Holidays on Ice: Stories
Sedaris, David. 1997. Holidays on Ice: Stories. Little, Brown and Company.
Rating:
8
Summary:
well-written and funny
The book is a collection of short stories, some fictitious, some based on the author’s actual experiences. Probably the most well known story is ‘SantaLand Diaries’, the author’s account of his time spent working as an Elf in Macy’s SantaLand.
‘Based Upon A True Story’ is about a TV producer who shows up at a Pentecostal church one morning hoping to convince one of the members of the congregation to sign a contract allowing him to produce her miraculous story. Apparently, the woman saved her son by transplanting one of her kidneys to him in their house. I’m assuming it was meant to be a fictional commentary on the ridiculous lengths TV executives will go to to get a story.
‘Season’s Greetings to Our Friends and Family’ is a wife’s account of the havoc that has been created in their family due to the arrival of her husband’s love child from his time spent in Vietnam. The love child, Quesan, arrives one day, unannounced, and proceeds to destroy the narrator’s family. The story is written as though it were a holiday greeting card and is also fictitious.
‘Front Row Center with Thaddeus Bristol’ is a strange critique of elementary school drama productions.
‘Christmas Means Giving’ is a fictitious account of two families whose competition to give the most ends with the ultimate sacrifice – their lives. This is another social commentary, though its target isn’t perfectly clear.
‘Dinah, The Christmas Whore’ is, I believe, a non-fiction account of when his sister brought home a co-worker, who also happened to be a prostitute, around the Christmas holidays.
Review:
All of the stories are well-written, engaging, and entertaining. SantaLand Diaries was by far my favorite, but I think that is primarily because it isn’t fiction. At least, I don’t think it is fictitious, which leads to one of my criticisms of the book – the author never reveals when a story is fictitious or not. Of course, some are obviously fiction (Christmas Means Giving), but with others you can’t be certain (Dinah, The Christmas Whore). It probably doesn’t really matter if the stories are fictitious or not, but it would be nice to know.
I’m also not sure what, if anything, I missed because I listened to this book on CD, but there was definitely one element of the CD that probably makes it better than the standard book – Sedaris’s Billie Holiday style singing. On the CD he sings; you won’t get that in the paper back.
I was impressed by the author’s candor about his personal life (once again assuming he is relating non-fictional stories). Though these ‘secrets’ are more extensively revealed in later books, I did find his fixation on soap operas to be a bit unsettling. Sedaris is also quite adept at producing one-line summations of points. For example, in commenting on how similar people are, the author ultimately concludes, “When all is said and done, it just comes down to fingerprints.” As much as I’d like to disagree, I’m thinking just about everyone would want to disagree, which makes my disagreement moot.
Though the stories jump all over the place and don’t really seem to have a common thread, I don’t think anyone can argue that Sedaris has a gift for telling poignant and humorous short stories. Not all of the stories make sense, but given that some of the most non-sensical stories are true, I don’t know that making sense is the author’s goal. Perhaps what Sedaris is really trying to do is illustrate the absurdity of life. If he is, he’s doing a good job of it. The stories are a bit outlandish and the author is blunt, meaning they probably aren’t for everyone, but I would definitely recommend this book.