To invent or not to invent

The mixed collection of short stories and essays Barrel Fever (1994) is David Sedaris's first published book, which may explain why he hadn't settled yet on a genre. The unevenness of the material may explain why he subsequently settled on the essay as his form, rather than fiction -- though I guess that five volumes later, in 2010, he felt it was safe to return to fiction with Squirrel Seeks Chipmunk, which is described as a collection of animal-related humorous short stories, not a description that entices me. The short stories in Barrel Fever almost all revolve around characters who are angry, stupid, violent, delusional and/or grotesque. Especially violent. No reason why these characteristics should make for less good fiction, but the stories are very repetitive; it's a lot about the revenge fantasies and so on of these grotesque morons, whose emotions are unsubtly drawn and whose actions don't tend to go anywhere much beyond just being ugly and mean. After the twelve stories come four essays, which are incredibly funny and interesting. SantaLand Diaries, in which Sedaris describes working as a holiday elf in a department store, is both fucking hilarious and actually revelatory about what people get up to when they work as seasonal in-store entertainment. These essays, in fact, appeal to me a lot more than the other full book of essays that I read of his, When You Are Engulfed in Flames. In Barrel Fever Sedaris is a guy living in weird circumstances and taking weird odd jobs. In When You Are Engulfed he's this well-to-do guy who travels the world first-class and tells you about it.