The Land and Its People: Essays
I realized some books back...that I don’t read Sedaris for the laughs, although he makes me laugh: I read him for his honesty ... What I admire most about Sedaris is that he examines aging with the same vigor, curiosity and grim glee that he showed in his earlier books, when he wrote about his younger self. He’s as alive and angry now as he was then; every year seems to be formative ... There are 28 essays in the book and, inevitably, some have more going for them, and more in them, than others ... Another reason I love reading Sedaris: He knits the present to the past so that they become the same thing; for him being alive has always been strange and atrocious, contradictory, unfair and hilarious.
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If the scope is narrow, the Sedaris tone still charms, even as it advances to a state of crankiness that makes him look like a gay Larry David ... Which is to say, when it’s good it’s still good ... Beneath the whimsy, there has always been a savage side to Sedaris, and an even more deeply buried layer of sentiment ... As with so many pro curmudgeons, the impression one gets of Sedaris after reading him is of someone who feels things deeply and is probably, at root, a soppy guy.
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With his laconic delivery, Sedaris lures the reader into believing that the topic under discussion might be unremarkable, a you-and-me-in-this-together moment. But then, given Sedaris’ worldview and world weariness, eventually a knotty twist or spicy dash is delivered with the realization that Sedaris’ land is unparalleled, and its people are peerless.
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