THE SANTALAND DIARIES by David Sedaris

What a wonderful look into how much of a shit-show meeting Santa is. Now, I'm not putting down one of the most magical moments of childhood, neither is Sedaris I could imagine, but the reality he illustrates in this piece is too funny, and a parent who has ever had to deal with these escapades would find this sidesplitting. Let a thirty-three year old elf tell you just how different SantaLand is when you're not apart of the audience, the brainwashed dorks who drag their children down to Macy's not knowing the meaning of freewill.

The most enjoyable part of the story was hearing what the people had to say. The level of reality in the words they said made them "real people and not just characters." (To quote On Writing by Stephen King) The speech of these people is a good look at how characters are well constructed; what they say is funny because you can imagine what being in their situation would be like, and it's easy to get where they're coming from. Sedaris' main character is the most relatable to anyone. He also creates magnificent representations of 'characters' that we see in real life; like the ditzy valley girl who ends every sentence with a question, or the tired manager who has been in whatever job it is long enough to not feel the need to be polite about what she has to say. "I have scraped enough blood out from the crotches of elf knickers to last me the rest of my life. And don't tell me, 'I don't wear underpants, I'm a dancer.' You're not a dancer..."