“An excellent introduction to Sedaris’ work if, somehow, you’re not among the millions who have made him a mainstay on bestseller lists and flocked to his ticketed readings. More than ever-we’re allowed to laugh.”- Andrew Sean Greer, New York Times Book Review It will be a new experience, knowing that enough time has passed to find humor in the hardest parts of life. And he means me… You must read The Best of Me. “The genius of The Best of Me is that it reveals the growth of a writer, a sense of how his outlook has changed and where he finds humor… The subject, in many of the pieces Sedaris has selected, is the judgment and pain we inflict on one another, and by ‘we’ Sedaris does not mean people in general. No experience, he sees, is quite as he expected-it’s often harder, more fraught, and certainly weirder-but sometimes it is also much richer and more wonderful.įull of joy, generosity, and the incisive humor that has led David Sedaris to be called “the funniest man alive” ( Time Out New York), The Best of Me spans a career spent watching and learning and laughing-quite often at himself-and invites readers deep into the world of one of the most brilliant and original writers of our time.

Taken together, the stories in The Best of Me reveal the wonder and delight Sedaris takes in the surprises life brings him. In these pages, Sedaris explores falling in love and staying together, recognizing his own aging not in the mirror but in the faces of his siblings, losing one parent and coming to terms-at long last-with the other.

Nowhere is this clearer than in his writing about his loved ones. He drowns a mouse in a bucket, struggles to say “give it to me” in five languages, and hand-feeds a carnivorous bird.īut if all you expect to find in Sedaris’s work is the deft and sharply observed comedy for which he became renowned, you may be surprised to discover that his words bring more warmth than mockery, more fellow-feeling than derision. In these stories, Sedaris shops for rare taxidermy, hitchhikes with a lady quadriplegic, and spits a lozenge into a fellow traveler’s lap. Now, for the first time collected in one volume, the author brings us his funniest and most memorable work. And it is almost impossible to read without laughing. It opens our eyes to what is at absurd and moving about our daily existence. A Sedaris story may seem confessional, but is also highly attuned to the world outside. “Genius… It is miraculous to read these pieces… You must read The Best of Me.” -Andrew Sean Greer, New York Times Book ReviewĪ New York Times Book Review Editors’ ChoiceĪ CNN and Christian Science Monitor Best Book of the Monthįor more than twenty-five years, David Sedaris has been carving out a unique literary space, virtually creating his own genre.

The best of me sedaris review