Rating: 
Summary: The perfect introduction to a spectacular writer
Review: The holidays bring out something truly special in David Sedaris, making this more a "best of" than a mere holiday book. It's simply brilliant and, as many reviewers have experienced, one of those rare books that may cause you to laugh out loud in spite of yourself. Its only flaw is that it's a short book, but in content it's a giant.Avid NPR listeners will instantly recognize the first essay in this book, "Santaland Diaries"; the author's reading of that story is their single most requested encore. His description of becoming a Christmas Elf at Macy's is a true guilty pleasure; scathingly unkind and screamingly funny. If you ever held an undignified job, this is somehow your story - even if you never (pardon the pun) stooped so low as to play an elf. Sedaris writes like a post-modern Mark Twain, with a dry and piercing wit that drips with charm and cynicism in equal measure. His is the kind of writing that makes me go back to re-read a sentence, a paragraph, even a whole story hoping to savor some particular gem I only wish I'd written. His tone is often dark, even bleak, but there's a wry quality in his stories that lets you know he's really doing it all for effect - setting you up for an even bigger laugh because you know he's enjoying every minute of telling his sad, hilarious stories. Get in on his story now so you can savor the feeling of waiting impatiently for his next book - and there's no better way to start than to read Holidays on Ice.
Rating:
Summary: Seasonal Cocktail
Review: This book got me through November and December, two months when I'm weighed down with holiday depression. Sedaris crafts these stories with sincerity and humor and he makes you ponder how such events could ever happen. You'll read the book in a matter of hours because of its shortness, but the following year, you'll want to pick it up again and revisit the hilarity.
Rating:
Summary: Gripping
Review: This is a hilarious book. It made me laugh and laugh. That is the uniqueness of the "Holidays on Ice" book by David Sedaris. You may want to pity the characters, yet they are amusing in the way they deal with situations in the stories. It is easy for us to relate to the characters, because we have types like them everywhere around. I can understand why many people love this book too.
Also recommended: THE USURPER AND OTHER STORIES,EVERYTHING'S EVENTUAL
Rating:
Summary: Gripping
Review: This is a hilarious book. It made me laugh and laugh. That is the uniqueness of the "Holidays on Ice" book by David Sedaris. You may want to pity the characters, yet they are amusing in the way they deal with situations in the stories. It is easy for us to relate to the characters, because we have types like them everywhere around. I can understand why many people love this book too. Also recommended: THE USURPER AND OTHER STORIES,EVERYTHING'S EVENTUAL
Rating:
Summary: One sure Holiday
Review: This is, as usual, a side-splitting Sedaris book though not as funny as "Naked" or "Me Talk Pretty."The Santaland Diaries" is a glimpse at our own attitudes and behavior during "the festive holiday season". Perhaps it is a clicheed sentiment (if a cynical opinion can be sentimental), but it is true that during the one time of the year when we should be celebrating peace and love for our fellow man, we behave like looters and scavengers in an orgy of mass consumption, ready to slit the throat of anyone who we percieve is trying to interfere with our quest to have a picture taken with a guy in a Santa suit. Sedaris illustrates this with biting humor and, of course, fiction is never as funny as what happens in real life. By the way, I'm pretty sure the story in "Dinah, the Christmas Whore" actually happened too. Besides, I just love a story with a good whore in it. Also recommended: "Bark of the Dogwood" and "Naked."
Rating: 
Summary: Give until it Bleeds!
Review: To call David of Sedaris's sense of humor unique, might be an understatement. In "Holiday's on Ice." David delivers his wicked black humor with a Christmas theme that will doubtfully ever translate into a classic made for TV movie. These are certainly not heart warming, life affirming tales to read in front of the fire place with a nice glass of eggnog. To Sedaris, Christmas is an odd assortment of disgruntled department store elves, ..., tv executives, and suburbanites struggling with the "true" meaning of Christmas. "Give until it bleeds."
As always Sedaris uses his unique viewpoints, and sometimes personal experiences to create rich and creative stories. "Holidays on Ice" is a collection of his finest holiday based stories. While not as involving and complete as "Naked," or "Me Talk Pretty One Day." "Holidays On Ice" is a nice Sedaris for beginners book. Stories like "Santa Land Diaries,"
and "Dinah, The Christmas Whore" are as involved, and as well told as any other story in his longer works. "Holidays on Ice" proves once again that David Sedaris is one of the finest Humorists, and all around story tellers in America today.
Rating:
Summary: If you only read one Sedaris essay...
Review: While all of the stories and essays in Holidays on Ice are good, the standout is clearly "The Santaland Diaries". I always think that if I laugh out loud while I'm reading something, then that by itself makes the book worth the price of purchase. I actually had to put the story down till I pulled myself together enough to resume reading it. "The Santaland Diaries" is a glimpse at our own attitudes and behavior during "the festive holiday season". Perhaps it is a clicheed sentiment (if a cynical opinion can be sentimental), but it is true that during the one time of the year when we should be celebrating peace and love for our fellow man, we behave like looters and scavengers in an orgy of mass consumption, ready to slit the throat of anyone who we percieve is trying to interfere with our quest to have a picture taken with a guy in a Santa suit. Sedaris illustrates this with biting humor and, of course, fiction is never as funny as what happens in real life. By the way, I'm pretty sure the story in "Dinah, the Christmas Whore" actually happened too...
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