Squirrel Seeks Chipmunk by David Sedaris – review

David Sedaris is best known for his collections of essays such as Me Talk Pretty One Day and When You Are Engulfed in Flames.  His essays are typically personal in nature, often sharing stories about his family and growing up in North Carolina. If you are a fan of Sedaris, then be prepared to throw what you know about his writing out the window when reading Squirrel Seeks Chipmunk: a Modest Bestiary. 

This book is a series of short, fictional stories all about and told by animals.  They are allegorical in nature, mostly, and range in topic from religious intolerance among chickens to cheating spouses in the dog world. They’re funny and have neat, albeit grotesque, drawings accompanying them.  They’re all fairly short and almost children’s stories, except the subject matter are strictly adult, as is some of the language. No story has what one would consider a “happy ending,” but rather they have real world endings. Instead of painting a pretty picture, Sedaris paints a rather bleak one with the harsh realities of the world, animal or not, as his pallete. The actual illustrations, done by Ian Falconer, mirror the verbal imagery with drawings that capture the essence of the characters in a way that words never could. And, as I mentioned, they are pretty creepy.

There were a couple of stories that really stayed with me after I finished the collection.  The first one, entitled “The Motherless Bear,” really struck home for me.  It’s about a young female bear that loses her mother at an early age.  At first everyone feels sorry for her, but she abuses their sympathy to the point that no one wants anything to do with her. It’s not until she takes off to find someone who will give her the attention she craves that she does something nice for someone else.  No good deed goes unpunished, however, because she ends up an abused and mistreated sideshow act. I think the case could be made that this is an allegory for many things, but what I saw clearest was that the bear was left to fend for herself with no guidance, and she ended up a hot mess. The world abandoned her and then blamed her for her mistakes. Take what you will from that.

The second story I particularly enjoyed was “The Vigilant Rabbit.”  This is the story of a group of woodland creatures who gather together and build a fence to keep out unwanted guests.  A crotchety old rabbit stands guard, and when any animal points out a way around the fence, the rabbit kills it and puts the body on display.  This continues until the wolves come for the rabbit.   To me, the main character in this book is easily a representation of the United States. I don’t want to get too political here, but think about that and the immigration debate when you read this story and see if you disagree.     

There are simple lessons to be learned throughout the book, but more importantly one should walk away from this book thinking some pretty heavy thoughts.  It seems to me that Sedaris took this opportunity to challenge his readers and the way they think.  He does so in his own unconventional sardonic way.  While this book may be a step outside the box for Sedaris fans, I challenge them to read it anyway.  I enjoyed the stories at face value.  I found them amusing and entertaining.  It’s when the characters are stripped away and the message within is revealed that you’ll find yourself really thinking about what you’ve just read and what you can take away from it.