MixedThe New York Times Book ReviewHis need to hang onto his neuroses permeates his fourth collection of comic pieces...an assortment of frequently very funny, too-often bland and ultimately frustrating essays ... Perversely, Sedaris doesn\'t recognize his own literary gold mine, probes no further and writes the essay like a sitcom treatment. Because many of the essays turn out to be inconsequential, it\'s all the more disappointing when he conjures one with substance and then lets it fizzle ... Collected in book form, they need some unifying thread -- subject matter, character, location or even sustained hilarity. Unfortunately, none of these is at work here. Frustratingly, except for his self-deprecation, the character of David Sedaris, though principal to just about every essay, remains elusive.
