I was gifted a copy of this book from Net Galley and Little, Brown, and Company in exchange for an honest review. This book is available on May 31, 2022. ⭐⭐⭐ I've read several David Sedaris books and I'm always pleased with them. They are fast reads, funny, and sometimes heart warming. Happy-Go-Lucky did not disappoint. Some parts were a little too politic heavy for me, but I got over it quickly. I always feel like I want to hang out with the Sedaris clan after reading a book by David. I think it would be a fun time!

David Sedaris has done it again. I have always loved his books - his diaries were a bit tougher to get through - but he has returned to form with this book. I loved the sections about talking with people after his shows as I was once one of those people. He is an amazing writer. I recommend this book if you want a good laugh and maybe a little cry at times. His family is as funny as ever!

This was not my favorite book by David Sedaris but any life stories and humorous anecdotes are always ok by me. I always like that he makes these short stories and life experiences relatable to everyone. Still a recommended read but hope his next book is better.

Thanks to NEtgalley. David Sedaris. and Little Brown & Company for an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Available: 5/31/22

David Sedaris is always a must-read. This one had some very funny moments, but also some very dark moments as per usual. He's not someone I can recommend to everyone, but it was still a nice read.

I personally just couldn’t get in to this one. I am a David Sedaris fan, but didn’t dig on this one. Even if I didn’t dig it I will still recommend this one to people. It is well written and nicely separated into nice little parts.

I always enjoy David Sedaris, and this one was no exception! I especially liked that it was updated to his time spent quarantining, comparing his book tours before and after the pandemic, and more on the loss of his father. He is always entertaining, but also so truthful.

If you are a David Sedaris fan, you'll want to run out and get this one! :)

I'd like to thank NetGalley, David Sedaris, and Little, Brown and Company for the advanced reader's copy in exchange for my unbiased review.

David Sedaris is the master of humorous essays; and this coming from a person who doesn't particularly like humorous essays! Always love to read his latest work.

"I used to cough to hide a fart. Now I fart to hide a cough."

This was a sign that Sedaris saw someone holding in New York City during the start of the pandemic. It made me laugh out loud and I had to text it to a bunch of friends immediately. I am not a fart-joke kind of gal, but how could I not laugh at this one? Anyway, this joke fits Sedaris to a tee. He is so good at finding wildly weird and funny stuff—be it signs on the street or whispers on a plane. He picks up on the absurdity of life (he is such a keen observer!) and he’s a master at turning it all into funny little stories. He’s cynical, outrageous, and oh so clever.

Oh, and here are two more weird signs he saw:

-Fuck you diaper face (held by a homeless guy in the street)
-Consider your man card reissued (seen at a shooting range)

Some lines I liked:

“Had I honestly just used the term hot-dog artisans? I said to Amy. “Sometimes don’t you just hate yourself?”

“I long ago stopped feeling bad about my interests. History? Give me a break! Culture? Yawn. Take me to the nearest supermarket!”

“I do do things I don’t commit to paper. I use the bathroom. I have sex. But I try to be quick about it.”

“The doctor wants me on fifty milligrams of Highfalutin, but I think he’s just full of himself.”

About that last quote: He came up with Highfalutin as a good name for a fake medication, and I totally agree! In fact, I think it would have been a fantastic name for this collection. (I’m not crazy about the actual title, “Happy-Go-Lucky,” even though I know it wreaks of irony.)

I must say that this collection isn’t quite as funny as his other books. It’s understandable, given that there was horror all around him: the pandemic, political unrest, and a dying father. And even though it isn’t as funny, it isn’t as snarky or gross as his other books, either, so that’s a good thing. Both funny and snarky are turned down a notch.

I love that he was able to observe goings-on in New York City during the pandemic (I happen to be in love with NYC). One of my favorite essays was “Themes and Variations,” which was partly about women and their bras, about how they “de-bra” the first chance they get. He asked women and got some hysterical stories out of it. Another favorite was “Lady Marmalade,” which gave you a sense of just how weird, unfiltered, and inappropriate his dad was. “When the waiter asked if we were ready for the check, my father said, ‘Are you ready to bend over and take it?’”

At least six of the essays are about his dad, a guy who told David he was worthless, a guy who cut him out of the will, a guy who sounds like a real a-hole. But everyone’s relationship to their father is complicated, and in amongst Sedaris’s angst is probably a thread of love, though it’s hard to tell. I felt like Sedaris was writing to work it all out in his head, some self-therapy. He did manage to find the funny in good old dad, but I was left being pretty disgusted by the guy. Sedaris at least got good material out of his dad (and even his funeral), which he casually mentions as a perk for the eternal verbal abuse he received.

Sedaris talks a lot about other family members—his escapades with his sisters, his life with his long-time partner, Hugh. The essays are all touching and poignant, and most are funny. He’s getting to be an even bigger curmudgeon now that he’s getting up there in age. He gets annoyed more easily, but it does make for some funny tales.

I’m not crazy about how Sedaris meanders sometimes. He’ll start with a topic and then get sidetracked. It’s easy to go with the flow, especially since everywhere he goes is funny, but it still seems a little disorganized. I had the same beef with some of his other books.

My one other gripe isn’t a criticism about the book, but about his behavior during the pandemic. He didn’t follow the rules—he often didn’t wear a mask, he traveled when he could, he went to parties. I know that everyone has different levels of risk they are willing to take, but it bugged me because it seemed irresponsible. I have to remember that the pandemic was very hard for him because it meant he couldn’t work—he wasn’t free to travel around the world doing readings. He admitted that he missed the attention. I think the pandemic was especially hard for comedians.

This is a good read—plenty of funny little tidbits—from a master observer and recorder. As I said, not as great as his other books, but still very good.

Thanks to NetGalley for the advance copy.

Another superb collection of essays from Sedaris. Perhaps made more poignant by the decline and death of the author’s father and Sedaris’ ruminations about family and mortality. Highly recommended.

Sedaris delivers another thoughtful, clear-eyed, satirical take on the state of our society and the particular quirks of his own family. Written during the COVID-19 pandemic and following the death of family patriarch, Lou, Sedaris critiques the banality of performative protest marches and takes about racism and privilege, always reflecting on his own failures and weaknesses with a gently self-mocking tone. He talks about his father's final years and, with an honesty that goes deeper than he ever has before, deconstructs his father's life and legacy. This collection made me think closely about family relationships and it made me howl with laughter. Sedaris never disappoints. Highly recommended.

I really enjoy this author, frequently laugh out loud while reading. The majority of this book was very entertaining. A few small parts were disgusting. I guess that’s art. Thank you NetGalley for the ARC.

An excellent end to my spring break reading spree. I appreciated his take on the current moment, and how each essay brought you closer to the loss - and post #metoo examination - of his father. It’s the first covid related writing I’ve read that didn’t feel too soon.

Happy Go Lucky is classic David Sedaris. It is a collection of his essays where he offers his observations of his everyday life. That sounds very simple, but the observations David Sedaris makes are never simple or ordinary. He is able to take even the most mundane seeming situation or conversation and make it laugh out loud funny with his honest and often biting commentary. All of the usual characters are there; his sister Amy as his partner in humor, and his husband Hugh, the rest of his family and friends as his foils. As always, he brings in a whole host of characters he meets on his book tours, in hotels, airports, and just on his daily long walks.
This collection does bring us through the pandemic, and also the death of his father, so at times it turns poignant and more thoughtful and introspective than Sedaris' earlier works. There are fewer people to interact with on a daily basis, so the works turn both inwards towards his own feelings, but also more global as he grapples with the state of the world around him. In Happy Go Lucky David Sedaris gives us a more mature voice at times, but then can go right back to outrageous humor mostly when he is interacting with his family especially his sister Amy. All in all it is an incredibly enjoyable book, and I am left as I always am after I read something by David Sedaris, wishing I was a part of his family!

I love David Sedaris’ writing, so I was thrilled to get this latest collection. He balances the silly and the serious so well, and makes the mundane feel powerful. This book covers both COVID and the death of his father, so it’s not necessarily light, but Sedaris’ wry sense of humor always finds a way. I liked hearing more of his family dynamic now that they are adults, especially the several stories here including his sister Amy, who is another of my favorites. It was interesting that this collection was really focused on the past couple of years versus how many of his others are about his childhood, although there were plenty of looks back as he recounted stories of his father’s cruelty. It feels like he’s put a lot of thought into reckoning with that past in these pages. I also recently got to see him live and he read one of the more poignant chapters from this book. There were some fatphobic comments that I could have done without, and he casually made them on stage live too which was a bummer. If you are a fan, you’ll love this one, and if you are new to him, it’s a good one to start with.

I enjoyed the humorous parts of the book and the interesting stories of the author's remarkable life. I felt some parts were a little too sexually explicit for my personal taste. Overall though I enjoyed the book.

I love everything Sedaris produces and Happy-Go-Lucky is no exception. Sedaris brings his humor and signature style to the events of 2020 it was a breath of fresh air to read. Even if you've been avoiding "pandemic books" I think this is worth trying. It might be laugh out loud and also brought a little tear to my eye. I loved this book.

Reading David Sedaris' latest book is like ingesting glass.

Rather than pay a good psychologist to listen as he recalls the insults and injuries his s.o.b. of a father inflicted on him, Sedaris tells his readers. He has told us everything else.

He has made us laugh and now he makes us cry.

Although it pains me to say this, I think this will be the last book I read by David Sedaris. I liked him. I laughed my way through Me Talk Pretty One Day and chuckled while reading Calypso, which wasn’t as funny but offered up enough reflection on life and death for me to see it as a meditative memoir of sorts. But this? I’m not sure what happened here. I chuckled maybe once or twice. And it’s definitely not reflective enough to qualify as a meditative memoir (most chapters are filled with thoughts that could be deep and eye-opening but instead feel half-baked and incomplete). It reads more like a man complaining about everything and everyone—including his loved ones. He complains about their behaviour (which is, by the way, objectively bad) and cosigns it simply because he loves them (please note that you can love someone while calling them out on their outrageous behaviour—I would even encourage it): he mentions instances in which his family has been rude to customer-service workers, mentions his father’s abusive behaviour, and mentions (and tries to DISPROVE) his dead sister being assaulted. I was uncomfortable. I was angry. My second-hand embarrassment was through the roof. The thing is, these things would be fine in a memoir if they served a purpose—if an author put all of these cards on the table and said, “look at this thing that I have grown from; if you have gone through these things, too, I will stand in your pain with you and show you the light at the end of the tunnel,” I would gobble it up. But Sedaris seems to be sharing horrific moments with us in lieu of going to therapy.

Many thanks to Netgalley and Little, Brown, and Company for the advance copy provided in exchange for an honest review.

Okay so David Sedaris is always gonna be a 5 star for me. Forever. He never disappoints. He is able to find the funny even in the hardest of times, and the world always needs more of that. I laugh audibly every time I read an essay by him, and most of the time I'm at work. At the library. Where I look like a crazy person for cackling into the silent abyss. But hey, I'm fine with that, keep those essays coming Sedaris, I'm ready to look like a lunatic anytime for you.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for an ARC of this book in exchange for an honest review.

David Sedaris is out with another new book of essays, which are funny yet differnet. Some I've heard or read before in various publications or even when I've seen him live. (Which you must do at least once.) I may be mistaken but David sounds older in this book, older in a sense that he's not as irreverant as he was in his younger days. But that just may be me.

Other then growing older and wiser, the world is a bit harder to deal with right now. We want to laugh but it's difficult in the aftermath of Covid, and war on the people of Ukraine. Don't get me wrong, we need books on satire and irony, we need to laugh so we can better cope with life. This is what David Sedaris does best; he reminds us there are still things to make a laugh, things and stuff of life.

Thank you Netgalley and Little, Brown and Co.