Recent Reads

The Best of Me by David Sedaris

December, 2020

When asked by a NYTimes book reviewer, why did you choose these essays to include in your anthology, The Best of Me, Sedaris replied, “I chose the ones I liked, actually ones that I had read on tour, where I get the best feedback, watching my audience, and listening for the laugh, or applause.  I chose the ones I liked and my audience seemed to, as well.”

Sedaris is a romp, always delivers, and can be classified  as medicine, or an antidote to gloom, if a reader fears the wrong outcome of an election, an unmasked neighbor, or being coughed on by someone recently diagnosed with the virus COVID-19.

Amidst his observances of the last 25 years, he writes about his family, his stoic and staid partner Hugh, all of whom  often pop up in real life or in his memory at opportune times, in his essays (and also his readings) to illustrate his point.  One of my favorites, the last essay, “Unbuttoned,” ends with a look back, “To hear us in a gang like that, the wonder in our voices, the delight and energy, you’d almost think we were children.”