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4.1 AVERAGE
4.1 AVERAGE
emotional
funny
informative
lighthearted
reflective
sad
medium-paced
David Sedaris is always funny. ALWAYS. He tells stories about his family in a crude, dry, and hysterical way. I found myself laughing out loud multiple times, and not just the bullshit ‘this is supposed to be funny so I’ll chuckle to myself’, I AM TALKIN’ REAL LAUGHS, FOLKS. However, what gets me is his ability to work in real, authentic family moments. Most family moments in a non-fiction feel forced, but not with Sedaris. The moments feel like they could happen to you, because Sedaris eliminates the fluff. His stories feel like they’re being told by a friend you’ve known for 30 years. I can’t wait to read more of David Sedaris in the future.
adventurous
funny
lighthearted
fast-paced
This collection is just great. This is Sedaris at his best, with personal essays continuing the story of his life and his colorful family, although like his other collections, this one has moments of melancholy and clear-eyed sadness, especially as he discusses his mother's alcoholism and his sister's suicide. In Calypso, Sedaris buys the beach house his father had always talked about buying and much of the action takes place as he meets up with various members of the Sedaris clan at the Sea Section to do everything from feeding a lipoma to a turtle to playing Sorry with his niece.
Read this book of essays from start to finish on my flight to New York. It was exact whet I wanted: funny, sweet, scathing and surprisingly poignant as Sedaris faces death in his family and his own aging.
Man I love spending time with David Sedaris. He has such a funny, dark look at life that I often find myself laughing and shaking my head at the same time. This is another collection of stories about his life and family.
This is a well-written memoir of someone I don't really like. I'm not sure how many stars to give it. The writing is good but I don't like what it says all the time. The author is a dillhole but he does a good job in describing how he's a dillhole (even if he doesn't realize it or mean to).
It's a collection of essays about his life, which is what David Sedaris does. Some are meant to be funny and some aren't.
In one essay, he complains about wanting customer service people to form a human connection with him. I can't imagine how exhausting that would be for customer service people. These aren't people at a party, they're people who are trying to check people in to a hotel or serve you at a restaurant. They're just trying to do their job. Sedaris does encounter one who tries to be friendly but he accuses him of doing it just for a bigger tip.
In another essay about the suicide of one of his sisters, he mentions that someone once said to him something along the lines of he has three children but one died before being born. Sedaris says he doesn't know what to do with that. HOW ABOUT BEING A HUMAN BEING AND MAKING A HUMAN CONNECTION?
Just to prove to his dad how easy it would've been to buy a beach house when Sedaris was a child, Sedaris, as an adult buys an $800,000 beach house practically on a whim. (He doesn't mention the price but it was easy enough to look up and I was curious.) Sedaris can't place himself in his dad's shoes and consider that money *was* an object at the time, only that his dad hemmed and hawed, not thinking that those were excuses so he didn't have to tell his kids they couldn't afford it.
He spends an entire essay talking about buying extravagantly expensive clothes in Tokyo, mentioning that a pair of culottes cost as much as a Macbook Air -- about a thousand dollars. He also goes to great lengths to say that shopping is better than seeing the cultural sights. I found neither of things to be charming or funny but rather sad and puzzling.
There's a story about how his mother used to tell him and his siblings stories about her day. Sedaris calls the sessions a "master class." His mom would work on a story with each telling and change what had happened over the course of re-tellings to improve it. She would dismiss concerns about the truth. Later, Sedaris recounts to his husband how his parents were in a restaurant in Raleigh, NC, when the news of Dr. Martin Luther King's assassination was announced. Sedaris says that everyone in the restaurant applauded except for his parents. Are we supposed to believe that happened or is it another of his mother's stories that had been told and re-told for maximum impact?
This matter of truth is intentional and not insignificant. After a to-do on the radio show, "This American Life," the veracity of Sedaris's stories and the importance of their accuracy became a thing. This story about his mother seems to be a direct repudiation of the notion that Sedaris needs to tell the truth the whole time and we should be happy that he's telling a better, more entertaining version of events. If he wants to do that, there's a whole genre of literature for that: fiction.
For me, the lack of acknowledgment of privilege, the way he often treats people that he sees as beneath him, and his seemingly casual relationship with the truth all resulted in me not enjoying this book.
It's a collection of essays about his life, which is what David Sedaris does. Some are meant to be funny and some aren't.
In one essay, he complains about wanting customer service people to form a human connection with him. I can't imagine how exhausting that would be for customer service people. These aren't people at a party, they're people who are trying to check people in to a hotel or serve you at a restaurant. They're just trying to do their job. Sedaris does encounter one who tries to be friendly but he accuses him of doing it just for a bigger tip.
In another essay about the suicide of one of his sisters, he mentions that someone once said to him something along the lines of he has three children but one died before being born. Sedaris says he doesn't know what to do with that. HOW ABOUT BEING A HUMAN BEING AND MAKING A HUMAN CONNECTION?
Just to prove to his dad how easy it would've been to buy a beach house when Sedaris was a child, Sedaris, as an adult buys an $800,000 beach house practically on a whim. (He doesn't mention the price but it was easy enough to look up and I was curious.) Sedaris can't place himself in his dad's shoes and consider that money *was* an object at the time, only that his dad hemmed and hawed, not thinking that those were excuses so he didn't have to tell his kids they couldn't afford it.
He spends an entire essay talking about buying extravagantly expensive clothes in Tokyo, mentioning that a pair of culottes cost as much as a Macbook Air -- about a thousand dollars. He also goes to great lengths to say that shopping is better than seeing the cultural sights. I found neither of things to be charming or funny but rather sad and puzzling.
There's a story about how his mother used to tell him and his siblings stories about her day. Sedaris calls the sessions a "master class." His mom would work on a story with each telling and change what had happened over the course of re-tellings to improve it. She would dismiss concerns about the truth. Later, Sedaris recounts to his husband how his parents were in a restaurant in Raleigh, NC, when the news of Dr. Martin Luther King's assassination was announced. Sedaris says that everyone in the restaurant applauded except for his parents. Are we supposed to believe that happened or is it another of his mother's stories that had been told and re-told for maximum impact?
This matter of truth is intentional and not insignificant. After a to-do on the radio show, "This American Life," the veracity of Sedaris's stories and the importance of their accuracy became a thing. This story about his mother seems to be a direct repudiation of the notion that Sedaris needs to tell the truth the whole time and we should be happy that he's telling a better, more entertaining version of events. If he wants to do that, there's a whole genre of literature for that: fiction.
For me, the lack of acknowledgment of privilege, the way he often treats people that he sees as beneath him, and his seemingly casual relationship with the truth all resulted in me not enjoying this book.
dark
emotional
funny
lighthearted
reflective
fast-paced
Classic Sedaris. Funny, heartwarming, devastating, weird. Loved all the North Carolina connections.
Life is better with David Sedaris. I’ve never consumed any of his books without laughing out loud at inappropriate times or in inappropriate settings. And that makes them all the better.