Mouse dotes on her adorable baby corn snake—until, that is, her baby corn snake grows up and craves the taste of mouse flesh. She is but one of the ill-fated characters in SQUIRREL SEEKS CHIPMUNK (Little, Brown, $21.99) by David Sedaris. In this collection of tales, Sedaris maintains his wit and insight, though his tone is darker and more poignant than the light-hearted personal essays that Sedaris fans are used to. The stories are delightfully absurd: the incarcerated cat attending AA meetings, the baboon barber trying to make small talk with his cat client. Sedaris’s furry and feathered characters are a fascinating blend of the ultra-human and the utterly animal. Sedaris uses them to satirize the all-too-human subjects of adultery, hypocrisy, parochialism, and self-absorption. The quirky, yet sinister, drawings by Ian Falconer (children’s series, Olivia) are the perfect complement to the text.
