The audiobook was great. I don't think it would've been as funny had I read the book.

Just finished reading this book. I loved it. I read a part of it to a speech class where they were laughing and I couldn't help laughing out loud at some parts.

Could it be a repentant David Sedaris???
I read this just before the Holiday Season got into full swing, to gear up for Forced Family Fun! I was very touched by an essay in which he acknowledges that his family finds it difficult to read about their lives and know that others are reading and laughing, and not necessarily with them!

He is hysterical, but it is nice to see that he knows the difficulties of being his sibling!

Sedaris mines his family history and can write a truly funny sentence. I would have enjoyed this more if I hadn't seen him comment something about 'cancel culture' recently. Yawn.

I listened to this before, pre-Goodreads (and of course you must listen to David Sedaris read his essays). Sedaris makes me laugh, cringe, feel uncomfortable, and think. Would listen to it again.

Favorite essay: Six to Eight Black Men.

I'm sorry, but this just wasn't as good as I've come to expect from Sedaris. Whereas his previous stories elicted a grin on every page, here the laughs are too few and too far between. Eccentric, yes, but not really funny. It's more like a quirky odds-and-ends compilation than a work with much thought put into it.

Maybe not as across-the-board funny as his previous work, but he's running out of familial anecdotes, I don't blame the guy.

I especially liked the car trip in "Ship Shape," it was sweet and real.

Enjoyable stories written well, but the book ran out of steam toward the end. Stylistic choices that felt illuminating or special at the beginning became a little samey by the end. Nothing bad, but nothing that has stuck with me.