Happy-Go-Lucky

'Unquestionably the king of comic writing' Guardian

By: David Sedaris

Narrated by: David Sedaris

'It's hard to think of a better living practitioner of hilarious honesty than David Sedaris' The Times

'David Sedaris is funny - invariably. That's his gift' Los Angeles Times

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.

Praise for Calypso

'Sedaris is the premier observer of our world and its weirdnesses' Adam Kay, author of This is Going to Hurt

'He's like an American Alan Bennett' Guardian

'Unquestionably the king of comic writing . . . Calypso is both funnier and more heartbreaking than pretty much anything out there' Hadley Freeman, Guardian©2022 David Sedaris

Critic reviews

It's hard to think of a better living practitioner of hilarious honesty than David Sedaris

In this latest collection of anecdotes, the American humorist David Sedaris riffs on Covid, death and family . . . No longer elfin, Sedaris has matured into a devilish imp who scourges human folly and filth (Peter Conrad)

Sedaris' signature wit has always thrived on the macabre, so perhaps it should come as no surprise that Happy-Go-Lucky is some of his darkest - and most astute - writing yet... No topic is out of bounds for Sedaris' acerbic humor and sharp observations

Sedaris is funny - invariably. That's his gift... Even amid the overwhelming gloom of the pandemic, a summer of unrest and the death of a father toward whom he still has complicated feelings, Sedaris never loses his wit or his crack timing

Sedaris is one of the writers whose discovery you wish on friends, because it means they have a wealth of brilliant writing to discover . . . David Sedaris still delivering his killer lines

The writer's affable misanthropy and self-deprecation are on display in a new set of reflections on life and death (Houman Barekat)

Sedaris gazes unflinchingly [...] at his family, including himself, in a way that is laugh-out-loud funny yet somehow avoids being cruel (Books of the Year)

There's a reason why David Sedaris has his own Radio 4 series and sells out Carnegie Hall in New York: as a performer of his own prose he's unmatched... The best way to enjoy Sedaris's waspish and funny essay collection is to hear it read by its author... [delivered] with impeccable comic timing (Fiona Sturges)

Awesome as always

He never disappoints! He has such an great ability to share his darkest flaws, most of which we all share

Great collection of stories

This is a collection of different stories from the amazing David Sedaris, including ones from live performances. There is quite a lot about his relationship with his dad and his sisters, including his deceased sister Tiffany. Some of this is quite raw and his honesty is very disarming and intimate, especially given the taboos there are about discussing mental health, and speaking “ill of the dead”. He is such a unique story teller and there is a lot of humour in his work that is very unforced and genuine. I really enjoyed this, particularly as it was spoken by his voice which is so lyrical.

Small production problem at 1 hour 58 min, 49 sec where there is about 10 seconds of speech overlapping with the next passage. Needs fixing.

Too many repeats of stories in other collections

Although the stories and the narration was as entertaining as always, I had a major issue with the fact that almost half of these stories were already in his other books. Especially since the blurb states that this is "his first new collection of personal essays".