Scott Graham
The latest collection of easays by David Sedaris is a tasty flight of wines of a lesser vintage. Although expertly and perhaps flawlessly narrated by the author, the tales ran between droll and chuckle inducing, most leaning toward the former. My particular favorite was the poignant “Good Grief”, where the author recounts the dualistic grief of finding out about the death of a former best friend, and experiencing the loss of one once so close while re-experiencing the memory of the death of a close relationship of youth. The humor in the memory of the hijinks of the two friends is perhaps overahadowed by the schadenfreude Sedaris lets leak through in his description of the deceased as ultimately haviing lived a lesser life, and looking much older. Even though the author has been accused of gilding the lily in some of his essays, one can’t help but feel the humanity in the truth of that sentiment; as Gore Vidal has been supposed to have said, “It is not enough to succeed. Others muat fail.” That may perhaps be no more true than when you had a close friendship with the object of that comparison — a friendship that died ignominiously a long time ago. The other tales are all interesting, but this reader can’t help but feel that Mr Sedaris has already mined the best nuggets of golden memories from his life, and he is now offering us the silver ones.
The latest collection of easays by David Sedaris is a tasty flight of wines of a lesser vintage. Although expertly and perhaps flawlessly narrated by the author, the tales ran between droll and chuckle inducing, most leaning toward the former. My particular favorite was the poignant “Good Grief”, where the author recounts the dualistic grief of finding out about the death of a former best friend, and experiencing the loss of one once so close while re-experiencing the memory of the death of a close relationship of youth. The humor in the memory of the hijinks of the two friends is perhaps overahadowed by the schadenfreude Sedaris lets leak through in his description of the deceased as ultimately haviing lived a lesser life, and looking much older. Even though the author has been accused of gilding the lily in some of his essays, one can’t help but feel the humanity in the truth of that sentiment; as Gore Vidal has been supposed to have said, “It is not enough to succeed. Others muat fail.” That may perhaps be no more true than when you had a close friendship with the object of that comparison — a friendship that died ignominiously a long time ago. The other tales are all interesting, but this reader can’t help but feel that Mr Sedaris has already mined the best nuggets of golden memories from his life, and he is now offering us the silver ones.