Let’s Explore Diabetes with Owls
By David Sedaris, 2013
David Sedaris is a cynic. He surveys the world’s banalities with a weary eye, and makes sure you know it. But not without making you laugh about it.
Sedaris published his collection of essays under the title Let’s Explore Diabetes with Owls –an ostentatious name, perfectly suited for an ostentatious book. The essays jump from a series of events, from a closeted gay growing up in the 1960s, to a more mature, famous Sedaris who travels to France to get his teeth done.
His tone is witty, and wry. But underneath the humour, a simmering anger roils. This book is a sharp look into Sedaris’ inner turmoil; it is eye-opening despite its unnecessary flourishes.
Sedaris struggles to come to terms with his father, the major fixation of the published snippets of Sedaris’ diary. He is an authoritarian figure with a menacing persona; on a quest to destroy any remnant slivers of self-esteem his children may have, as he strides around the house in his underpants. Sedaris doesn’t leave much to the imagination; he links with brutal honesty the minutiae of conversations and situations, to different instances of his strained relationship with his father.
But despite his ability to conjure pitiful and disgruntling memories, Sedaris’ bitter tone outweighs the otherwise candid testimonies. This tactic, which is recurrent in most of his essays, backfires as Sedaris’ purpose is simply to outrage and not to engage his readers. He uses this in the title he’s chosen to give his essay collection, a title that holds no bearing to any of the material in the book itself. The title, much like the book itself, appears to be for attention-grabbing purpose.
We learn that it isn’t easy growing up in a large family, and he strives forever to stand out in a crowd while simultaneously coming to terms with a nagging realisation that he is different. He finds that this difference can lead you to be shunned not only from a cold family, but also from a largely segregated society.
Despite the preponderance of flourishes, Let’s Explore Diabetes with Owls is intrinsically a collection of thoughts jotted down by an outsider on his relationship with an unforgiving world. It is a breath of fresh air for readers in lenient societies.
By Azza El Masri
