He's the real thing (James Naughtie Radio Times) A deadpan, darkly comical portrait of the American underbelly. Apparently effortless humour is difficult, and precious. In an era when US satire is outpacing our own he's a sharp, humane and hilarious voice that never fails to make you smile - and sometimes weep. Ultimately, his masterstroke is in acting as a bystander in his own story (Book of the Day, Guardian) He is the American Alan Bennett - or would be, if Bennett had a history of serious substance abuse and a higher tolerance for sick humour (Times Literary Supplement) He makes me laugh so much.

There isn't a dull word among these pages (India Knight Sunday Times) Could there be a more delightful American import than the memoirist David Sedaris? Not since the peanut butter and jelly sandwich have we inherited something so sweet and comforting yet so wickedly naughty (The Times) This first of two volumes of his copious diaries takes us from 1977 to 2002, and sees him grow from a despondent 21-year-old in menial jobs into the man recognised as possibly the best humorist of the 2000s (Daily Telegraph, Best Books Under the Sun, Summer 2017) So often Sedaris's phrasing is beautiful in its piquancy and minimalism.His life is extraordinary in so many ways - the drug addiction, the eccentric family, the crazy jobs, the fame, the globetrotting - but one of the more unlikely achievements here is in making it all seem quite ordinary. Praise for Theft By Finding The writing here is funnier, (even) sharper. Newly orphaned, he considers what it means, in his seventh decade, to no longer to be someone's son. But then the pandemic hits and like so many others he's stuck in lockdown, contemplating how sex workers and acupuncturists might be getting by during quarantine.Īs the world gradually settles into a new reality, Sedaris too finds himself changed.

As Happy Go Lucky opens, he is learning to shoot guns with his sister, visiting muddy flea markets in Serbia, buying gummy worms to feed to ants, and telling his nonagenarian father wheelchair jokes. David Sedaris returns with his first new collection of personal essays since the bestselling Calypso.īack when restaurant menus were still printed on paper and wearing a mask - or not - was a decision mostly made on Halloween, David Sedaris spent his time doing normal things.

Happy go lucky book reviews