My introduction to David Sedaris happened in a surprising way. As I was putting together my first query letter to pitch an agent for my book, I inevitably ran into the “What is your book?” question. As an author, we’re asked to give an agent the gist of our book by comparing it to two others. For example, “This is Eat Pray Love meets Wild.”
After coming up short, I asked one of my editors. She sent me back this: Think of it as a Hispanic Me Talk Pretty One Day meets a less-hungover Wild.
Excited and curious, I went to my library to check out Me Talk Pretty One Day to discover why my editor drew a comparison between us. What I found will be the basis of my confidence as a writer for years to come. With every page I flipped, my ego grew ten times its size like the Grinch when he discovered Christmas. Am I this funny and reverent? Oh my, what a treat.
Funny AF
Sedaris’ wry style has a self reflective wit I could only ever aspire to. Seriously, some of his essays had me actually laugh out loud, a satisfying act I’ve lost touch with these days from typing LOL for any mildly funny joke. In my experience, we throw an LOL out there for anything so when we actually catch ourselves laughing, this acronym is insufficient… we must then upgrade to a LMAO or actually type out, “Wow.. I am actually LOL.” David Sedaris is LMAO meets, “Wow… I may have just peed myself. I should check.”
Wallflower Status
In this book, my introduction into his world and writing, I found myself drawing a ton of connections between his personality and adolescence. Both of us were painfully shy with a low opinion of ourselves, and keen observers of our environment. I’d like to think we have a similar sarcastic way of exposing our awareness of those experiences in our stories.
City Dweller moves to The South
I also found a parallel in our living situations. I just moved to North Carolina and he writes about moving here in his childhood. The state stars in many of his essays. His outsider-looking-in observations of The South hit close to home for me, also a native city person going through my own process of discovery here.
A child of faraway culture
If you have a family originally from somewhere else (his parents are Greek mine are Spanish and Cuban), I’ve found there’s a universal thread in that experience. I too always felt a bit other, though admittedly less so considering I grew up in Miami a place where being Hispanic was more normal than not. It was only in my later years in college when I moved that I would discover just how “other” I was to strangers. I’m still acclimating to that here in The South.
Our Family is Weird too
Sedaris will make you laugh as you see your own strange family in his. We all have weird families, I think. Our parents surely have quirks the likes of which drive us bananas but then suddenly turn into endearing qualities as we age. They may even show up in our own behaviors eventually, sneaking up on us like a chronic condition we never knew was there. It’s life’s sense of humor, and Sedaris captures that phenomenon effortlessly and funny as hell.
He hits on universal truths that we can all relate to and ultimately helps us organize our own stories while discovering someone else’s and how we all intersect.
Have you read anything by David Sedaris? Do you relate to his stories? Recommend any other titles?