David Sedaris, who is best known as a comedic essayist, delves into the world of short stories with this collection of animal-focused fables that are not unlike Aesop's works we first became familiar with and loved as children. While the collected tales are similar, they are not really for kids at all. As with most fables, the animals and their issues takethe place of the ones we are confronted with in real life in order to provide some social commentary.

The various farm, wild, and pet animals opine on all sorts of issues including adultery, snobbishness, fad spirituality, racism, governmental bureaucracy, Alcoholics Anonymous meetings in prison, and a number of other areas.

As with many of Sedaris' other works, sarcasm and irony play a major role. I do have to admit to having a hard time getting into the stories. I am usually a big fan of Sedaris' work, but I just felt that the stories tried to make the animals as offensive as possible rather than providing the intended commentary. As a result, the stories generally fell flat for me. Maybe it was just my mood...

The stories are accompanied by really great illustrations by Ian Falconer, who is probably best known to those of you with toddlers because he produces the wonderful Olivia picture books. That created an interesting contrast to the content of these tales. I am sure that was intentional since the presentation seems really meant to create the sense of an adult version of fables.

All-in-all, it was a quick and quirky read. I have read a few other works of fiction by Sedaris, including a play he co-wrote with his sister, and I generally find that they are so off the wall that they leave me behind. For me, he is always at his best as an essayist, whether it is about his family or just people he met on the street.