The Best of Me

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A personal ’90s music overview that is far from definitive, but nevertheless instructive and often poignant. I won’t get too much into the specifics of the stories themselves, but it’s a good mix of work from him. Having only read Calypso, the majority of what I’ve seen has been stories about his life, particularly as it relates to his family. So I was pleasantly surprised at the number of works of fiction that Sedaris has authored as well! Glen’s Homophobia Newsletter was utterly fantastic. And the fact that it was written in 1994 but somehow completely holds up speaks to the lasting-power of his writing skills. Book Genre: Autobiography, Biography, Biography Memoir, Comedy, Essays, Humor, LGBT, Memoir, Nonfiction, Short Stories, Writing His stories are ripe for reading aloud, which I took great pleasure in while on a romantic getaway with my husband. Often, I would be giggling so hard it was difficult for me to get the words out, which would then get my husband giggling, until we both roared with laughter at what I was reading. My husband isn’t a book lover like me, so the fact that he enjoyed these stories so much is a sure sign of how wonderful the the writing it. Although Sedaris’s collections of stories are meant as entertainment first and foremost, there’s enough seriousness to the points he’s trying to make that keep me interested. It’s not all funny because Sedaris has experienced some difficult things in his life, including the suicide of one of his sisters Tiffany, which he has written about often. In a particularly poignant moment, David’s father muses on Tiffany’s death: Genius… It is miraculous to read these pieces… You must read The Best of Me.”—Andrew Sean Greer, New York Times Book Review

Genius… It is miraculous to read these pieces… You must read The Best of Me.” —Andrew Sean Greer, New York Times Book Review Finally, towards the end of his life, Sedaris's nonagenarian father told him, "You've accomplished so many fantastic things in your life. You're well....I want to tell you....you....you won." David thought she had something in her mouth until he realized she was speaking in code. So David said, "Okay, but can you tell me WHICH hour ott?" When Sedaris was small his family moved to North Carolina, where young David heard that a neighboring family, the Tomkeys, had no television. David went to school with two of the Tomkey children, and he sometimes tried to view the world through their eyes. David observes that Paul once juiced "What I think was a tennis ball mixed with beets and four-leaf clovers."When gay marriage became legal in the United States, Sedaris's accountant advised him it would be financially advantageous if David and his partner Hugh got married. Sedaris writes, "While I often dreamed of making a life with another man, I never extended the fantasy to marriage....The whole thing felt like a step down to me. From the dawn of time, the one irrefutably good thing about gay men and lesbians was that we didn't force people to sit through our weddings." This book is the balm to a really raw and red year, but in the most atypical way. Like when Sedaris blandly hopes for the deaths of multiple children in his stories (largely fictional, calm down). It’s not the idea but the delivery that is so inherently funny. While listening to this you’ll just find yourself breaking down in obnoxious laughter at the most bizarre things, but unable to retell the joke without someone thinking you’re insane. I really can’t explain it any other way, but he succeeds so well at taking niche bits of darker humor and transforming them for consumption by a general audience, without losing any of the bite.

It’s a great interview and David sounds relaxed as he chats and answers thoughtful and fun questions. He mentions his father is 97 and doing fine. Thank goodness!One of the funniest—and truest—books in recent memory and a must-have for fans of the poet laureate of human foibles. What could be a more tempting Christmas gift than a compendium of David Sedaris's best stories, selected by the author himself? From a spectacular career spanning almost three decades, these stories have become modern classics and are now for the first time collected in one volume. He was standing beside the sofa, wearing a shirt I clearly remember throwing into his trash can in the summer of 1990, and enjoying a glass of vodka with a little water in it” (p. 343). Musicians release “Greatest Hits” compilations all the effing time. Why can’t an essayist do the same? Genius.... It is miraculous to read these pieces.... You must read The Best of Me .” (Andrew Sean Greer, New York Times Book Review )