Jenny & the Jaws of Life (Jincy Willett)
David Sedaris apparently really liked this book. He writes a gushing introduction, reintroducing this new version of the book, which had gone out of print several years before. Well, I didn’t so much like it, and I also understand why it went out of print in the first place. It’s, well, kind of boring and full of characters I didn’t really like. In fact, they all seemed similar. Smack dab in the middle of the book, I wanted to toss it up in the air to see if it could fly like some paperback-winged bird, because that might be more exciting than the process of reading it, but I didn’t. It was a library book, after all, and we must not destroy public property, even boring, mildly inventive public property that fails to thrill, let alone genuinely entertain.
“It’s just about the funniest collection of stories I’ve ever read — really funny and perfectly sad at the same time,” says Sedaris. I had trouble finding the funny, except for a small tickle of humor near “The Best of Betty,” a story regarding a Dear Abbey type of column. But the sad was written all over it. Though I like his work immensely, perhaps Mr. Sedaris and I can just agree to disagree about this one and, hopefully, still remain close, personal friends. Right, David?
Rating: 2 out of 5 stars - Mediocre
Fiction, Short Stories |