and laws. I prefer his non-fiction accounts to these fiction stories.
In October, I was sad to read in the New Yorker that his youngest sister committed suicide in May of this year, a month after the release of this book. I did note that Tiffany was not in any of the stories in this family compilation. When family life is made so public, this will be a hard topic to address in the future.
