David Sedaris is one of my favourite writers. He has the rare ability to write comedy and pathos with equal skill. His writing is autobiographical and deeply personal. He writes about his family, his complicated and somewhat difficult relationship with his father, his middle-class upbringing in the American South, growing up gay in the seventies, his partner, Hugh and their life together, the years he spent living as an expat in France and England, and more.
His journey to becoming a writer is, in his own words, a fairy-tale. He was in his thirties, working odd jobs, when he performed at a club in Chicago, reading from one of his diaries. Ira Glass, host of the popular podcast, This American Life, heard him, and invited him on the radio show that he was hosting back then. His appearance on that show led him to an appearance on NPR’s Morning Edition, reading Santaland Diaries, an essay about his experience working as an elf at Macy's department store during Christmas.
This was a hugely popular episode of the show, and it resulted in more listener requests for a recording than any episode in the show's history up to that point. Sedaris then began to record a monthly segment for NPR, he signed a two-book deal with Little, Brown and Company and he became a frequent contributor when Ira Glass started This American Life, in 1995.
He's a genuinely funny writer. He has an eye for the absurd, in himself and in others. He uses humour as the means to process the deeper aspects of his life like the fraught relationship with his father, his struggle with identity, love, loss, and the feeling he's had most of life, that he doesn't quite fit in, anywhere.
Here’s a brief look at a few of his books:
Me Talk Pretty One Day: This is is probably his most beloved book. Split between stories about growing up in America and his experiences learning French while living in Normandy and feeling totally out of place, this book is both hilarious and moving.
Naked: This is collection of essays about his childhood, his complicated relationship with his family, his early adult years, and his struggles with drug use. The stories in this book are tinged with a poignancy that makes the narrative and the writer get under your skin in a way that's hard to ignore.
Let's Explore Diabetes with Owls: This is the first book of Sedaris' that I read. It's a brilliant collection of personal essays. Some of them made me laugh uncontrollably while others made me hurt in a way that few writers have managed.
Calypso: This book begins with Sedaris buying a beach house on the Carolina coast, and envisioning long, relaxing vacations, which don't quite pan out the way he's imagined them because he's dealing with the physical tribulations of middle-age and the realisation that ageing is now a reality of life...this book is a bit dark while also being hilariously funny.
A Carnival of Snackery: This is a collection drawn from the diaries that Sedaris kept from 2003–2020. This is in part, a picture of his life at the height of his fame, when he was touring extensively. But Sedaris is ever the observer, looking outward even in his journal. One of the many merits of this book is the view it provides of the world and the many ways in which it's changed in the first two decades of this century.