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A Carnival of Snackery
- Diaries: Volume Two
- Narrated by: David Sedaris, Tracey Ullman
- Length: 17 hrs and 8 mins
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A Carnival of Snackery
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Summary
There's no right way to keep a diary, but if there's an entertaining way, David Sedaris seems to have mastered it.
If it's navel-gazing you're after, you've come to the wrong place; ditto treacly self-examination. Rather, his observations turn outward: a fight between two men on a bus, a fight between two men on the street; collecting Romanian insults, or being taken round a Japanese parasite museum. There's a dirty joke shared at a book signing, then a dirtier one told at a dinner party - lots of jokes here. Plenty of laughs.
These diaries remind you that you once really hated George W. Bush, and that not too long ago, Donald Trump was a harmless laughingstock, at least on French TV. Time marches on, and Sedaris, at his desk or on planes, in fine hotel dining rooms and Serbian motels, records it. The entries here reflect an ever-changing background - new administrations, new restrictions on speech and conduct. What you can say at the start of the book, you can't by the end.
Sedaris has been compared to Truman Capote and Tennessee Williams, Lewis Carroll and a 'sexy Alan Bennett'. A Carnival of Snackery illustrates that he is very much his own singular self.
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Critic reviews
"Could there be a more delightful American import than the memoirist David Sedaris? Not since the peanut butter and jelly sandwich have we inherited something so sweet and comforting yet so wickedly naughty." (The Times)
"So often Sedaris's phrasing is beautiful in its piquancy and minimalism.... His life is extraordinary in so many ways - the drug addiction, the eccentric family, the crazy jobs, the fame, the globetrotting - but one of the more unlikely achievements here is in making it all seem quite ordinary. Ultimately, his masterstroke is in acting as a bystander in his own story." (Book of the Day, Guardian)
What listeners say about A Carnival of Snackery
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance4 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- Ann Stuart
- 23-06-22
Wonderful David!
I adore David Sedaris and never tire of listening to him. It’s a pity that he has chosen to have parts of his diaries read by Tracy Ullman. She’s a great actor and does a good enough job but no English person would say ‘twenty eight hundred’ and it is his voice that gives life to the diaries so the sections not read by him feel dull and wrong. Apart from that, thank you David.
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Overall4 out of 5 stars
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Performance3 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- HeyDon't.
- 03-01-23
Tracey
Tracey Ullman - no. I appreciate DS may want to try something other than his own voice - but there’s no one who can stand in.
Maybe Amy?
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Overall4 out of 5 stars
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Performance3 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- McKenna
- 03-05-24
Tracey Ullman experiment doesn’t work
Actually fast forwarded through her sections. Sedaris’ stories and voice have become too intertwined for me to accept any substitute. My problem, I’m sure.
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Overall4 out of 5 stars
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Performance3 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- ROSALIND BUCK
- 07-10-21
Disappointed
I love Sedaris and I loved the audiobooks featuring his sister doing the female voices. This time, he has disappointingly used a British female actor for his own voice. Sedaris' voice is a huge part of the appeal of his audiobooks and this substitute is highly disappointing.
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25 people found this helpful
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Overall4 out of 5 stars
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Performance2 out of 5 stars
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Story3 out of 5 stars
- Una McC
- 17-12-21
Slightly off
Prefer David's voice -
(No disrespect to wonderful Tracy Ullman) but David's excellent as narrator.
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1 person found this helpful
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- Claire D.
- 17-12-21
Fabulous!
So right, yet so wrong… as ever!
… but ultimately, laugh out loud.
… wanted to keep on listening
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance3 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- bignewshound
- 05-09-23
It’s not David Sedaris when a British woman reads it
David Sedaris’ diaries are so engaging because of his voice and idiosyncratic engagement with the text. I found myself dreading when Tracey Ullman would be narrating. Nothing against her, but you can’t read diaries really if you don’t have the person (if alive) reading them
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- Catherine Arion
- 10-03-22
Superb
I hesitated with this purchase because, as a long time David Sedaris fan, I have always loved listening to his books as much as reading them. My audible credits were piling up so I relented and made the purchase. As ever, it was a wonderful listen and I hardly noticed (in a good way), the parts where Tracey Ullman picked up the narrative. Although I don't believe it was necessary to have an alternate voice for the U.K. and Ireland entries, neither was it a distraction . Despite being female, straight and a non-American (currently living in Eastern Europe) I absorb David Sedaris's books as though they are letters from an old friend. Now it's ended I have that slightly empty feeling you get when you miss someone who has just left.
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- Amazon Customer
- 17-01-23
brilliant
I am so sad that I have finished listening to this tonight, it's been a constant companion over the last few weeks. I have enjoyed it so much, David Sedaris is just brilliant
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Overall4 out of 5 stars
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Performance4 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- Daydreamer
- 16-06-22
Another gem
Great book although some of it was from books I have already purchased, I didn't realise that. Didn't enjoy the sections read by Tracey though, I prefer it when David does it himself.
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1 person found this helpful