Point of View

Each story is told from the first person point of view, but the identities of the narrators differ from story to story. Sedaris himself narrates "The SantaLand Diaries," and "Dinah the Christmas Whore." Jocelyn Dunbar is the narrator of "Season's Greetings to Our Friends and Family!!!" Thaddeus Bristol narrates as the author of his own theatre review in "Front Row Center with Thaddeus Bristol," and Jim Timothy speaks to a congregation in "Based Upon a True Story." Finally, the yuppie husband-and-father narrator of "Christmas Means Giving," remains unnamed. As the identity of the narrator shifts, so does the narrator's trustworthiness. David Sedaris can be trusted as a narrator if only because he portrays himself as unflatteringly as he does other people. Thaddeus Bristol is similarly honest, although on a subject in which honesty is rarely displayed so mercilessly. He accurately judges the children's pageants with unrealistic...