Mini Book Review/David Sedaris/Happy-Go-Lucky:
A book review in 500 words or less
Title: Happy-Go-Lucky/Author: David Sedaris/Copyright: 2022/Medium: Hardcover (263pp)/Genre: memoir/essay/humour
Purchased: Amazon.com (pre-order) because I was impatient. Linking instead to Bookshop.org.
Summary: Some people try to do the best they can until they die; others don’t and still die.
Short Review: I fucking loved it.
I’ve been obsessed with David Sedaris since I picked up his book at the SFO airport, When You Are Engulfed in Flames (copyright 2008).
Happy-Go-Lucky Sedaris is a mature Sedaris — a self-admitted luddite that survived the pandemic without the ability to test his material in a live audience, a practice that he had become reliant upon. I cheated and saw Sedaris live in Chicago early 2022 where he did test some of this books’ material; I cheated again reading some of the stories in The New Yorker.
Lo and behold, the compilation of 18 essays comes together quite nicely traversing a number of topics including the pandemic, gun violence, the death of Lou Sedaris (his father), dentistry, orthodontia, and of course, familial molestation.
The book as Big Death Energy. There is a sadness and a freedom that comes with the death of Lou Sedaris. The relationship with his father was historically strained not only with David but with other members of the family. One essay, Lady Marmalade, even talks frankly about the intersection of David’s late sister, Tiffany, and her alleged abuse against the formidable Lou. This is set against the background of many other essays that feature Lou as a somewhat helpless geriatric in an assisted living facility, and then eventually dead.
Despite the heavy tone, this book is very funny and outrageous and insightful, which has been at the core of every Sedaris book written to date.
What’s Next:
