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Maybe part of my problem with the book is that I first read the back cover, which told me two things that I didn't find to be true:

1. This book is side-splittingly hilarious
2. It turns the "mania for memoir on its proverbial ear."

Sure, maybe it's not fair to judge the book based on my preconceptions, but there's some merit to this I think.

First, my sides are completely unsplit. I laughed a few times, found some things whimsical, and did find a few lines to be very funny. But a lot of the jokes fell flat to me and sounded like watered-down Rick Reilly goofiness, and I don't get into Rick Reilly so much. It's pretty obvious even without the hype that one of the book's main goals is to make the reader laugh, but I guess I found the humor limited. There's a lot of one-note humor (maybe a little too smirky sometimes?), and, more importantly, there's a lot of retreating behind witty wordplay or Tonight Show one-liners during moments of great tension. Sometimes the humor undermined the interesting action of the essays/stories, rather than allowing the author to explore some issues more deeply and/or to offer some more insight.

Second, I don't see how this turns anything on its ear. I mean, the actual details of the plot are different from some memoir, but it covers some pretty well-traveled ground (homosexual awakening at summer camp, dealing with mom's cancer, etc.). And that's fine too. But I felt like a) there's an unfulfilled promise (which probably isn't Sedaris' fault, but still) and b) he could have wrung more out of the material than he did.

All that said, I liked the book. 3 stars isn't a bad rating, I think. It's just that there's not a lot of stuff here I think I'm going to remember for very long. I read it, I enjoyed it, and now it's done.