Don’t mistake Sedaris’s darkly witty animal stories for Aesop’s fables
There’s no mistaking David Sedaris’s Squirrel Seeks Chipmunk: A Modest Bestiary for a book of Aesop’s fables. Though the anthropomorphic animals who populate this collection are recognizably human in all their foibles, their vanity, bigotry and selfishness are not so much character flaws as fatal flaws; their stories less cautionary tales than dark admonitions. The titular chipmunk squanders love with a squirrel because of ignorance and prejudice; “The Judicious Brown Chicken” is so fearful of divine judgment and death that she ceases to live; an overzealous, border-guarding rabbit finds himself the victim of karmic retribution; and a hippo learns that a colony of leeches living in her butt are prone to bursting into song (And that’s one of the more uplifting stories). Despite the grim ends that befall Sedaris’s characters, Squirrel Seeks Chipmunk remains oddly entertaining, thanks both to the author’s trademark wit and impeccable narration provided by Elaine Stritch, Sian Phillips and Dylan Baker. The audiobook offers listeners a treat in the form of a bonus chapter, titled — in keeping with the established tone — “Vomit Eating Flies.”