Happy-Go-Lucky
David Sedaris
(Author)
Description
David Sedaris, the "champion storyteller," (Los Angeles Times) returns with his first new collection of personal essays since the bestselling Calypso
Back when restaurant menus were still printed on paper, and wearing a mask--or not--was a decision made mostly on Halloween, David Sedaris spent his time doing normal things. As Happy-Go-Lucky opens, he is learning to shoot guns with his sister, visiting muddy flea markets in Serbia, buying gummy worms to feed to ants, and telling his nonagenarian father wheelchair jokes. But then the pandemic hits, and like so many others, he's stuck in lockdown, unable to tour and read for audiences, the part of his work he loves most. To cope, he walks for miles through a nearly deserted city, smelling only his own breath. He vacuums his apartment twice a day, fails to hoard anything, and contemplates how sex workers and acupuncturists might be getting by during quarantine. As the world gradually settles into a new reality, Sedaris too finds himself changed. His offer to fix a stranger's teeth rebuffed, he straightens his own, and ventures into the world with new confidence. Newly orphaned, he considers what it means, in his seventh decade, no longer to be someone's son. And back on the road, he discovers a battle-scarred America: people weary, storefronts empty or festooned with Help Wanted signs, walls painted with graffiti reflecting the contradictory messages of our time: Eat the Rich. Trump 2024. Black Lives Matter. In Happy-Go-Lucky, David Sedaris once again captures what is most unexpected, hilarious, and poignant about these recent upheavals, personal and public, and expresses in precise language both the misanthropy and desire for connection that drive us all. If we must live in interesting times, there is no one better to chronicle them than the incomparable David Sedaris.Product Details
Price
$29.00
$26.97
Publisher
Little Brown and Company
Publish Date
May 31, 2022
Pages
272
Dimensions
5.8 X 8.2 X 1.2 inches | 0.85 pounds
Language
English
Type
Hardcover
EAN/UPC
9780316392457
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About the Author
David Sedaris is the author of twelve previous books, including, most recently, A Carnival of Snackery, The Best of Me, and Calypso. He is a regular contributor to The New Yorker and BBC Radio 4. In 2019, he was inducted into the American Academy of Arts and Letters. He is the recipient of the Thurber Prize for American Humor, the Jonathan Swift International Literature Prize for Satire and Humor, and the Terry Southern Prize for Humor.
Reviews
Praise for Happy-Go-Lucky: "Sublimely funny... Sedaris is back, doing the thing his readers have come to adore: offering up wry, moving, punchy stories about his oddball family... The pieces range widely, following the path of Sedaris's travels and his eccentric mind, but a through line involves his nonagenarian father... This is one of the more complicated relationships of Sedaris's life, and he is unflinching as he tries to understand who his enigmatic father was, and how living with him altered the shape of his own existence."--Gal Beckerman, The Atlantic
"Sedaris, a perennial contrarian, has entered into a comfortable late-middle age that could sink a less determined writer... Happily for Sedaris's fans, it will take more than prosperity to mellow him out: His trademark black humor and puckish misanthropy remain."--James Tarmy, Bloomberg
"Sedaris' signature wit has always thrived on the macabre, so perhaps it should come as no surprise that Happy-Go-Lucky is some of his darkest--and most astute--writing yet... No topic is out of bounds for Sedaris' acerbic humor and sharp observations."--Time
"Happy-Go-Lucky is like a reminder of an old friend who can still make you laugh out loud, but with a poignance now."--Christopher Borrelli, Chicago Tribune
"A sweet-and-sour set of pieces on loss, absurdity, and places they intersect... Sedaris remains stubbornly irreverent even in the face of pandemic lockdowns and social upheaval."--Kirkus Reviews
"The older Sedaris gets, the funnier he gets--if you don't mind your laugh out loud humor tempered with self-knowledge and compassion."--Bethanne Patrick, Los Angeles Times
"Sedaris's many fans will be filling up reserve lists for a fresh infusion of his unique candor and comedy... though his tone is more poignant than pointed, the essential Sedaris humor reassuringly endures. Amid the barbed quips, there is genuine sorrow, an empathy born of arduous experience."--Carol Haggas, Booklist (starred review)
Praise for David Sedaris:
?
"Sedaris has such a gift for illuminating small things... His essays exist for a reason--namely, to describe and preserve his family. His family is the deciding factor that makes him a warm and funny writer to the core."--Liana Finck, New York Times Book Review
"David Sedaris is a singularly talented humorist who lands acerbic zingers with the calculating precision of a kamikaze pilot... He's maintained league-of-his-own status by staying light on his feet: Just when you're expecting a wry jab, he clocks you with a poignant gut punch."--Rachel Rosenblit, Washington Post
"Sedaris is a fun, wickedly funny companion. But for all his playful irreverence and potty humor, he also brings a sharp moral eye to his subjects...He illuminates the manifold wonders (and weirdness) of everyday life."--Cornelia Channing, Vulture
"Sedaris, a perennial contrarian, has entered into a comfortable late-middle age that could sink a less determined writer... Happily for Sedaris's fans, it will take more than prosperity to mellow him out: His trademark black humor and puckish misanthropy remain."--James Tarmy, Bloomberg
"Sedaris' signature wit has always thrived on the macabre, so perhaps it should come as no surprise that Happy-Go-Lucky is some of his darkest--and most astute--writing yet... No topic is out of bounds for Sedaris' acerbic humor and sharp observations."--Time
"Happy-Go-Lucky is like a reminder of an old friend who can still make you laugh out loud, but with a poignance now."--Christopher Borrelli, Chicago Tribune
"A sweet-and-sour set of pieces on loss, absurdity, and places they intersect... Sedaris remains stubbornly irreverent even in the face of pandemic lockdowns and social upheaval."--Kirkus Reviews
"The older Sedaris gets, the funnier he gets--if you don't mind your laugh out loud humor tempered with self-knowledge and compassion."--Bethanne Patrick, Los Angeles Times
"Sedaris's many fans will be filling up reserve lists for a fresh infusion of his unique candor and comedy... though his tone is more poignant than pointed, the essential Sedaris humor reassuringly endures. Amid the barbed quips, there is genuine sorrow, an empathy born of arduous experience."--Carol Haggas, Booklist (starred review)
Praise for David Sedaris:
?
"Sedaris has such a gift for illuminating small things... His essays exist for a reason--namely, to describe and preserve his family. His family is the deciding factor that makes him a warm and funny writer to the core."--Liana Finck, New York Times Book Review
"David Sedaris is a singularly talented humorist who lands acerbic zingers with the calculating precision of a kamikaze pilot... He's maintained league-of-his-own status by staying light on his feet: Just when you're expecting a wry jab, he clocks you with a poignant gut punch."--Rachel Rosenblit, Washington Post
"Sedaris is a fun, wickedly funny companion. But for all his playful irreverence and potty humor, he also brings a sharp moral eye to his subjects...He illuminates the manifold wonders (and weirdness) of everyday life."--Cornelia Channing, Vulture
