I surely would’ve read this sooner, had I realized that it was out! David Sedaris remains my all time favorite humorist. His writing and prose is witty with a cynical gaze that points out the crazy social world we live in. No one is safe from his analysis, not even himself or his family who are often the subjects of his essays and stories.
Yet, while Sedaris may hate some words with a passion (awesome), he is a kind person and he weaves within the stories an element of goodness and love that is refreshing. This collection of stories is another fantastic addition to his body of work. Happy-Go-Lucky deals largely with the years preceding and during the covid pandemic and in many ways is a tribute to the passing of his father who was often the center point of many essays because of his uniquely abrasive character.
Happy-Go-Lucky is about loosing a parent who has a complex heritage to leave behind. How does one both celebrate and grieve for someone who was so important and in juxtaposition harmful for one’s life. Sedaris with his witty prose and cast of fantastic sibling characters, masterfully describes a dichotomy that happens to so many of us as aging parents or grandparents pass and we are left with memories that are complex.
Often the process of grieving a death is masked in ceremony until the unique aspects of that person are lost behind a shroud of ambiguity. A few years ago, also during the pandemic that Sedaris writes about, I found myself playing saxophone at the funeral of my mother’s parents, who had died the preceding year.
A full six months after the death of my grandmother, we were convening to celebrate them both, but the funeral was an odd tribute to a past that most of us there did not recognize. Grandpa was given a 21 gun salute for being station in post war Germany. The military was a very small part of his life, but here it was at his funeral. Likewise, a pastor did a full service, which was also odd, for my grandparent hadn’t been to their church in decades. People came and talked about Louie, but I was surprised how little was said about my Grandmother. The whole surreal (another word Sedaris hates) experience was a tribute for strangers that I had never known. Finally, when the minister asked if anyone had anything else to say. I stood up, and told an anecdote about my Grandfather, because everything I was seeing was so pageantry and false to his complex memory.
“You’ve all seen me play the saxophone today, but years ago when I was learning to play, I brought my then alto sax to Grandpa’s house to practice. I was working on a lower note in the horn, and Louie asked me which note it was. ‘B flat’ he exclaimed, ‘I can do that note too!’ He then farted loudly.”
The crowd laughed, but all I heard in that moment was his laughter. I can still hear it today. He teased mercilessly and laughed with passion at his own jokes. As a child, I was likely annoyed at his quip, but as an adult… It’s nice the way that story still rings in my head with his laughter; a sound that left the world years ago.
People are complex. Death and Legacy is complex. I love David Sedaris novels for the honesty in which he scrutinizes his own life, because it becomes so relatable. I have never read a Sedaris collection and not had some part of it hit me in a way that is meaningful and introspective. In this case as he wove the unique tapestry of his father in a collection of humorous stories, I couldn’t help but think and process my own grandparents. Isn’t that why we read. Stories come alive and reach out to graze our souls leaving us a little better and perhaps a little more whole.
Calypso remains my favorite collection, but Naked, When You Are Engulfed in Flames, Me Talk Pretty One Day, and now this collection are all fantastic reads, and I cannot recommend them or him highly enough.
~Caleb
p.s. Sedaris is one of those authors who has made a living off of his audio, so listening to his books is an incredibly enjoyable experience too!
Literary Reflections 