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25 great essays and short stories by david sedaris, you can't kill the rooster, us and them, go carolina, it's catching, our perfect summer, old lady down the hall, the man who mistook his hat for a meal, now we are five, laugh, kookaburra, journey into night, the santaland diaries, when you are engulfed in flames, company man, the shadow of your smile, my finances, in brief, why aren’t you laughing by david sedaris, see also..., 150 great articles and essays.

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20 Free Essays & Stories by David Sedaris: A Sampling of His Inimitable Humor

in Comedy , Literature | September 15th, 2014 6 Comments

My first expo­sure to the writ­ing of David Sedaris came fif­teen years ago, at a read­ing he gave in Seat­tle. I could­n’t remem­ber laugh­ing at any­thing before quite so hard as I laughed at the sto­ries of the author and his fel­low French-learn­ers strug­gling for a grasp on the lan­guage. I fought hard­est for oxy­gen when he got to the part about his class­mates, a ver­i­ta­ble Unit­ed Nations of a group, strain­ing in this non-native lan­guage of theirs to dis­cuss var­i­ous hol­i­days. One par­tic­u­lar line has always stuck with me, after a Moroc­can stu­dent demands an expla­na­tion of East­er:

The Poles led the charge to the best of their abil­i­ty. “It is,” said one, “a par­ty for the lit­tle boy of God who call his self Jesus and… oh, shit.” She fal­tered, and her fel­low coun­try­man came to her aid. “He call his self Jesus, and then he be die one day on two… morsels of… lum­ber.”

The scene even­tu­al­ly end­ed up in print in “Jesus Shaves,” a sto­ry in Sedaris’ third col­lec­tion,  Me Talk Pret­ty One Day . You can read it free online in a selec­tion of three of his pieces round­ed up by  Esquire . Sedaris’ obser­va­tion­al humor does tend to come out in full force on hol­i­days (see also his read­ing of the Saint Nicholas-themed sto­ry “Six to Eight Black Men” on Dutch tele­vi­sion above), and indeed the hol­i­days pro­vid­ed him the mate­r­i­al that first launched him into the main­stream.

When Ira Glass, the soon-to-be mas­ter­mind of  This Amer­i­can Life , hap­pened to hear him read­ing his diary aloud at a Chica­go club, Glass knew he sim­ply had to put this man on the radio. This led up to the big break of a Nation­al Pub­lic Radio broad­cast of “The San­ta­land Diaries,” Sedaris’ rich account of a sea­son spent as a Macy’s elf. You can still hear  This Amer­i­can Life ’s full broad­cast of it on the show’s site .

True Sedar­i­ans, of course, know him for not just his inim­itably askew per­spec­tive on the hol­i­days, but for his accounts of life in New York, Paris (the rea­son he enrolled in those French class­es in the first place), Nor­mandy, Lon­don, the Eng­lish coun­try­side, and grow­ing up amid his large Greek-Amer­i­can fam­i­ly. Many of Sedaris’ sto­ries — 20 in fact — have been col­lect­ed at the web site,  The Elec­tric Type­writer , giv­ing you an overview of Sedaris’ world: his time in the elfin trench­es, his rare moments of ease among sib­lings and par­ents, his futile father-man­dat­ed gui­tar lessons, his less futile lan­guage lessons, his relin­quish­ment of his sig­na­ture smok­ing habit (the easy indul­gence of which took him, so he’d said at that Seat­tle read­ing, to France in the first place). Among the col­lect­ed sto­ries, you will find:

• “The San­ta­land Diaries” (audio)
• “The Youth in Asia,” “Jesus Shaves,” and “Giant Dreams, Midget Abil­i­ties”
• “Our Per­fect Sum­mer”
• “Let­ting Go”
• “Now We Are Five”

For the com­plete list, vis­it:  20 Great Essays and Short Sto­ries by David Sedaris . And, just to be clear, you can read these sto­ries, for free, online.

Note: If you would like to down­load a free audio­book nar­rat­ed by David Sedaris , you might want to check out Audi­ble’s 30 Day Free Tri­al. We have details on the pro­gram here . If you click this link , you will see the books nar­rat­ed by Sedaris. If one intrigues, click on the “Learn how to get this Free” link next to each book. 

Relat­ed Con­tent:

Be His Guest: David Sedaris at Home in Rur­al West Sus­sex, Eng­land

David Sedaris Reads You a Sto­ry By Miran­da July

David Sedaris and Ian Fal­con­er Intro­duce “Squir­rel Seeks Chip­munk”

David Sedaris Sings the Oscar May­er Theme Song in the Voice of Bil­lie Hol­i­day

Col­in Mar­shall hosts and pro­duces Note­book on Cities and Cul­ture and writes essays on cities, lan­guage, Asia, and men’s style. He’s at work on a book about Los Ange­les, A Los Ange­les Primer . Fol­low him on Twit­ter at @colinmarshall or on Face­book .

by Colin Marshall | Permalink | Comments (6) |

Related posts:

Comments (6), 6 comments so far.

When­ev­er we are down and out, there is David to lift our spir­its. I hope he knows just how muh joy he brings to the life of the aver­age read­er. David, the world loves you.

I just rec­om­mend­ed your site to my grand­son. He is 40 and I am 80 but we like the same Kinds of read­ing. Thanks

Love David Sedaris’s work. I enjoy read­ing his work aloud & can laugh myself into a fren­zy , which is very fun. He is the anti­dote to what­ev­er ails me. Much respect. Please nev­er stop writ­ing for us :-)

I had already trad­ed my Amer­i­can Life for an Ital­ian one when David rose to suc­cess and I was in the dark until, while on a vis­it back to the States, my sis­ter intro­duced me to his work. I bought sev­er­al of his books to take back with me.

The build­ing I lived in was a restored 16th Cen­tu­ry sta­ble and sound trav­eled in odd ways. One night, as I lay on my cot which could have sub­sti­tut­ed for a board in a masochis­tic clois­tered con­vent, the young cou­ple upstairs had final­ly got­ten their frac­tious, col­icky baby to sleep, I could final­ly read. Silence was of the essence.

I opened my first David Sedaris book, the one that begins with him try­ing to drown a mouse out­side his home in Nor­mandy when he is inter­rupt­ed in his mur­der­ous act by some­one seek­ing direc­tions. That was hilar­i­ous enough, but I man­aged to con­trol myself on behalf of the sleep deprived trio who slum­bered above me.

Then I got to French Lessons and par­tic­u­lar­ly to “are thems the brains of young cows?” as David attempts to order calves brains in his local butch­er shop.

I had a near death expe­ri­ence that late night, oblig­ed as I was to turn over and bury my face in my pil­low in order to muf­fle my shrieks of laugh­ter. I could­n’t stop. I was learn­ing Ital­ian at the time and had recent­ly told a room­ful a peo­ple that once, I had found my lost infant sis­ter lying beneath a squid.

The word for hedge is siepe, which is the thing she was in fact lying under fast asleep and not a squid which is sep­pia.

I can’t recall now exact­ly how much time I was com­pelled to remain face down on that pil­low, but it was long enough to begin run­ning out of oxy­gen and yet each time I thought I was safe to regain a sem­blance of san­i­ty and lift­ed my head I was again assailed by incon­trol­lable laugh­ter.

I now live in a 13th Cen­tu­ry build­ing where sound bounces around in even weird­er ways. The Labrador pup­py upstairs,left to his soli­tary devices dur­ing the day, whacks his heavy chew toy on the floor above my head while I try to write, result­ing in the explo­sive sound of a stack of heavy books being repeat­ed­ly slammed down on the floor.

And that is when I look to David, free as I am to sub­mit to venge­ful aban­doned laugh­ter. After all, the pup­py can’t call the land­lord to com­plain.

Your link to the San­ta­land audio at This Amer­i­can­Life seems to be bro­ken: looks like they’ve reor­gan­ised their site.

Here’s a new, work­ing link: https://www.thisamericanlife.org/47/christmas-and-commerce/act-two‑5

Struc­tur­ing your essay accord­ing to the log­ic of the read­er means study­ing your the­sis and antic­i­pat­ing what the read­er needs to know and in what sequence in order to under­stand and con­vince your argu­ments as they devel­op.

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Advertisement

Humorist David Sedaris Culls Decades Of Essays Into 'The Best Of Me'

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<iframe width="100%" height="124" scrolling="no" frameborder="no" src="https://player.wbur.org/hereandnow/2020/11/03/david-sedaris-the-best-of-me"></iframe>

• Tonya Mosley

Editor's Note: This segment was rebroadcast on Oct. 25, 2021. You can find that audio here . Click here for David Sedaris' 2021-2022 tour dates.

If you’re looking for some comic relief, look no further than David Sedaris .

The humorist has picked his best essays from nearly 30 years of work and published them in a new collection called “The Best of Me.”

There were a lot of pieces to choose from, but Sedaris says he narrowed it down easily.

“It was originally just going to be an audio collection. So I chose things that I always looked forward to reading out loud,” he says. “It was that simple.”

He included many of his favorites over the years, but one adored story that many know and love — the " Santaland Diaries ," an essay about Sedaris’ time as a Christmas elf at a Macy’s department store — is noticeably missing from the collection. Even though the "Santaland Diaries" introduced him to NPR listeners around the world in 1992 and helped him become a recognized author, he “just can’t bear it.”

“I'm grateful that I wrote something that people enjoyed, but because it was my choice what went into this book, I was so happy to exclude it,” he says. “I actually excluded it and I wanted its feelings to be hurt.”

Interview Highlights

On one of his fictional essays, “The Motherless Bear,” which generated a lot of anger from readers

“Well, a number of years ago, I started writing, I guess you could call them fables. I was substituting animals for humans. And I wrote one about a bear whose mother dies and who just goes around trying to elicit sympathy from people talking about how her mother died just so she can take extra food and she can harvest pity. And this bear winds up like in a wretched, kind of small circus where it kind of wears a skirt and dances around and has all of its teeth pulled — and people were just furious. And I've never gotten so much hate mail. And the thing is that it was a fictional story and a woman in England wrote and chided me. She said, ‘How dare you mock these intelligent and sentient creatures?’ She demanded that I donate money to a bear rescue.”

On taking issue with the phrase “friends are the family you choose”

“You hear that all the time now. And I feel for people who aren't accepted by their family or who just simply dislike their family. And I think it's great that they found a group of friends that they can share everything emotionally with and that's fantastic. I just wouldn't call it a family. To me, the thing about a family is that you can't choose it. It's a hand that you're dealt and you've got to play that hand. I really lucked out in that department. I mean, I'm crazy about my family.”

On taking tissue with readers who call his family “dysfunctional”

“I just feel that's a lazy word. And I can't tell you how many times I've been signing books and someone will say, ‘Oh, I love your dysfunctional family.’ And I'm really grateful that they bought a book and grateful that they want it signed. But the second I hear that, my back goes up and I say, ‘What's dysfunctional about them?’ When you really think about dysfunction in a family, I mean, me anyway, I'm thinking incest, abuse. I'm thinking torture. I'm not thinking of hiding bananas under the sink in your bathroom. That's just gently crazy at best.”

On shopping with his sisters

“Well, the problem is that, I mean, I went shopping with my sister Amy ... and tried on a blouse. OK. I mean, it was just clearly a blouse. And I had suggested it for her and she said, ‘I don't know. You know, it's roomy. Why don't you try it on? Try it on! No one will know.’ And, you know, the buttons are on the wrong side. And it kind of came to my belt in the front and had a Peter Pan collar.

“I did consider it. But the point is that she can talk me into anything and then I try to do the same to her. Clerks are delighted when they see us walk into a store together.

“I mean, I have siblings who don't care to shop. And I have to say, I love them and I love spending time with them, but it's just easier to spend time with the shopping ones because I quit taking drugs, gosh, I guess it was like 20 years ago. I worried about that because my family, we've always taken drugs together and it was just a beautiful way to spend time. I don't mean, we weren't shooting up heroin. It was like LSD. And I mean they'd be followed by everyday drugs. But, you know, the main force was a psychedelic. And when I quit taking drugs, I worried that I'd lost a very important way of connecting with my family. And because we fundamentally like each other, it works out fine. But, you know, it's easier in stores.”

On writing about personal stories such as his mother’s alcoholism and his sister Tiffany’s suicide

“Well, writing's never been cathartic for me. It doesn't fix anything. It doesn't necessarily make me feel better, but it helps me make sense of my world. And sometimes something happens and I think, ‘Gosh, I'm going to need a long time to figure this out or to find a way to make it funny, really.’ I mean, what is that? Comedy is tragedy plus time. And I don't care to write something that's not funny, that's not going to get some laughs.

“Like in the essay about my sister's suicide, my family went to the grocery store. We were on the coast of North Carolina and we were in the produce department. And my brother took a bundle of parsley. And it was one of those stores where they moisturize the fruits [and] vegetables so they're always damp. And he snuck up behind me and he said, ‘Achoo!’, while he whipped the parsley through the air. So I just felt this spray on the back of my arms and the back of my neck. And I thought that a stranger had sneezed on me. It was just such a good laugh in the story, you know, and it wasn't disrespectful to include it. I mean it to me, it's just kind of showing how we still have to go on. But that's an especially good trick to play on people now with COVID, the parsley trick. .. You would do it to someone you know. I wouldn’t recommend that to a stranger.”

On his love of walking and how it feels to walk around New York City during the pandemic

“It's interesting to be in the city without tourists because normally there'd be certain parts of town you would just avoid just because they would be clotted with people walking five abreast and taking pictures of everything. And those people aren't here. ...

“Also, normally, I felt like one out of every 500 people you passed on the street was crazy. And then it became one out of every two. And so I usually go out after midnight, in part because there's nobody out, except one night I was walking through Times Square and a man said, ‘Look at that clown.’ And I looked at what I was wearing and I thought, ‘OK, it's a little bit strange.’ But then I followed his gaze and there was an actual clown. There's an actual clown with purple hair and a clown suit on. And it was like two o'clock in the morning.

“I go to bed at around 3 [a.m.] and then I get up at around 10 [a.m.]. Partly it's because I want to wake up with four or five miles under my belt because you don't know what might happen. What if I woke up and somebody said, ‘You've got to get on this plane to Australia?’ I had a perfect record. I have a Fitbit and an Apple Watch. And I had a perfect record on my Apple Watch for, like, I don't know, two years. ... And then I had to fly from Los Angeles to Australia and I crossed the international dateline and I lost a day. And I just start all over from scratch. So I live in fear of something like that happening.

“My record is 91,000 steps. That's 43 miles in a day. I started at midnight and then I was with a friend and then we came home at six in the morning. We rested for a bit and then went out again and came home for lunch and then went out again and came home for dinner and then went out again. And she and I can talk about that any time, day or night. You can relive every moment — 91,000 steps.”

Emiko Tamagawa  produced and edited this interview for broadcast with  Tinku Ray .  Serena McMahon  adapted it for the web.

Book Excerpt: 'The Best Of Me'

By David Sedaris

Introduction

I’m not the sort of person who goes around feeling good about himself. I have my days, don’t get me wrong, but any confidence I possess, especially in regard to my writing, was planted and nurtured by someone else — first a teacher, then later an agent or editor. “Hey,” he or she would say, “this is pretty good.”

“Really?” This was my cheap way of getting them to say it again. “You’re not just telling me that because you feel sorry for me?”

“Yes . . . I mean, no. I really like it!” Still, I never quite believed them.

What lifted me up was writing for The New Yorker. While this had always been a fantasy of mine, I did nothing to nudge it along. I’d always heard that if the magazine wanted you, they’d find you, and that’s exactly what happened. I started my relationship with them in 1995, when an editor phoned and asked if I might write a Shouts & Murmurs piece on then-president Bill Clinton’s welfare reform proposal. I was given one day to complete it, and when I was told that it would run in the next week’s issue, something inside me changed. It wasn’t seismic, like an earthquake, but more like a medium-size boulder that had shifted a little. Nevertheless, I felt it. When the magazine came out, I opened it to my piece, arranged it just so on the kitchen table, and strolled past it, wanting my younger, twenty-year-old self to see his name at the top of the page.

“Wait a minute. . . . Is that . . . me? In The New Yorker?” Thirty- nine years it had taken the magazine to notice me. Good thing I wasn’t in any rush.

If you read an essay in Esquire and don’t like it, there could be something wrong with the essay. If it’s in The New Yorker, on the other hand, and you don’t like it, there’s something wrong with you. That said, you’re never going to please every- one. It’s hard to think of a single entry in this book that didn’t generate a complaint of one sort or another. And it could be anything — “How dare you suggest French dentists are better than American ones!” “What sort of monster won’t swap seats on a plane?” Many were angry that I’d inadvertently killed a couple of sea turtles. Granted, that was bad, but I was a child at the time, and don’t you have to eventually forgive someone for what he did when he was twelve?

There is literally nothing you can print anymore that isn’t going to generate a negative response. This, I believe, was brought on by the Internet. It used to be that you’d write a letter of complaint, then read it over, wondering, Is this really worth a twenty-five-cent stamp? With the advent of email, complaining became free. Thus, people who were maybe a tiny bit offended could, at no cost whatsoever, let you know that they were NEVER GOING TO BUY ANY OF YOUR BOOKS EVER AGAIN!!!!

They always take the scorched-earth policy for some reason. Of all the entries in this book, the one that generated the most anger was “The Motherless Bear.” Oh, the mail I got. “How dare you torture animals like this!”

“It’s a fictional story,” I wrote back to everyone who complained. “The giveaway is that the title character speaks English and feels sorry for herself. Bears don’t do that in real life.”

That wasn’t enough for a woman in England. “I urge you not to mock these intelligent and sentient creatures,” she wrote, demanding that I atone by involving myself with the two bear-rescue organizations she listed at the bottom of her letter.

Just as we can never really tell what our own breath smells like, I will never know if I would like my writing. If I wasn’t myself, and someone sent me one of my essay collections, would I recommend it to friends? Would I stop reading it after a dozen or so pages? There’s so much that goes into a decision like that. How many times have I dismissed something just because a person I didn’t approve of found it enjoyable? Or maybe I decided it was too popular. That’s the sort of snobbery that kept my younger self slogging through books I honestly had no interest in, the sorts I’d announce had taken me “six months to finish” but were only two hundred pages long. If something is written in your native language and it’s taking you half a year to get through it, unless you’re being paid by the hour to read it, I’d say there’s a problem.

One thing that I would like about my writing is that so much of it has to do with family. It’s something that’s always interested me and is one of the reasons I so love Greeks. You could meet an American and wait for months before he begins a sentence with the words “So then my mother . . . ” It’s the same in France and England. Oh, they might get around to it eventually, but it never feels imperative. With Greeks, though, it’s usually only a matter of seconds before you hear about someone’s brother, or what a pain his sister is.

There’s a lot of talk lately about “the family you choose.” It’s a phrase often used by people who were rejected by their parents or siblings and so formed a group of supportive, kindred spirits.

I think it’s great they’re part of a tight-knit circle, but I wouldn’t call it a family. Essential to that word is that the people you’re surrounded by were not chosen. They were assigned by fate, and now you must deal with them in one way or another until you die. For me, that hasn’t been much of a problem. Even when I was a teenager, I wouldn’t have traded my parents for anyone else’s, and the same goes for my brother and sisters.

It bothers me, then, when someone refers to my family as “dysfunctional.” That word is overused, at least in the United States, and, more to the point, it’s wrongly used. My father hoarding food inside my sister’s vagina would be dysfunctional. His hoarding it beneath the bathroom sink, as he is wont to do, is, at best, quirky and at worst unsanitary.

There’s an Allan Gurganus quote I think of quite often: “Without much accuracy, with strangely little love at all, your family will decide for you exactly who you are, and they’ll keep nudging, coaxing, poking you until you’ve changed into that very simple shape.”

Is there a richer or more complex story than that?

I like to think that the affection I have for my family is apparent. Well into our adulthoods — teetering on our dotage, most of us — we’re still on good terms. We write one another, we talk. We take vacations together. I just can’t see the dysfunction in that.

The pieces in this book — both fiction and nonfiction — are the sort I hoped to produce back when I first started writing, at the age of twenty. I didn’t know how to get from where I was then to where I am now, but who does? Like everyone else, I stumbled along, making mistakes while embarrassing myself and others (sorry, everyone I’ve ever met). I’ll always be inclined toward my most recent work, if only because I’ve had less time to turn on it. When I first started writing essays, they were about big, dramatic events, the sort you relate when you meet someone new and are trying to explain to them what made you the person you are. As I get older, I find myself writing about smaller and smaller things. As an exercise it’s much more difficult, and thus — for me, anyway — much more rewarding. I hope you feel the same. If not, I can probably expect to hear from you.

From the book The Best of Me by David Sedaris. Copyright © 2020 by David Sedaris. Reprinted by permission of Little, Brown and Company, New York, NY. All rights reserved.

This segment aired on November 3, 2020.

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5 of David Sedaris' Funniest Essays

Happy 57th birthday to David Sedaris: writer; humorist; former shopping mall elf; nudist colony visitor; smoking-quitter; frequent flyer; boyfriend to Hugh; brother to Amy, Tiffany, Paul, Lisa, Gretchen. In eight collections of essays including the most recent, Let's Explore Diabetes with Owls, Sedaris delivers wry observations of his family, friends, self, and the weird people with whom he finds himself.

To celebrate another year of Sedaris, let's take a look at five of his funniest essays.

"SantaLand Diaries"

This classic Sedaris essay is even better post-Christmas. He describes his experience working as an elf at Macy's in New York City. He first read the story on NPR in 1992, and it never gets old.

"Interpreters for the deaf came and taught us to sign, 'Merry Christmas! I am Santa's helper.' Thy told us to speak as we sign and use bold, clear voices and bright facial expressions. They taught us to say,'You are a very pretty boy/girl! I love you! Do you want a surprise?'

My sister Amy lives above a deaf girl and has learned quite a bit of sign language. She taught some to me and so now I am able to say, 'Santa has a tumor in his head the size of an olive. Maybe it will go away tomorrow but I don't think so.'"

"Long Way Home"

Sedaris recounts how he was burgled while vacationing in Oahu, Hawaii. The thief took his laptop and passport, which had his ever-important visa. Calamity ensues.

"There are only two places to get robbed: TV and the real world. In the real world, if you're lucky, the policeman who answers your call will wonder what kind of computer it was. Don't let this get your hopes up. Chances are he's asking only because he has a software question."

"Standing By"

As a frequent traveler, Sedaris has more than his fair share of airport horror stories. His observations are very timely, and guarantee a laugh while you're waiting for a delayed flight.

"Fly enough, and you learn to go braindead when you have to. One minute you're bending to unlace your shoes, and the next thing you know you're paying fourteen dollars for a fruit cup, wondering, How did I get here?"

"Letting Go"

Sedaris details his history as a smoker, including his cigarette selection process and how his habit allowed him to bond with his mother.

"I may have been a Boy Scout for only two years, but the motto stuck with me forever: 'Be Prepared.' This does not mean 'Be Prepared to Ask People for Shit'; it means 'Think Ahead and Plan Accordingly, Especially in Regard to Your Vices.'"

"Author, Author?"

Sedaris recalls how his book tours are bookended by humorous trips to Costco. In the first visit to Costco, he bought a pound of condoms as a gift.

"I'd later wonder what the TSA inspectors must have thought. My tour began, and every few days, upon arriving in some new city, I'd find a slip of paper in my suitcase, the kind they throw in after going through all your stuff. Five dress shirts, three pairs of pants, underwear, a cop kit full of Band-Aids and safety pins, two neckties, and several hundred rubbers — what sort of person does the mind cobble together from these ingredients?"

Bon anniversaire, David! Thank goodness for Sedaris.

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• Published Nov. 2, 2020 Updated Oct. 25, 2021

THE BEST OF ME By David Sedaris

I began reading “The Best of Me,” David Sedaris ’s new collection, on an airplane over the Atlantic. I was covered in prophylactic measures and heavily dosed on sleeping pills, which might explain the curious notes I have since discovered in the margins. “I had a brother-in-law named The Rooster” is one poignant example, but what is one to make of the terrifying scribble, “AH FEAR!,” I ask you? Or, most mysterious of all: “348263947” — either a stranger’s passport number or the combination to a bank vault. Was I planning a false identity? A heist? Perhaps we shall never know, so let us rely instead upon my final note, which reads: “ This is the best thing Sedaris has ever written .”

In the non-narcotic light of day, I stand by it. Strange, since “The Best of Me” is a collection of writing. Ordinary readers (and I am the most ordinary of readers) will be expecting a flamboyance of favorites, from his leap to NPR stardom with “Santaland Diaries” and his quarter-century rock-star journey from 1994’s “Barrel Fever” to 2018’s “ Calypso .” Ordinary readers, however, will be wrong. This is not some Sedarian immaculate collection; instead, as he himself writes in the introduction, the pieces “are the sort I hoped to produce back when I first started writing, at the age of 20.” They are what he hoped he would be. They are the best of him. Has Sedaris included “Santaland Diaries”? He has not. Has Sedaris included “The Motherless Bear,” a work of fiction that elicited a great deal of hate mail, including entreaties to donate to bear-rescue organizations? He has. Is Amy here? Yep. His mom? His dad? The Rooster who becomes The Juicester? Bien sûr . In fact, this book is all about his family and … all right, I’ll say it: love.

No point planning a heist; Sedaris has opened the vault himself. The genius of “The Best of Me” is that it reveals the growth of a writer, a sense of how his outlook has changed and where he finds humor. In his early fiction — the hilariously petty tyrants of “Glen’s Homophobia Newsletter Vol. 3, No. 2” and “Front Row Center With Thaddeus Bristol” — Sedaris finds it in cruelty: “In the role of Mary,” Thaddeus remarks in his review of Sacred Heart Elementary’s Christmas pageant, “6-year-old Shannon Burke just barely manages to pass herself off as a virgin.” That cruelty continues in Sedaris’s pseudo-autobiographical work, but the monster we are seeing through is “David Sedaris.” In “The Incomplete Quad,” he imagines his family envying his life: “Me, the winner.” Paragraph break, next paragraph: “I was cooking spaghetti and ketchup in my electric skillet one night. …” It is a delicious pleasure to understand an obliviousness that Sedaris (supposedly) does not. “There weren’t many people I truly hated back then,” he tells us about his prepubescent self in “Memory Laps,” “30, maybe 45 at most.” The subject, in many of the pieces Sedaris has selected, is the judgment and pain we inflict on one another, and by “we” Sedaris does not mean people in general. He means him. And he means you. And he means me.

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The Best David Sedaris Books

List of the best David Sedaris books, ranked by voracious readers in the Ranker community. With commercial success and critical acclaim, there's no doubt that David Sedaris is one of the most popular authors of the last 100 years. Although he's mostly known as an essayist, Sedaris also dabbles in fiction. If you're a huge fan of his work, then vote on your favorite books below and make your opinion count. This poll is also a great resource for new fans of David Sedaris who want to know which works they should start reading first.

With memorable characters and excellent storytelling, there's no reason why you shouldn't check out David Sedaris books if you're a big reader. Examples of items on this list include Me Talk Pretty One Day and Naked . David Sedaris books are hilarious, and often involve anecdotes about his eclectic family. What are David Sedaris's best works? Are they among the funniest books of all time ? Vote on this list and help us definitively answer those questions. 

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Me Talk Pretty One Day

• First Published : 2000-05-02
• Author : David Sedaris
• Subjects : France, Paris
• Genres (Book) : Humour, Essay
• Original Language : English Language

• user uploaded image

Calypso is a collection of essay from David Sedaris. Many of the essays ran in a magazine or newspaper in one from or another before appearing in this book. "Company Men," "Sorry," and "I'm Still Standing" are among the works featured in this collection.

• First Published : 2018

Dress Your Family in Corduroy and Denim

• First Published : 2004-06-01
• Genres (Book) : Anthology, Essay

• uploaded by CherylDiPietro
• First Published : 1997-03
• Subjects : Humour, United States of America, 20th century
• Genres (Book) : Humour, Anthology, Essay

When You Are Engulfed in Flames

• First Published : 2008-06-03
• Subjects : Humour

Holidays on Ice

• First Published : 1997-12
• Subjects : Family
• Genres (Book) : Humour, Fiction

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David Sedaris

David Sedaris has contributed to The New Yorker since 1995. He is the author of “ Barrel Fever ” (1994) and “ Holidays on Ice ” (1997), as well as numerous collections of personal essays: “ Naked ” (1997), “ Me Talk Pretty One Day ” (2000), “ Dress Your Family in Corduroy and Denim ” (2004), “ When You Are Engulfed in Flames ” (2008), “ Let’s Explore Diabetes with Owls ” (2013), “ Theft by Finding: Diaries (1977-2002) ” (2017), “ Calypso ” (2018), “ The Best of Me ” (2020), and “ A Carnival of Snackery: Diaries (2003-2020) ” (2021). In 2005, he edited an anthology of stories, “ Children Playing Before a Statue of Hercules .” Sedaris and his sister, Amy Sedaris, have collaborated under the name the Talent Family and have written several plays, including “Stump the Host”; “Stitches”; “One Woman Shoe,” which received an Obie Award; “Incident at Cobbler’s Knob”; and “The Book of Liz,” which was published in book form by the Dramatists Play Service. His latest book, “ Happy-Go-Lucky ,” was published in 2022.

Sedaris made his comic début on NPR’s “Morning Edition,” in 1992, reading his essay “Santaland Diaries.” His original radio pieces can be heard on the show “This American Life” and on BBC Radio 4’s “Meet David Sedaris.” In 2001, he was named Humorist of the Year by Time . He is the recipient of the Thurber Prize for American Humor, the Jonathan Swift International Literature Prize for Satire and Humor, and the Terry Southern Prize for Humor, and has been nominated for five Grammy Awards in the Best Spoken Word Album and Best Comedy Album categories. In 2019, he was inducted into the American Academy of Arts and Letters.

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13 Best David Sedaris Books To Brighten Your Day

Discover your next favorite read with our countdown of the 13 best David Sedaris books. Immerse yourself in his wit and piercing observations!

We have selected 13 of the best David Sedaris books, which are a testament to his unique writing style, characterized by sharp humor, self-deprecation, and perceptive social commentary.

David Sedaris is a beloved American humorist known for the “whiny voice” he uses to deliver funny stories and recite personal essays, most of which are from his diary entries since 1977. 

He was born in New York but grew up in Raleigh, North Carolina. His sister, Amy Sedaris, is also a humorist. They write and work together under the name “ Talent Family .” Sedaris’ big break happened in 1992 after National Public Radio (NPR)   broadcast his essay The SantaLand Diaries .

In 1994, Sedaris published his first book, Barrel Fever. It’s a collection of obnoxious short stories and personal essays. In 2011, he became a radio contributor on BBC Radio 4 and NPR , which broadcast audiobook versions of his works. Readers can also see his short stories and essays regularly in Harper’s , The New Yorker , and Esquire .

Sedaris is now a five-time Grammy nominee and a five-time New York Times bestseller with over ten million books in print. When asked what makes him write a diary, Sedaris replied , “ I would write to people, but they couldn’t write me back. That was frustrating, so I just started writing for myself. ”

Be like David Sedaris, and keep a diary! Read our article on how to write a journal to help you get started.

1. Happy-Go-Lucky

3. the best of me, 4. dress your family in corduroy and denim, 6. me talk pretty one day, 7. when you are engulfed in flames, 8. holidays on ice, 9. let’s explore diabetes with owls, 10. theft by finding: diaries, 11. barrel fever, 12. squirrel seeks chipmunk: a modest bestiary, 13. a carnival of snackery: diaries, best david sedaris books ranked.

Happy-Go-Lucky is a new book by Seradis containing life stories starring himself, his father, his sister, and his partner, Hugh. It centers around the cosmic injustice of the 2019 pandemic. This New York Times bestseller and Amazon Editor’s Pick has 18 essays with different forms, styles, and main topics.

It opens with Sedaris recounting how he learned to use a gun with his sister, Liza. Later, he mulls over gun culture and freedom in America. The book has stories of Sedaris confronting Lou (his father) for being selfish, Lou’s apology, and Sedaris forgiving him. It also includes the mundane things he did during the pandemic, like cleaning and taking long walks.

It’s a book that showcases humanity’s confusion and acclimatization during the new normal. It’s an engaging collection brimming with Sedaris’ signature astuteness and humor.

“My sister is not dating anyone — a good thing, as she’s got way too much time on her hands. And that, I think, is the number one reason so many relationships fail. Too much free time, and too much time together.” David Sedaris , Happy-Go-Lucky

Compared to his other works, his 10th collection, Calypso , is Sedaris’ darkest. The Guardian described it perfectly, “For all its warmth and wit, Calypso is a rawer, jaggeder, sadder book than its predecessors.”

In this book, Sedaris prioritizes thinking about the present instead of looking back at his past. He reflects on aging, middle-age crisis, alcoholism, and thoughts on mortality and mental disorders.

Unlike the other books in this list, Calypso tackles very dark topics that can make readers uncomfortable. However, you’ll be amazed that the humor remains intact despite each topic’s depth. Sedaris made honest observations, successfully transforming his discoveries into a binge-read-worthy tale.

“Happiness is harder to put into words. It’s also harder to source, much more mysterious than anger or sorrow, which come to me promptly, whenever I summon them, and remain long after I’ve begged them to leave.” David Sedaris , Calypso

The Best of Me is a compilation of the funniest, most memorable, and greatest hits of David Sedaris. This Amazon bestseller book features over 40 short stories and essays , including the fictional tales Glen’s Homophobia Newsletter Vol.3, No.2 , and Girl Crazy .

Some of the noteworthy essays in the book are Me Talk Pretty One Day and Six to Eight Black Men. The book is not just humorous, as Sedaris’ essays often tackle tough topics, making it a thought-provoking collection.

“If something is written in your native language and it’s taking you half a year to get through it, unless you’re being paid by the hour to read it, I’d say there’s a problem.” David Sedaris , The Best of Me

Dress Your Family in Corduroy and Denim showcases Sedaris’ relationship with his family, his childhood in Raleigh, North Carolina, his life in France, and more. It’s a New York Times bestseller about Sedaris’ early, trite life, primarily focusing on his family. 

Despite the rollercoaster ride of an upbringing, Sedaris shows his family loves him. It’s an entertaining and inspiring read that’ll make you think of your family. How Sedaris highlights family’s importance and discusses the pitfalls of following social convention illustrates his deep understanding of family dynamics.

“The fake slap invariably makes contact, adding the elements of shock and betrayal to what had previously been plain old-fashioned fear.” David Sedaris , Dress Your Family in Corduroy and Denim

Sedaris’ first published book, Naked , started with his childhood in Raleigh, North Carolina. It concentrates on the author’s youth, his aimless wondering recorded via 17 essays. Naked features Sedaris’ self-deprecating humor, witty dialogues, and obnoxious characters.

Before its official release as a book, Sedaris read several essays from Naked in the NPR program This American Life . This 1997 novel earned the 1998 Randy Shilts Award for Gay Nonfiction . It was also the first Sedaris book turned into a film (C.O.G. ) that won the 2013 Seattle International Film Festival.

“I haven’t the slightest idea how to change people, but still I keep a long list of prospective candidates just in case I should ever figure it out.” David Sedaris , Naked

Me Talk Pretty One Day is a two-section collection of Sedaris’ nonfiction essays. The book is full of gems from the author’s life experiences but mainly focuses on Sedaris’ relocation to France. It includes his struggles and attempts to learn to translate English into French.

The book is an amusing read that reminds us there’s still something to laugh at, even when life is at its most challenging. Through the book, Sedaris shares his experiences adjusting to a new culture. Despite all the “new things,” he never forgets to be his real self.

“At the end of a miserable day, instead of grieving my virtual nothing, I can always look at my loaded wastepaper basket and tell myself that if I failed, at least I took a few trees down with me.” David Sedaris , Me Talk Pretty One Day

The New York Times bestseller When You Are Engulfed in Flames is a collection of nonfiction essays that humorously tackle various parts of Sedaris’s life. Expect to be charmed by the writer’s eccentricity and absurdity as you read about Sedaris’ honest (perhaps too honest) recounting of his escapades and revelations.

Sedaris isn’t afraid to use vulgar language and discuss adult subjects in When You Are Engulfed in Flames . It’s an uplifting, liberating read with just enough humor.

“Sometimes the sins you haven’t committed are all you have left to hold onto.” David Sedaris , When You Are Engulfed in Flames

After Santaland Diaries , David Sedaris published another Christmas-themed book, Holidays on Ice . It’s an author’s memoir of the days when he still worked as a Macy’s elf. It also includes the long history of two competitive families. Plus, the anecdotes and exaggerated stories in the compilation are random, adding to their hilarity and appeal.

Don’t worry if it’s not yet the season for Christmas stories — Holidays on Ice isn’t just for the holidays.

“Standing in a two-hour line makes people worry that they’re not living in a democratic nation.” David Sedaris , Holidays on Ice

Let’s Explore Diabetes With Owls debuted #1 in the New York Times hardcover nonfiction bestsellers category when it was published in 2013. The newspaper’s review described it as an “ oddball travelogue that is all detours ” with Sedaris’ usual humorous essays and fictional satiric stories.

Sedaris’ collections often have intersecting subjects, such as family and personal growth. His writing often makes readers nostalgic as they make comparisons with their own lives. He has a talent for making shared experiences humorous and memorable, making readers feel like they’re reading their own diary. This book includes essays for acting students who use his works in competitive monologues.

“As a child I assumed that when I reached adulthood, I would have grown-up thoughts.” David Sedaris , Let’s Explore Diabetes With Owls

For over 40 years, David Sedaris kept a diary containing his observations about the world around him. This includes overheard comments, gossip, drama, movie plot twists, and secrets. These observations sharpened Sedaris’ wit, paving the way for his bestselling books.

Theft by Finding: Diaries is an open invitation to Sedaris’ mind — the wise, the hilarious, even the frightening. The book also offers journaling tips the humorist followed throughout his career. NPR, AV Club, and Barnes & Noble lauded the book as the best of 2017 .

“That’s the thing with a diary, though. In order to record your life, you sort of need to live it. Not at your desk, but beyond it. Out in the world where it’s so beautiful and complex and painful that sometimes you just need to sit down and write about it.” David Sedaris , Theft by Finding: Diaries

Barrel Fever is a two-section collection of essays and 12 fictional short stories. The book includes Sedaris’ breakthrough essay, SantaLand Diaries , a humorous piece of the author’s time working as a Christmas elf at a department store. After its first radio broadcast, it became so famous that it was adapted into a one-act play .

As this is Sedaris’ first-ever collection, it contains a few memoirs of the humorist. The stories here are more gritty and disturbing but nevertheless hilarious. Readers who want to see Sedaris’ growth as an author should check out Barrel Fever and discover how the man started his journey to becoming an excellent essayist.

“If you’re looking for sympathy you’ll find it between shit and syphilis in the dictionary.” David Sedaris , Barrel Fever

Sedaris surprised his readers when he published Squirrel Seeks Chipmunk. Inspired by South African mythology, he created his first-ever compilation of animal-themed short fiction with situations mirroring the insanity of humans’ everyday lives. It explores uncomfortable topics, such as grief, neglect, and racism.

This collection has no blatant moral lessons, but readers can draw out their own realizations, inspiring self-reflection. At times, you’ll catch yourself doing exactly what the book expects you to do, whether judging a character based on limited information or dismissing something based on a one-sided story.

“But all of a sudden they’re poets, right, like that’s all it takes — being in love.” David Sedaris , Squirrel Seeks Chipmunk: A Modest Bestiary Squirrel Seeks Chipmunk: A Modest Bestiary $9.99 Buy Now We earn a commission if you make a purchase, at no additional cost to you. 02/18/2024 02:36 am GMT

Life goes on, but for Sedaris, his day should only end after he takes down notes in his journal. 

A Carnival of Snackery sounds like a novel, but it’s another diary. Like his 2017 book, Theft by Finding: Diaries, it features Sedaris’ observations. This time, it’s about the weird things he notices when looking through more mature lenses. It’s more “adult” than his other works, with shocking dark humor that others may find offensive. 

“Sometimes things happen and I don’t know what to do with my face.” David Sedaris , A Carnival of Snackery

Are you searching for more humorous writers? See our list of the best satire authors !

10 Best David Sedaris Books (2024)

David Sedaris, full name being David Raymond Sedaris, was born on the 26th of December, 1956, in Johnson, New York. David was the second of 6 children, parents being Sharon and Lou Sedaris. It was because of the father’s profession that they moved to North Carolina. As such, David’s childhood was spent in New York and North Carolina.

He attended the Western Californian University, and then Kent State University, but by the time that 1977 rolled up, David had left school with the intention to hitchhike across the country. David graduated from art school in 1987. Attention from the public was received after he began giving readings from his own intimate diaries. He was in an acclaimed appearance on NPR in 1992.

Best David Sedaris Books

With time, Sedaris became the bestselling author that we love him today for. He garnered a devoted fanbase for the humorous, slapstick recollections of his own early years, his experiences in foreign countries, etc.

Sedaris received the award named The Thurber Prize for American Humor in 2001, and was named as Humorist of the Year by Time magazine. Three Grammy nominations are attributed to Sedaris’ name for the audio version of his books, and he was awarded an honorary doctorate in 2008 by Binghamton University, New York.

Dress Your Family in Corduroy and Denim

The trademark self-deprecation, humorous wit and odd antics are ever-present in the 2004-published collection of essays by Sedaris. There are, in total, 22 essays in this particular collection. The book is a lightweight one with only some 270 pages. Still it is brimming with the casual humor and eccentricity present in Sedaris’ writing.

The deadpan humor isn’t one that a lot of humorists can pull off, in fact, it’s not even one that is pulled off by many. David Sedaris, however, isn’t just anyone, and he has mastered the art while maintaining a reasonable approach to the situations that have arisen with his friends, family and neighbors.

Humor from the Past

As always most of the humor is from the youth of Sedaris and his experiences with, for example, neighbors that didn’t own a TV. He refers to them as ignorant and lonely people while, in the same vein, ignorantly, going trick or treating on the 1st of November. Not in lack are incidents from recent times, of course. Antics with his sister are present and always worthy of a heartful guffaw and chuckle.

The singular absurdity that Sedaris features in his books is probably what makes them so enjoyable. Of course, the endearing writing, deadpan humor and general wit also contribute a great deal to the loveable air that spreads so nicely. One of David Sedaris’ best books, and this cannot be refuted.

Breakthrough

NPR commentator, essayist, playwright and brilliantly funny author David Sedaris found the fame that he was searching for after publishing Naked in March of 1997. As most of Sedaris’ books are, this is a collection of essays of autobiographical nature.

Naked does an understandably great job at making the reader fall in love with the continuous fun prose and comedic situations featured through the essays. For instance, as a younger person Sedaris used to have nervous tics that would come up at irregular periods.

These tics, however, stopped coming up once Sedaris started pulling a cigarette close to his mouth and smoking. He notes that smoking is a more acceptable convention socially than a cry from out of the blue is.

He details several short outings, like speaking in perfect Shakespearean English while volunteering at a mental hospital, or modification in the meaning of the phrase ‘ho, ho, ho, Merry Christmas’ found after his sister brought home a friend. This friend had a side-gig as a prostitute.

Hilarious Misery

The funniest situations arise primarily from a wanton misery that Sedaris so deftly utilizes. He’d once shoplifted aided by a wheelchair-bound girl that had neuro-degenerative issues, and then proceeded to hitchhike with the same person. This wonderfully written, unhindered by social conventions book by Sedaris is among his best, and we’d go so far as to say that it is the best book of David Sedaris.

When You Are Engulfed in Flames

When You Are Engulfed in Flames is a 2008 release by master humorist David Sedaris. This collection, like the previous one, consists of 22 essays. Sedaris can make you feel like someone is tickling you. There’s always a hysterical laugh leaving your lungs, though you don’t want to laugh – most probably from the subject-matter –, but you can’t help it, the air you feel as you gasp feels so dear because the fit of laughter is fatiguing your body, but your mind still finds funny whatever is thrown at you.

Black comedy is so intrinsic a part of Sedaris’ humor that you can’t really imagine either alone after you’ve devoured a Sedaris paperback. There are brooding, brutal essays that, at their heart, ridicule the faculty and idea of ageing. There is, at one point, an autopsy that Sedaris can’t help but just make it a laughing fest.

Expatriate Life

A bunch of the essays center around the expatriate life of Sedaris after he’d moved to France, Japan and England. They hold keen, insightful tidbits about how life actually is for someone leaving his home country, but even more so there are slapstick funny situations for anyone’s taste.

Even while some books might fall into their own pit of irony, When You Are Engulfed in Flames delivers a giggling blow to the stomach as one of the best David Sedaris books, to date.

Me Talk Pretty One Day

Specific humor.

Sedaris begins with giving an outlook and a few gems from his peculiar, harmless childhood period. We have Lou Sedaris being invited and propositioned, by way of a phone, from a family friend named Mrs. Midland. The Mrs. speaks how nice it is to talk to a person that genuinely understands her.

However, as time passes, a number of years later it is revealed that the innocuous Mrs. Midland was actually David’s sister, Amy. Thankfully, Lou never took up the offers. The mother isn’t safe from the pranks either, as after her cat is put to sleep due to an illness – leukemia –, she receives reports about the discovery of a brand-new cure for feline leukemia. The reports, of course, were made by the children.

Damn French!

In a singularly funny outing, Sedaris details his own attempts at learning the French language. He’d moved to Paris, enrolled in a French class, but he cannot make sense of the language , especially with assigning a gender to inanimate objects – the le and la in the French language.

It so happened that a fellow teacher associated having Sedaris in his class to a continuous, unending caesarean section. Endlessly fun, sardonic to points of teary-eyedness, Sedaris’ Me Talk Pretty One Day is a brilliant book, deserving of the attention it has received. We cannot recommend it enough.

Happy-Go-Lucky

Coping mechanisms.

Known as the “champion storyteller”, David Sedaris has a new book out, filled with a collection of personal essays. The book starts with the story of Sedaris learning to shoot guns with his sister, his visits to flea markets in Serbia, telling his elderly father wheelchair jokes, and buying gummy worms to feed ants.

When the pandemic hits, Sedaris was stuck in lockdown, just like the rest of us. He couldn’t tour or read to audiences, which for him was difficult as it is the part of his work that he cherishes the most. So, Sedaris had to find ways to cope, and he decided to go for mile-long walks through the city. He vacuumed his apartment twice a day and he pondered on how sex workers were getting by during lockdown.

Our New Reality

With the world finally settling into a new reality, Sedaris found that he has changed, venturing into the world with a newfound confidence (the kind you get from fixing your teeth – if you know, you know). Sedaris reflects on what it means to no longer be someone’s son, having lost both his parents.

But what Sedaris does better than the rest, is share his hilarious and poignant take on these recent upheavals in society , looking at not only the public, but himself as well. Even now on the other side of the pandemic, the world has been permanently changed. Who better to write about it than the great David Sedaris? It really feels like the man is in the business of improving lives.

A Carnival of Snackery

Here we have one of David Sedaris’ latest books, and it won quite a few awards. It is, as is clear from the title, a diary. And I just have to preface this review by saying that there is no correct way to write a diary, it is something personal to each individual. But when it comes to writing a diary in the most entertaining of ways? Well, David Sedaris is your man.

In this diary, Sedaris looks outwards, observing the people around him. He sees two men on a bus get into a fight, and two men in the street get into a fight. He sees pedestrians getting smacked over the head, or masses gathering to watch as someone considers jumping to their death.

Life Goes On

Don’t worry, it’s not all just violence in this book. There are also dirty jokes shared at book signings and plenty of laughs at dinner parties. You will be reminded that you used to hate George W. Bush, and also how there was a time when Donald Trump was merely a harmless joke. Life goes on around him, and Sedaris takes note of it all.

What you will find reflected in this diary is the ever-changing background of the world we live in. It has the bitter and the sweet side of things – some are exactly what you want to read, and others you will want to spit out in disgust. One thing I can guarantee is that you will laugh – a lot. I thoroughly enjoyed this book from David Sedaris and highly recommend it to everyone to add to their reading list!

Beach House

This deeply personal and darkly hilarious book is a bit different from what I had come to expect from David Sedaris. If you are familiar with his work, you will read this book and understand what I mean. You will certainly be laughing, but it won’t always be in a cheerful manner.

Sedaris shares how he decided to buy a beach house on the coast of Carolina, envisioning long vacations spent there playing board games and relaxing in the sun, surrounded by the people he loves. He even gave the house a name, the “Sea Section”. Life is as idyllic there as you can imagine. But Sedaris has one dark and shocking revelation: taking a vacation from yourself is impossible.

The Middle Of Your Life Story

In ‘Calypso’, Sedaris turns his focus on being middle aged and his thoughts on mortality. The stories are very funny (as we’d expect from this author), but it is comedy born out of that moment when you start to realize that your life story consists of the past more than the future.

The amount of laughter and shock moments in this book are unparalleled and I truly had moments where I was crying with laughter. Sedaris has sharp powers of observation, this we already know, but I think this might be his best work yet. If you’re about to go lie on a beach, take this book with you, especially if you cannot be bothered with small talk.

SantaLand Diaries

Listen closely.

This book has six of David Sedaris’ best and most profound Christmas short stories. It is important to remember that Sedaris has a very acquired sense of humor , so do not be shocked when you come across the titles of some of these short stories. Again, it is a blend of entertaining stories and observations of people and life.

I love reading books but every now and then I enjoy listening to audio books as well. After reading the reviews for this David Sedaris book, I felt that the best approach would be to listen to it – and I am so glad that I did! Sedaris reads the stories himself and his voice just adds onto the already hilarious anecdotes.

Holiday Spirit

Sedaris shares the story about the time he worked at Macy’s as an elf, and that one was probably my favorite (it was certainly the darkest). I also really enjoyed ‘Dinah, the Christmas Whore’, which was as outrageous as the title suggests. Another good one is ‘Christmas is for Giving’, which is a take on the whole “keeping up with the Joneses”.

Overall, this is a fairly quick read and one that I thoroughly enjoyed. I laughed out loud more than once, and even if you’re someone who doesn’t like the holidays, this book may just be the thing to get you into the holiday spirit. It’s a great pick me up and one that you will be sorry to pass on!

Holidays on Ice

Honorable mentions.

Here we have a novel from David Sedaris that consists of a collection of some of his best short stories. This beloved holiday collection was released in 1997, but it never really gets old. The republished version has six new short stories and a story that has never been published before.

The stories range from the diary of a Macy’s elf to the long history of two competitive families. My personal favorite story is ‘Let It Snow’, which is about what to do if you are ever locked out in a snowstorm. Some other honorable mentions are ‘Jesus Shaves’, about the difficulties explaining who the Easter Bunny is to the French, and what Halloween looks like for a medical examiner in ‘The Monster Mash’.

Are You Not Entertained?

There are so many great stories in this book, ones that puzzle over the Christmas traditions of other nations, and ones that follow a secret barnyard Santa Scheme. Some of these stories will likely be the weirdest things you have ever read, but I guarantee you will be entertained and have plenty of laughs along the way.

This book isn’t just telling stories, as it has Sedaris doing what he is best known for, and that is observing what life is like around the holidays. Even though the stories are funny, they still have little anecdotes for you to sit on. This is the perfect book to get you into the spirit of Christmas, or even to get as a Christmas gift!

Let’s Explore Diabetes with Owls

Not as consistent.

Released in 2013, Let’s Explore Diabetes with Owls is yet another essay collection by wonderful humorist Sedaris. It has been, though not often, criticized as a not-so-consistent outing for Sedaris. It seems that Sedaris no longer has a penchant for making people laugh inexorably or an inordinate period of time as he did when he first got people to follow and love his essays.

Sedaris finds himself repeating himself, though there is freshness in his writing and that is undeniable. He mentions his expatriate life, eccentric, dysfunctional family, himself having been in the closet for a large part of his youth.

Heartfelt and Touching

Something that is noticeable is that there isn’t much of the trademark zest that Sedaris has with, for example, Naked, but more so a melancholic overview of his life and the incidents that have marked his rise to fame. That’s not to say that the book is unfunny. Quite the contrary, a piece named The Happy Place features one of the funniest essays that Sedaris has ever written.

There’s the wonderful undermining, contrarianism that Sedaris can make levitate above the empty conventionalism of some of his peers. However, if a reader is interested in the humor of Sedaris, this book mightn’t be the best to look up. On the other hand, if a more heartfelt, touching retelling is what the seeker has his eye on, look no further than Let’s Explore Diabetes with Owls. In this vein, it is Sedaris’ best book, though it consists prominently of material that some readers aren’t as used to by Sedaris.

Michael Englert

Michael is a graduate of cultural studies and history. He enjoys a good bottle of wine and (surprise, surprise) reading. As a small-town librarian, he is currently relishing the silence and peaceful atmosphere that is prevailing.