I’m not sure that I find David Sedaris’s writing funny so much as poignant and incisive. There are moments when I did laugh out loud (such as when his brother sticks a note to his back saying “Hi! I’m gay”) but I was moved by the way he portrays himself as a flawed human being: looking at the Anne Frank house as a great buying opportunity for example. It’s a very dry, gentle comedy but it’s the subject matter and the commentary which is engrossing.

This book is very funny. If you listen to the audio book version in the car, be prepared to pull over because you might laugh so hard you stop thinking straight. I loved the part about the landlord.

Ok ok I’ve succumbed to the crowd and picked up my first Sedaris. It’s funny to see how most people have tagged this as “non-fiction” (as I was prepared to do) although bookstores including Amazon place it under fiction (helpfully suggested by the publisher, I imagine). I’m going with the idea that the essays are autobiographical fiction—too much of the latter to be placed in the nebulous “memoir” section.