You know, some people are complaining, "MAKE ME LAUGH, DAVID! DANCE, DAVID!" about this book. But David Sedaris has never been 100% funny 100% of the time, and that is on purpose. We need sobering moments to feel the cathartic relief of laughing at something ridiculous.

So, there are some hard subjects: the closeness of death and suicide, regret, dealing with grief, middle age marital struggles, having an alcoholic mother... But without that cold shock of reality, "Hey, you're a person, too!" would be a one-sided coin.