I met David Sedaris through Ira Glass’ This American Life (if you don’t know what I’m talking about, do yourself a favour and look it up on iTunes Store or wherever you find your podcasts. It’s a journalism show and it’s totally worth your time). He’s funny and sincere in his contributions to the podcast, so when I saw his name on Rory Gilmore’s Reading Challenge, I was excited to get to him soon. Though life and uni have stopped me from reading it sooner.

He’s the same way in his writing: funny, acute and intelligent. In this book (a series of essays), he mostly talks about his own life: about the speech therapy he went to as a child (because of a lisp); his relationship with his father and the rest of the family, and so on. All of them feel very honest and sincere, showing his good humour. Not everyone is able to laugh at themselves in this way, and I find it admirable. I think my favorite essay out of the bunch was “Twelve Moments in the Life of the Artist” in which he talks about his beginnings as an artist, and realizing he wasn’t going to be Picasso. Maybe because I recognized that feeling, of knowing that I might never become Jane Austen or any of the authors I love and admire. I could relate to him, despite the many differences in our lives. Art is sort of universal in this way, don’t you think?

One of the things I liked most about this book, as I said before is how humorous can Sedaris be. It’s a very hard thing to laugh at one’s own issues and life in general. I enjoyed his ironic outlook on his life and how he is able to see the funny things in life, and the little crazy things people do and they don’t notice. And all of this, he is able to show it in a really dry and direct way.

It’s also good that the essays are relatively short (I read this in my Kindle, so I have no idea what this book looks like, but here it says that it is 272 pages, which is a pretty short book). You can read one of them in a sitting and then move on to something else. Though the book deals with pretty dense and grim situations and topics (family relations, being an expat, coming out, living with a partner), Sedaris keeps the tone light-hearted and funny, which doesn’t make it feel overwhelming. It could perfectly be very serious, but that may be the easy way to approach those topics. Sedaris does it quite differently, in his own and fantastic way. It’s a little like having a good friend talking to you directly, over some drinks. A fun and ironic friend, who jokes around the whole world.

I’d totally recommend this book. It’s short, nice, and easy to read. All of this make for the perfect book for reading during the holidays, when I did.