Happy-Go-Lucky
David Sedaris
Rave
Positive
Mixed
Pan
Happy-Go-Lucky
David Sedaris
Rave
Positive
Mixed
Pan
Rave
Positive
Mixed
Pan
... has fewer of these beautifully crafted jewel boxes than Calypso did. However, in addition to being consistently funny, it contains some festive Sedaris occasions for all those who celebrate.
Readers can decide how they feel about his admission that, at the height of the pandemic, he and Hugh, his partner of more than 30 years, had up to four dinner parties a week, or his reference to the pandemic as 'a golden era for tattletales' who chastised others for wearing their masks improperly.
Memory after memory is evoked, like a droll Proust, but Sedaris is also looking to the future.
The happy-go-unlucky Sedaris is forever being frustrated, humiliated or downright annihilated, and the mishaps he chronicles probably explain why readers feel so fondly protective towards him.
... more somber than Sedaris' usual fare, but there are some fresh, funny bits wedged between the weighty boulders.
Sedaris simultaneously asserts himself as the undisputed past master of this tone and captures its fundamental weakness, applying the style he has developed for the last 30 years to a subject matter for which it is almost eerily unsuited.
Sedaris doesn’t always come across well in this book: he sounds a bit glib on racial politics, and downright cranky when lamenting the coddled entitlement of the younger generation. He can be petty, too, and bitter, though it is partly because of these flaws that people relate to him. A vague sense of existential cluelessness has always been part of his shtick, embodied in his distinctive vocal delivery – a slightly whiny deadpan that imbues his monologues with bathos. That aural component is, in truth, essential to the Sedaris charm. On the page he’s a somewhat diminished presence: engaging but rarely captivating..
Almost everyone has a dysfunctional family, but few expose their relatives’ funny, embarrassing and even disturbing quirks quite like writer and humorist David Sedaris.
Though his tone is more poignant than pointed, the essential Sedaris humor reassuringly endures. Amid the barbed quips, there is genuine sorrow, an empathy born of arduous experience and persistent aspiration..
Sedaris ponders many deep themes here: politics, racial inequality, and even natural disasters, but always adds his irreverent take on life’s most solemn moments.
... offers deft, sharp commentary on masculinity. One of the collection’s delights is a commencement address delivered at Oberlin College that skates along on the surface with funny throwaway lines and ridiculousness while offering slyly sensible life advice underneath.
Unrest, plague, and death give rise to mordant comedy in this intimate collection from Sedaris.
Sedaris remains stubbornly irreverent even in the face of pandemic lockdowns and social upheaval.