Happy-Go-Lucky
(Libby/OverDrive eBook)

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Published
Little, Brown and Company , 2022.
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Checked Out

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Libby/OverDrive
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Description

David Sedaris, the “champion storyteller,” (Los Angeles Times) returns with his first new collection of personal essays since the bestselling Calypso

Back when restaurant menus were still printed on paper, and wearing a mask—or not—was a decision made mostly on Halloween, David Sedaris spent his time doing normal things. As Happy-Go-Lucky opens, he is learning to shoot guns with his sister, visiting muddy flea markets in Serbia, buying gummy worms to feed to ants, and telling his nonagenarian father wheelchair jokes.   But then the pandemic hits, and like so many others, he’s stuck in lockdown, unable to tour and read for audiences, the part of his work he loves most. To cope, he walks for miles through a nearly deserted city, smelling only his own breath. He vacuums his apartment twice a day, fails to hoard anything, and contemplates how sex workers and acupuncturists might be getting by during quarantine.   As the world gradually settles into a new reality, Sedaris too finds himself changed. His offer to fix a stranger’s teeth rebuffed, he straightens his own, and ventures into the world with new confidence. Newly orphaned, he considers what it means, in his seventh decade, no longer to be someone’s son. And back on the road, he discovers a battle-scarred America: people weary, storefronts empty or festooned with Help Wanted signs, walls painted with graffiti reflecting the contradictory messages of our time: Eat the Rich. Trump 2024. Black Lives Matter.   In Happy-Go-Lucky, David Sedaris once again captures what is most unexpected, hilarious, and poignant about these recent upheavals, personal and public, and expresses in precise language both the misanthropy and desire for connection that drive us all. If we must live in interesting times, there is no one better to chronicle them than the incomparable David Sedaris.

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Format
eBook
Street Date
05/31/2022
Language
English
ISBN
9780316392440

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Similar Titles From NoveList

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These books have the appeal factors darkly humorous, irreverent, and candid, and they have the genres "essays" and "humor writing -- social humor"; and the subjects "humorists," "social criticism," and "humorous writing."
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These books have the appeal factors darkly humorous, irreverent, and incisive, and they have the genres "essays" and "life stories -- relationships"; and the subjects "authors," "everyday life," and "social criticism."
Humorists try to find something funny about the indignities and anxieties of COVID-19 lockdowns in both witty essay collections. -- Autumn Winters
While Happy-Go-Lucky is from one author's point of view and Dear McSweeney's collects the thoughts of many writers, artists, comedians, and thinkers, these collections of essays blend signature offbeat humor with with social criticism. -- Malia Jackson
These books have the appeal factors irreverent, sardonic, and witty, and they have the genres "essays" and "life stories -- relationships"; and the subjects "social criticism" and "humorous writing."
These books have the appeal factors irreverent, and they have the genres "essays" and "life stories -- relationships"; and the subjects "authors," "everyday life," and "social criticism."
These books have the appeal factors darkly humorous, irreverent, and candid, and they have the genres "essays" and "humor writing -- social humor"; and the subjects "social criticism" and "humorous writing."
These books have the appeal factors irreverent and candid, and they have the genres "essays" and "life stories -- relationships"; and the subjects "authors," "social criticism," and "humorous writing."
With its personal reflections on grief and the more disconcerting aspects of the pandemic, Happy-Go-Lucky may be darker than Quietly Hostile, but both books have plenty of conversational, irreverent humor. -- Basia Wilson
Readers seeking humorous essays that mine everyday life for material will appreciate these collections from gay men known for their work in The New Yorker and on public radio (Happy-Go-Lucky) and their comedy writing for television (Start Without Me). -- Malia Jackson

Similar Authors From NoveList

NoveList provides detailed suggestions for other authors you might want to read if you enjoyed this book. Suggestions are based on recommendations from librarians and other contributors.
Like David Sedaris, Chuck Klosterman offers a similarly ironic view of popular culture. Perhaps harder-edged, more opinionated, and hipper than Sedaris, Klosterman surveys the contemporary cultural landscape with the same eye for the absurd and appreciation for the unique. -- NoveList Contributor
Both Sloane Crosley and David Sedaris are sardonic, witty writers whose exacting attention to detail pays off in insightful essays on work, family, and random encounters with strangers. Though Sedaris writes of life as a gay man while Crosley is female and straight, both possess a keen sense of the absurd. -- Shauna Griffin
Although David Sedaris' essays tend to have a lighter tone than those of professed pessimist David Rakoff, readers looking for wry, literate humor from modern-day eccentrics will find plenty to enjoy in the work of both. -- Autumn Winters
Both write in a conversational style, engaging readers with their quirky, offbeat authenticity. Their accessible wit ranges from sardonic to slapstick, and each is as likely to poke fun at their own foibles as those of their family, friends, and the world at large. -- Kim Burton
Both authors use a conversational and engaging writing style to create quirky, offbeat fiction and provocative nonfiction books filled with witty, pointed commentary on human nature and American culture. David Sedaris often writes about his own family and modern society while Kurt Vonnegut's books tackle topics like war and injustice. -- Alicia Cavitt
While fellow memoirist Augusten Burroughs paints a darker picture of growing up gay in a dysfunctional family, his clever scenarios and self-deprecating humor should strike a chord with fans of David Sedaris. Burroughs' accounts of his unusual experiences will remind readers of Sedaris's quirky take on life. -- NoveList Contributor
Both are witty, self-deprecating Southern eccentrics and born raconteurs whose writing can turn on a dime from funny to moving. Consider the audiobook versions of their work to best appreciate their exquisite comic timing. -- Autumn Winters
Readers who appreciate David Sedaris' compulsions and the endlessly imaginative manner in which he exposes and exploits them may also enjoy fellow NPR commentator and essayist Sarah Vowell. Like Sedaris', Vowell's distinctive voice and comic delivery in the recorded versions add to the amusement as she offers her imaginative yet perceptive views. -- NoveList Contributor
Like David Sedaris, Tina Fey writes humorous autobiographical essays that reveal her quirky take on life. Although comedian Fey's satirical eye focuses more on show business, both possess a keen sense of the absurd and employ a self-deprecating tone as they discuss family, work, and unusual life experiences. -- NoveList Contributor
These authors' works have the appeal factors sardonic, offbeat, and conversational, and they have the genres "essays" and "humor writing."
These authors' works have the appeal factors sardonic and offbeat, and they have the genre "humor writing."
These authors' works have the appeal factors sardonic, offbeat, and irreverent, and they have the genres "essays" and "humor writing"; and the subjects "families" and "familial love."

Published Reviews

Booklist Review

Although a best-of collection and the second volume of his diaries have appeared, it has been four years since Sedaris' last collection of new essays, Calypso (2018)--an eternity to fans who rely on his sardonic observations to help them discern what their own eyes fail to register. Much happened in the interim as the world locked down with COVID-19, communities erupted in protests over police murders, and people recoiled from political machinations. What occurs on the world stage is magnified thousands-fold on the local level, and luckily for readers, Sedaris' neighborhoods range from coastal North Carolina to Normandy, Manhattan's Upper East Side to West Sussex, England, and are populated by his comforting cast of recurring characters: his husband, father, and siblings. Death comes for the Sedaris family once more, this time for his 98-year-old father, Lou. In the title essay, the clan is gathered in the nursing home, contemplating the finality of the visit yet "laughing so loudly" they fear they'll be asked to leave. "Because really, isn't that what we're known for?" Yes, they are, thankfully, and though his tone is more poignant than pointed, the essential Sedaris humor reassuringly endures. Amid the barbed quips, there is genuine sorrow, an empathy born of arduous experience and persistent aspiration.HIGH-DEMAND BACKSTORY: Sedaris fans will fill reserve lists for a fresh infusion of his unique candor and comedy.

From Booklist, Copyright (c) American Library Association. Used with permission.
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Publisher's Weekly Review

Unrest, plague, and death give rise to mordant comedy in this intimate collection from Sedaris (Me Talk Pretty One Day). The author covers rude service workers, difficulties in his own life, and goings-on in "Eastern Europe countries no one wants to immigrate to" where "hugs guard parked BMWs and stray dogs roam the streets.... There are cats too, grease-covered from skulking beneath cars, one eye or sometimes both glued shut with pus." He faces mask sticklers in a Target checkout line, sees a drunken mask scofflaw on a flight, and communes with BLM protesters while deploring their "lazy" slogans. Much of the book has a dark edge, as it recounts the decline and death of his 98-year-old father; Sedaris voices still rankling resentments--"s long as my father had power, he used it to hurt me"--and recounts his sister's accusations that their father sexually abused her. As always, Sedaris has a knack for finding where the blithe and innocent intersect with the tawdry and lurid: "His voice had an old-fashioned quality... like a boy's in a radio serial," he writes of a Nintendo-obsessed 11-year-old; " 'Gee willikers!' you could imagine him saying, if that were the name of a video game in which things blew up and women got shot in the back of the head." Sedaris's tragicomedy is gloomier than usual, but it's as rich and rewarding as ever. (May)

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Library Journal Review

Essayist Sedaris (Calypso) manages to wring humor from a problematic parent's death and a worldwide pandemic. His writing style is masterfully crafted to take the ordinary moment and make it exquisite, to arrange it on a pedestal so that we can examine its beauty or its ridiculousness. Sedaris's self-deprecating style helps people laugh at themselves and the absurdity of society by pulling back the curtain to expose baseless foundations. Life is never all perfect or all catastrophic; there are horrendous moments and moments of grace in its entirety. Sedaris's writing is finely honed, so precisely put together that his narration is the best way to take it in. Readers who are not fully integrated into the material will miss the fullness of the experience: the pause, the innuendo, the tone. Some of the audio is pulled from live shows, and as Sedaris points out about his one Zoom show, audience response is critical. He calls audiences "unpaid editors" who help hone his craft and delivery. VERDICT Listeners will laugh until their sides ache.--Laura Trombley

(c) Copyright Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
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Kirkus Book Review

Sedaris remains stubbornly irreverent even in the face of pandemic lockdowns and social upheaval. In his previous collection of original essays, Calypso (2018), the author was unusually downbeat, fixated on aging and the deaths of his mother and sister. There's bad news in this book, too--most notably, the death of his problematic and seemingly indestructible father at 96--but Sedaris generally carries himself more lightly. On a trip to a gun range, he's puzzled by boxer shorts with a holster feature, which he wishes were called "gunderpants." He plays along with nursing-home staffers who, hearing a funnyman named David is on the premises, think he's Dave Chappelle. He's bemused by his sister Amy's landing a new apartment to escape her territorial pet rabbit. On tour, he collects sheaves of off-color jokes and tales of sexual self-gratification gone wrong. His relationship with his partner, Hugh, remains contentious, but it's mellowing. ("After thirty years, sleeping is the new having sex.") Even more serious stuff rolls off him. Of Covid-19, he writes that "more than eight hundred thousand people have died to date, and I didn't get to choose a one of them." The author's support of Black Lives Matter is tempered by his interest in the earnest conscientiousness of organizers ensuring everyone is fed and hydrated. (He refers to one such person as a "snacktivist.") Such impolitic material, though, puts serious essays in sharper, more powerful relief. He recalls fending off the flirtations of a 12-year-old boy in France, frustrated by the language barrier and other factors that kept him from supporting a young gay man. His father's death unlocks a crushing piece about dad's inappropriate, sexualizing treatment of his children. For years--chronicled in many books--Sedaris labored to elude his father's criticism. Even in death, though, it proves hard to escape or laugh off. A sweet-and-sour set of pieces on loss, absurdity, and places they intersect. Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.

Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
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Booklist Reviews

*Starred Review* Although a best-of collection and the second volume of his diaries have appeared, it has been four years since Sedaris' last collection of new essays, Calypso (2018)—an eternity to fans who rely on his sardonic observations to help them discern what their own eyes fail to register. Much happened in the interim as the world locked down with COVID-19, communities erupted in protests over police murders, and people recoiled from political machinations. What occurs on the world stage is magnified thousands-fold on the local level, and luckily for readers, Sedaris' neighborhoods range from coastal North Carolina to Normandy, Manhattan's Upper East Side to West Sussex, England, and are populated by his comforting cast of recurring characters: his husband, father, and siblings. Death comes for the Sedaris family once more, this time for his 98-year-old father, Lou. In the title essay, the clan is gathered in the nursing home, contemplating the finality of the visit yet "laughing so loudly" they fear they'll be asked to leave. "Because really, isn't that what we're known for?" Yes, they are, thankfully, and though his tone is more poignant than pointed, the essential Sedaris humor reassuringly endures. Amid the barbed quips, there is genuine sorrow, an empathy born of arduous experience and persistent aspiration.HIGH-DEMAND BACKSTORY: Sedaris fans will fill reserve lists for a fresh infusion of his unique candor and comedy. Copyright 2022 Booklist Reviews.

Copyright 2022 Booklist Reviews.
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LJ Express Reviews

The first new original collection from Sedaris in four years (after Calypso) contains essays that range far and wide in subject matter, from the 2020 presidential election to the protests surrounding the killing of George Floyd, and the pandemic lockdowns. Sedaris ponders many deep themes here: politics, racial inequality, and even natural disasters, but always adds his irreverent take on life's most solemn moments. Lou, the Sedaris patriarch, looms large in these pages. In "Unbuttoned," Sedaris rushes back from Europe to see his father on what everyone assumes is his deathbed even while dealing with health issues of his own. Lou surprises everyone by living a couple more years and even survives a bout of COVID, but he finally succumbs in 2021. Readers can get more clarity on the rocky relationship between father and son. Sedaris's many fans will be reassured that he has not lost his humor or his understated pathos. VERDICT This is Sedaris at his best, provocative and hysterical. Readers will feel like laughing even when it may feel inappropriate, much like the Sedaris family at their father's actual deathbed. Recommended for all public libraries.—Kristen Stewart

Copyright 2022 LJExpress.

Copyright 2022 LJExpress.
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PW Annex Reviews

Unrest, plague, and death give rise to mordant comedy in this intimate collection from Sedaris (Me Talk Pretty One Day). The author covers rude service workers, difficulties in his own life, and goings-on in "Eastern Europe countries no one wants to immigrate to" where "hugs guard parked BMWs and stray dogs roam the streets.... There are cats too, grease-covered from skulking beneath cars, one eye or sometimes both glued shut with pus." He faces mask sticklers in a Target checkout line, sees a drunken mask scofflaw on a flight, and communes with BLM protesters while deploring their "lazy" slogans. Much of the book has a dark edge, as it recounts the decline and death of his 98-year-old father; Sedaris voices still rankling resentments—"s long as my father had power, he used it to hurt me"—and recounts his sister's accusations that their father sexually abused her. As always, Sedaris has a knack for finding where the blithe and innocent intersect with the tawdry and lurid: "His voice had an old-fashioned quality... like a boy's in a radio serial," he writes of a Nintendo-obsessed 11-year-old; "?‘Gee willikers!' you could imagine him saying, if that were the name of a video game in which things blew up and women got shot in the back of the head." Sedaris's tragicomedy is gloomier than usual, but it's as rich and rewarding as ever. (May)

Copyright 2022 Publishers Weekly Annex.

Copyright 2022 Publishers Weekly Annex.
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Citations

APA Citation, 7th Edition (style guide)

Sedaris, D. (2022). Happy-Go-Lucky . Little, Brown and Company.

Chicago / Turabian - Author Date Citation, 17th Edition (style guide)

Sedaris, David. 2022. Happy-Go-Lucky. Little, Brown and Company.

Chicago / Turabian - Humanities (Notes and Bibliography) Citation, 17th Edition (style guide)

Sedaris, David. Happy-Go-Lucky Little, Brown and Company, 2022.

Harvard Citation (style guide)

Sedaris, D. (2022). Happy-go-lucky. Little, Brown and Company.

MLA Citation, 9th Edition (style guide)

Sedaris, David. Happy-Go-Lucky Little, Brown and Company, 2022.

Note! Citations contain only title, author, edition, publisher, and year published. Citations should be used as a guideline and should be double checked for accuracy. Citation formats are based on standards as of August 2021.

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