David Sedaris

I always

really loved like David, um, uh, Sedaris and, um, and like Augustus Burroughs.

And I like, and also just, you know, columnists, you know, a lot of my essays start with my observations, something about history or culture.

And then it goes into, you know, experiences with friends or being on dates with men or being in different countries.

There's an essay in this book called Road Rage, and I literally cried laughing the entire way through it.

I haven't cried laughing that hard reading something since the most recent David Sedaris.

But then there's another essay, this one about one particular Christmas from Gwena's childhood, the end of which I was sobbing, like not just crying, I was like sobbing.

Same book, same author, two completely different kinds of crying.

I think there's a difference between us sharing our personal experiences or someone talking about their own personal experiences.

And then, like, where does that become a line about sharing other people's experiences? I know this is something that David Sedaris has faced criticism for.

So David Sedaris is a, he does like essays and he has books and there are compilations of essays and they're funny.

They're like dark humor, but there has been criticism that he's commodified like tragedy and family dysfunction.

His estranged sister committed suicide, and he talks about that a lot, but not so much about how it affects him, which is different, right? There's something about talking about this thing happened, and here's how it affects me.

Oh no.

I will say, have you ever read David Sedaris's book? Naked?

I listened to it.

Because he tells a story about somebody who like wiped their butt on a towel and his family and it became like family lore.

Yeah.

At the same time, and it was Naked by David Sedaris.

Okay.

And A Supposedly Fun Thing I'll Never Do Again by David Foster Wallace.

Um, I, uh, Ender's Game in high school was the first book I genuinely enjoyed that was part of the curriculum.

Um, uh, Drown by Junot Diaz was the first book that like, I remember reading on my own as an adult that like, uh, Oh, this is dope.

Similar to David Sedaris in that it was a essay thing.

Some of it was comedic, but it was the first time I saw myself in a writer because he's 10 years older than me, Dominican dude from New York and New Jersey.

Sophie works as a sound tech for a literary festival, the person who mics famous authors in the wings before they step into the spotlight.

These famous authors think David Sedaris, Ann Patchett, George Saunders.

They never make eye contact.

They never notice her.