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A review by dawndeydusk
The Best of Me by David Sedaris
emotional
funny
4.0
In the past couple of years, I distanced myself from Sedaris. I felt uncomfortable reading some of his work, and I thought, well, by 2021, you'd think he'd have disclaimers for some language or takes from years past. And then, last night, I had the privilege of having him sign a book of his that I hadn't even read yet, and as I approached the table he was seated at, surrounded by markers he himself had brought with him, he asked if I was in high school. I'm 22.
I'm 22, but I started reading Sedaris when I was 15. I know it was my freshman or sophomore year of high school. I wanted to write an essay about When You Are Engulfed in Flames, and my teacher at the time was apprehensive. Maybe she thought the subject matter was too inappropriate for a 15-year-old. I found this shocking considering I had turned in poetry that should have gotten me sent to a counselor or at the very least some further questioning. Instead, in the margins of where I describe a moment as a seven-year-old imagining my body falling off of a six-or-so-story balcony, she wrote "cryptic." Yes, quite so.
Sedaris' work can be controversial, sure. But it is within his blunt and absurd writing where he unpacks these quiet truths, and one moment you find yourself giggling at the word sphincter but then tearing up because you're not sure if your family has ever truly loved you in a way that you could ever understand or translate.
He says, "Seek approval from the one person you desperately want it from, and you're guaranteed not to get it." So when he asked if I was in high school, I could have lied, but I told the truth. And I felt that within mere seconds of speaking to this man who would never remember me, but whose words would pleasantly haunt me for the rest of my life, I had already disappointed him. What a relief.
I'm 22, but I started reading Sedaris when I was 15. I know it was my freshman or sophomore year of high school. I wanted to write an essay about When You Are Engulfed in Flames, and my teacher at the time was apprehensive. Maybe she thought the subject matter was too inappropriate for a 15-year-old. I found this shocking considering I had turned in poetry that should have gotten me sent to a counselor or at the very least some further questioning. Instead, in the margins of where I describe a moment as a seven-year-old imagining my body falling off of a six-or-so-story balcony, she wrote "cryptic." Yes, quite so.
Sedaris' work can be controversial, sure. But it is within his blunt and absurd writing where he unpacks these quiet truths, and one moment you find yourself giggling at the word sphincter but then tearing up because you're not sure if your family has ever truly loved you in a way that you could ever understand or translate.
He says, "Seek approval from the one person you desperately want it from, and you're guaranteed not to get it." So when he asked if I was in high school, I could have lied, but I told the truth. And I felt that within mere seconds of speaking to this man who would never remember me, but whose words would pleasantly haunt me for the rest of my life, I had already disappointed him. What a relief.