David Sedaris’ work has always had a macabre edge. He’s mined the humor in taxidermy, museums of medical oddities and tales of unusual deaths throughout his 10 previous books and his hugely popular performances.
Death takes no holidays in his new collection of essays, “Happy-Go-Lucky.” Whether he’s writing about his experiences during the COVID pandemic or the slow decline of his fractious father, he’s whistling past the graveyard ― but still hilarious.
The pandemic turned Sedaris’ life upside down. Someone whose job, and joy, is telling stories in front of audiences can’t work from home. Not only did canceling more than a year of touring put a dent in his income, it left him feeling displaced from himself. “Without a live audience,” he writes, “that unwitting congregation of fail-safe editors — I’m lost.”
