What is there to say about David Sedaris? He is a national treasure and I absolutely adore his hilarious books of essays about his wonderful and weird experiences, so I was thrilled to grab an ARC of this one when I saw it pop up on NetGalley. I was not disappointed in the least! Even with some more serious topics like covid and the loss of his father, David's writing is just so inviting that you won't want to put it down (and don't worry - there are still plenty of laughs to be had). This is one that is not to be missed!

Another excellent book from my favorite comedic author. Happy-Go-Lucky, by nature of when it was written, covers some more serious territory, from the pandemic to contemporary political and social issues and the decline and death of his father. All of this is done with classic Sedaris wit, and the darker essays sit alongside hilarious stories of his family and younger years. I can't wait for his next book.

David Sedaris returns with a collection of new stories. The best ones are about the impact of the pandemic and his father’s passing.

Thanks so much to the publisher and to NetGalley for giving me access to this book. Great book! I will be recommending this book. Sedaris continues the tradition of clever storytelling. He always makes you laugh! Thanks again for letting have a chance to read it.

I love David Sedaris and this book proves why. I can definitely pull some texts as mentor texts in my English classroom!

I feel like Sedaris's tone matches what my patrons are looking for in these trying times. A first round purchase for most libraries

David Sedaris takes a bit more of a serious turn in this group of essays with topics surrounding the pandemic, his father’s illness and death, and more on his upbringing. That isn’t to say he isn’t still funny as hell; his humorous bits are still there. However, it was powerful to read more about the tricky relationship between David and his father. A nice turn for the satirical genius.

David Sedaris’s latest book is titled “Happy-Go-Lucky” and after reading it one may wonder if the title was chosen in irony. In these essays, Sedaris paints himself as a character who is anything but happy-go-lucky. Though the stories still carry the same readability, what was missing was the relatability and, frankly, the likability.

As person who has been reading David Sedaris for years when I first got my hands on “Dress Your Family In Corduroy and Denim” back in the early aughts - and then worked my way back through the classics - I found myself wondering: have I outgrown David Sedaris? Have my literary tastes changed? Or is it Sedaris who has changed?

Of course, people are allowed to change over time but Sedaris’s essays now seem to reflect his age and his success (and not positively). And while readers don’t have to agree or relate to everything an author says, I found Sedaris’s comments on Covid - especially during the heart of the pandemic - to be troublesome and were almost enough to make me actually want to stop reading the book. Covid is and has become a divisive topic in our country but to read that Sedaris admitted to hosting dinner parties with friends in different groups - in New York City - when we were all supposed to be isolating - upsets me because Sedaris was apart of the problem.

I also feel like we were missing some context regarding Sedaris’s feelings for his father. Several essays focused on his father’s last years and ultimate death and I was taken aback with the contempt in which Sedaris wrote about his father. I know they didn’t have the best relationship - and the elder Sedaris certainly didn’t seem like a Saint - but the tone and reflections seemed rather harsh.

Is all this enough for me to leave Sedaris in my past? I’m not sure. At the very least I’ll need a break before diving back into one of his collections.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publishers for this copy.

I pretty much love all of Sedaris's work, but it's fair to say I love some things more than others. This book could be his final book ever and I would think it was a wonderful and fitting end. The humor, writing, and insights are all top notch. As I always anticipate from him, there many moments where I straight up was laughing out loud.
What I especially loved about this one was all the stuff about his dad. His dad is, obviously, a real person, and not a character. But I almost felt like he was a character I knew. I recalled when he'd died and so reading these last essays about his end of life felt touching and satisfying.

I have read every single David Sedaris book, and while some are definitely funnier than others, they are all pure gold deep down. I loved Happy-Go-Lucky because I love hearing about his family. I saw one review, I got the book after it had come out, and they said he aired everyone's dirty laundry. Well, if that does not get you a reading, what will? He is my kind of storyteller in that he begins with one thing, then starts chasing a rabbit, and finally gets back to the first. I want to be the female David Sedaris. This book just proves yet again why I love him, and he is a writing, storyteller, and speaker role model.

Thank you to the author, publisher, and Netgalley for an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Those of us who read "A Carnival of Snackery: Diaries 2003-2020" by David Sedaris will recognize that many of the polished stories in "Happy-Go-Lucky" seem familiar. I was never bored by Happy Go Lucky and I didn't get angry at David Seders, which I did in "A Carnival of Snackery." (It took a lot for me to get angry with someone whose faults are all plain to see and are part of what's fun about him! But I did.)

In Happy-Go-Lucky, there is pain as well as humor. Problematic things that Sedaris hinted at about his relationship with his father Lou are front and center as he visits the suddenly more pleasant and very elderly guy in in his assisted living facility. We learn way more about the dark side of Sedaris's early years, much of which he minimizes by suggesting it was more about what was acceptable than is true. Lou dies at age 98 and there is grief, but mostly the recognition that the less decent parent just died and at 98 it's hardly a surprise. The remaining children carry out his wishes for a complicated farewell and then the memories come.

Happy-Go-Lucky also has many satisfying narcissistic quirky stories laughs and those moments where you imagine what it would be like to be friends with Sedaris and see his haul after a shopping trip. It has the humanity thrown in of a guy whose book signings are very personal-- though they often involve discussions with nurses of what gay men in emergency rooms have gotten stuck where the sun don't shine. Sedaris is at his judgmental best, when he tries to be mean to a woman who cut the line but finds her laugh repeatedly at what she thinks is a joke when he seriously signs her book, "You are an awful woman". We find the usual players, Amy, Lisa, Gretchen and Paul with lots of memories of Tiffany. Sedaris is back in my good graces, a guy who is outrageous, yet needs good manners, high end hotels and adoration from his fans. A guy who loves his partner thirty years in, moody and at times difficult, and imagines with pain life alone should Hugh die first. For fans, this is a must read. If you do not know Sedaris, read some of his early books first or this one might be a bit choppy for you.

If you like David Sedaris, this book will most likely work for you! There were parts I laughed out loud and then proceeded to read aloud to whoever was in the room. But there were parts that felt too privileged, though he knows he is privileged and does not apologize. I'm glad I read this, but I don't think this book will get him a lot of new fans.

What’s better than a David Sedaris collection? I first fell in love with Sedaris’ essays in high school and have ever since eagerly read each new publication. I will definitely come back to this one on audio.

Thanks to NetGalley for allowing me to read this in exchange for an honest opinion.

Woof. Used to enjoy David Sedaris, but this book made him come off like a crotchety old dick. Extremely tone-deaf in parts (“I hate wearing a mask, wah-wah! All the stores are closed! No one wants to work!”) and a lot of “back in my day…” type of stuff. Some parts that were well-written and insightful but overall walked away with a bad taste in my mouth.

I'm not sure if I've changed or David Sedaris has, but Happy-Go-Lucky didn't deliver the way his books usually do. Sedaris humor has always been inappropriate but I found many of these stories (and their narrator) straight up unlikable. If you've never read anything by Sedaris, don't start with this one.

David Sedaris is such a keen observer, and with hilarity to match. His essays about his family and relationship are endearing and somber, reminding the reader that every family and relationship has their issues. Sedaris has been open about the strained relationship with his father for years, so it was interesting to see how he felt about his father’s death. While this book of essays wasn’t my favorite of Sedaris’s, I appreciate his writing style, openness, and observation of the human condition.

Opening lines: It was spring and my sister Lisa and I were in her toy-sized car, riding from the airport in Greensboro, North Carolina, to her house in Winston-Salem. I'd gotten up early to catch my flight from Raleigh, but still she had me beat by an hour. "I like to be at Starbucks right when they open, at five a.m.," she said. "Speaking of which, I was there a few months ago and saw a lady with a monkey. I don't know what kind, but it was small—not much bigger than a doll—and was in a pink frilly dress. And it was just so ... upsetting to me. I wanted to go up to this woman and ask, 'What do you plan on doing with that thing once you lose interest in it?'"
Reason I picked up the book: I'm a huge fan of David Sedaris's books, and I've actually seen him at readings a few times, as well.
And what's this book about?
David Sedaris, the “champion storyteller,” (Los Angeles Times) returns with his first new collection of personal essays since the bestselling Calypso.

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.
Recommended for: Anyone who enjoys non-fiction, memoirs, or other Sedaris books.
Favorite paragraph: I decided from the start of the pandemic not to get Zoom. "What do you mean, 'get' it?" Hugh asked. "It's nothing you have to buy or attach to your computer. You press a button and, wham, it's there.

"Well, can you mark which button?" I asked. "I want to make sure I never push it."
Something to know: I would love to see this book made into a movie—definitely would be very exciting, and I could probably come up with a dream cast if I thought about it, as well.
What I would have changed: I found the first few stories to be a little slow-paced, but I enjoyed the second half of the book more.
Overall rating: 4 stars out of 5.
Where can I find this book? Click here to order on Amazon—today (Prime Day, 7/13/22) the Kindle version is on sale for 48% off, and the hardcover version is on sale for 39% off.

David Sedaris never fails.Perfect read for me hilarious intimate heart wrenching at times.A book tha kept me turning the pages caught up in his stories his life dramas a book that took me out of my world into his #netgalley#littlebrown

Thank you for the advanced copy netgalley! I’ve read other works by Sedaris and have always found him to be funny, sarcastic and dry and so was this one. I really enjoyed the humor and the stories of Covid as well as his relationship with his father (honestly some of those stories were a bit shocking). A really fun, quick read!

David Sedaris shares stories of his life with honesty and humor. I loved his honest accounts of his family (a description that many could probably relate to and must make his family cringe as they read his books). He also shared some of his own fears and issues—such as getting braces when he was over 40 because he had “summer teeth.”

Stories of his family were sad, and having to witness the end of his father’s life must have been very difficult. He shared that when you seek approval from the one person you really want it from and you will be guaranteed to not get it also really rings true.

In addition to the humor and honesty, I didn’t expect him to have such a big heart. I was inspired when he was handed a $50 bill and told to give it to the person who needed it most. There were some people within earshot who demanded that they needed it, but he sought out the person who really needed it. And continued the tradition, helping others.

I really enjoyed the honesty, heart and humor of Happy-Go-Lucky and definitely recommend it.