Modern Fables, Human Foibles: A Review of David Sedaris's "Squirrel Seeks Chipmunk"

Review By: Aaron Schrank

11/26/2010

          Illustrative animal tales, from those of tortoises and hares to those of ants and grasshoppers, are deep-rooted in literary tradition as means to convey simple morals to readers. Today, when most inquiring minds seek moral guidance within the pages of “The Sixty-Second Motivator,” “The Complete Idiot’s Guide to Kabbalah,” or the latest Joel Osteen prosperity manual, the ancient genre could use a contemporary update. And what better man for the job than David Sedaris, the author and humorist whose best-selling sets of memoirs have explored the absurdity of existence and human interaction through his lens of  careful scrutiny and self-deprecation.

Sedaris’s “Squirrel Seeks Chipmunk: A Modest Bestiary” is a charmingly dark collection of 16 separate creature-centered short stories, each a compelling commentary on the complex personality of humanity. Don’t expect the same kid-friendly moral education you’d find in Aesop’s fables, though. Sedaris’s anthropomorphic set of essays successfully engages the silly, if not sad, spectrum of postmodern culture, featuring contemporary characters with contemporary idiosyncrasies: a potbellied pig with anorexia athletica, a misanthropic owl with a thirst for knowledge, a “spiritual, but not religious” sheep who dabbles in meditation, an alcoholic cat who scoffs at step-group clichés while lounging in a prison-mandated AA meeting, a kowtowing baboon-hairdresser who feigns prejudices to receive tips—the list goes on. “The Faithful Setter” features a purebred Irish setter who is faced with his mixed-breed mate’s infidelity when she births a litter of pups that look surprisingly like the English bull terrier from across the street. “I don’t care what you hear about stepparenting, it’s just not the same when they’re someone else’s kids,” the setter remarks. Each story is enlivened with a series of minimalist, but sometimes gruesome orange and grey illustrations by Ian Falconer, who is best known for writing and illustrating the “Olivia” series of children’s books. Sedaris’s employment of the animal kingdom helps to soften the blow in his half-serious indictment of humankind and to show that, when carried by a turtle or an Irish setter, our emotional baggage is little more than a punch line. In the end, “Squirrel Seeks Chipmunk” reminds readers, with an uncanny synthesis of melancholia and humor, that they are selfish, grief-stricken, misunderstood, self-loathing, prejudiced, petty, hypocritical, ignorant, pretentious, naïve, irrational, maniacal and everything in between.

Sedaris’s previous work consists almost entirely of autobiographical essays. In essay collections such as “Naked,” “Me Talk Pretty One Day” and “When You Are Engulfed in Flames,” Sedaris recalls the side-splitting details of his life as a lisp-laden child, a starving performance artist, an inadequate college lecturer, an expatriate in the French countryside, and so on. Readers of his autobiographical catalog are introduced to Sedaris’s writing style as they are introduced to the author himself, as he unveils each and every one of his neuroses and annoyances. While Sedaris has strayed from his usual use of his family, friends and past experiences as the fundamentals of his storytelling, his prose and subject matter are mostly business-as-usual in “Squirrel”, though slightly tailored to suit this adult-themed children’s book. Like his other work, propelled by succinct dialogue and words italicized for added emphasis, the stories in “Squirrel” beg to be read aloud.

Rather than resorting to animal stereotypes for humor, Sedaris builds upon readers’ animal associations to add another level of satire to his fables, sometimes drawing parallels between the activities and responsibilities of animals and those of humans. In “The Parenting Storks,” two stork-sisters debate how to best explain reproduction to their children. The conservative stork prefers to craft an elaborate story about baby storks being dropped off by magic mice, while the more progressive stork chooses not to shelter her child from the truth. “Sex is a beautiful and important part of life, I explained that to you last week, when we discussed your father’s infidelity,” she says to her nearly newborn hatchling. “I said that you were not conceived of mutual orgasm and that it probably affected your ability to empathize, remember?” In “The Grieving Owl,” the title character resents his family for their lack of enthusiasm about learning: “It’s not that they’re stupid, my family—that, I could forgive. It’s that they’re actively against learning.” Clever details abound: a parrot works as a newspaper reporter, a toad cries cultural insensitivity when referred to as a reptile instead of an amphibian and a pair of sickly lab rats discuss karma.

“Squirrel” is a speedy read, with each short story hovering around 10 pages and printed in geriatric-friendly font, but this Sedaris assemblage is brimming with tongue-in-cheek bleakness. In stark contrast to storybook endings, Sedaris’s animals end up miserable, if not worse. A third of the stories conclude with amusingly ironic death scenes and one with the contraction of AIDS. Some readers might be initially turned off by the satirist’s cynical outlook, but most will recognize and appreciate the comedic value his stories tout. Even with their gritty subject matter, most of the stories are more wistfully poetic than they are coarse. In “The Squirrel and the Chipmunk,” a youthful chipmunk courting a squirrel from across town fakes her way through a dinner conversation about jazz. The squirrel likes jazz and the chipmunk isn’t sure what it is, lauding it anyway. Following the dinner, the chipmunk is unable to discover the meaning of the word and,  fearing that “jazz” might be something deviant, parts ways with the only squirrel who ever understood her. A lifetime passes and she happens to learn the definition of the word from her son. Then, when the chipmunk is in the twilight of her life, the definition escapes her. The story ends:

“She forgot the definition of “jazz” as well and came to think of it as every beautiful thing she had ever failed to appreciate: the taste of warm rain; the smell of a baby; the din of a swollen river, rushing past her tree and onward to infinity.”

Short and, well, probably more bitter than sweet, “Squirrel Seeks Chipmunk” is sure to charm and rouse the irreverent pessimist in us all.