Very enjoyable! His insights just keep coming. ( )

Definitely a bit sad because of his dad (both in life and dying) and COVID, but a lot of great stuff. Not one of his best perhaps, but absorbing and very funny at times. ( )

I certainly didn't expect this to be the happier follow-up to [b:Calypso|38348476|Calypso|David Sedaris|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1624745123l/38348476._SY75_.jpg|57338398], which was almost devastatingly melancholy. In retrospect, it makes sense that a book about the death of a father, with whom Sedaris clearly had a more challenged relationship would be more matter-of-fact than one about the death of his dearly beloved mother.

But in any case, Sedaris seems to have reached a new plane of happiness, being both as funny as ever, and also past a lot of the smaller concerns of his previous essays. It feels weird that a book that is mostly explicitly about what is likely to be the two hardest years of most peoples' lives, is also a feel-good story in its overall arc, but whereas aforementioned Calypso left me feeling more sad than happy, this feels like an endorsement of hope, which isn't something I expected to gain from a Sedaris book. ( )

At this point most people know whether they like Sedaris’ work or not. For me, I will always listen to it on audio and it will always make me laugh uncontrollably. There are also obviously things he writes that make me cringe. This particular collection is full of reflections on living in a pandemic, the complicated emotions that come from losing his father, and musings about growing older. It’s slightly more maudlin, but still full of hilarity. ( )

funny and sad and strange .COVID quarantine, his father's decline and death, other essays