Theft by Finding

This book comes out at the end of the month and if you are a David Sedaris fan, you won’t want to miss it. Theft by Finding is David’s diaries from 1977-2002. That’s a lot of journaling.

This is the first-person account of how a drug-abusing dropout with a weakness for the International House of Pancakes and a chronic inability to hold down a real job became one of the funniest people on the planet.

Most diaries — even the diaries of great writers — are impossibly dull, because they generally write about their emotions, or their dreams, or their interior life. Sedaris’s diaries are unique because they face outward. He doesn’t tell us his feelings about the world, he shows us the world instead, and in so doing he shows us something deeper about himself.

"In the U.K., if you discover something of value and keep it, that's theft by finding."

I kept a diary for long periods in my life. So, I like to read diaries. I read Samuel Pepys' diary. It took me two years. I read it in bed so every night the last line I read was usually, "And so to bed."

I thought it would be great to read David Sedaris's diaries. I have read several books by Sedaris and I've heard him on the radio. The first book I read was on recommendation by a library staff person.

I was living in a teeny rural town where the police chief had his own untrained militia and was armed with ex-military weapons, including a Hummer. I heard the KKK left flyers on driveways. The local church was splitting because the denomination was not strongly anti-abortion and anti-gay and anti-anything else progressive liberal. I went to the library and asked for funny books to raise my spirits, and I was given Holidays on Ice.

Its no wonder funding to libraries has been on the cutting block under the current administration.

Consquently, I should have known what I was getting into when I requested Theft by Finding, excerpts from his 156 volume diary kept between 1977 and 2002.

I had no idea.

"What I prefer recording at the end...of my day are remarkable events I have observed.."

And he has observed some pretty strange events.

At times I thought, what did I get myself into? Other times I laughed out loud, but no way was I going to tell anyone what was so funny. It's embarrassing to laugh at something so incorrect.

And yet, I realized, Sedaris's stories were, well, pretty believable for all their bizarreness. I lived in Philadelphia and seen some pretty weird stuff myself. But that's another story.

Also, Sedaris has some pretty spot-on insights.

One of my favorites is from November 17, 1987, Chicago. The police had caught a man who had smashed windows and painted swastikas on Jewish businesses. He was a skinhead with tattoos, Sedaris writes,"which is strange, I think, because Jews in concentrations camps had shaved heads and tattoos. you'd think that anti-Semites would go for a different look."

His self-knowledge is also commendable. On January 26, 1999, in Paris, he is called a misogynist. "No," I corrected her, "I'm not a misogynist. I'm a misanthrope. I hate everyone equally."

Sedaris is thoughtful. On December 31, 1998, he wrote that his dad, visiting him in Paris, had the evening before leaned near a candle and set his hair on fire. He wrote, "This morning we went to buy him a hat." Such a good son. Helping Dad keep his dignity by covering up the scorched hair.

In his forward, Sederis suggests readers peruse the book, sampling here and there, now and then. Good luck with that. Frankly, it's hard to put down.

I received a free ebook from the publisher through NetGalley in exchange for a fair and unbiased review.

You can never go wrong with anything by Sedaris. This included.

Theft by Finding is a collection of excerpts from David Sedaris’s diaries from the years 1977 to 2002. I chuckled several times, and certain parts had me laughing so hard I nearly fell off the couch—especially the parts about him mangling French when he was learning the language after he and his partner had just moved to France. (It’s a brave thing to move to a foreign country and attempt to learn a new language—you’re going to humiliate yourself on a regular basis for sure, which Sedaris does, to the reader’s amusement.)

In addition to the humor, what was fun about this book was the modern history—in 1981, he writes of reading about a “cancer” that only affected homosexuals. In 1982—the popularity of Frogger. In 1985—he gets a “ghetto boom box” for Christmas. Sedaris learned about the World Trade Center attack while he was in Paris. The Bush/Gore debacle in 2000—and his father’s life-long lectures to him about the importance of voting Republican.

Like his collections of essays, his whacky family also provide laughs when they visit or he visits them—sometimes on purpose, like his sister actress/comedian Amy Sedaris, but sometimes just by being themselves told through David Sedaris’s dry wit.

Sedaris spent more years than I realized really struggling financially, so he lived and worked among racists and unabashed wife beaters and lunatics. Sometimes the stories were sad, but sometimes the narcissism of his neighbors was chuckle-inducing.

He talks about quitting drinking and taking drugs casually—it seemed like one day he decided to quit and that was that.

I really enjoyed this, and if/when he comes out with 2003 to 2017, I will definitely read that—I’m looking forward to it!

Thanks to NetGalley and Little, Brown and Company for the opportunity to review this book.

David Sedaris is probably the only person other than Andy Warhol whose diaries I can read like a gripping novel. And this is totally because David Sedaris sprung fully-grown from his own head sometime during his high-school years. He has always been this writer, and these diaries are proof.

If I could go back in time I would move to Chicago and become dear friends with David Sedaris.

A MUST-READ for Sedaris fans. A carefully curated selection from his journals over 25 years, this sort of feels like a behind the scenes look at David's life. It's truly admirable that he's been keeping a journal all these years and explains how he writes his fabulous, funny stories. Not to mention he's honest, observant, kind, and a humble guy.

David Sedaris fans will love this book! His personality and humor thoroughly shine here. Short diary entries interspersed with more detailed entries describe his life with dry wit. Thank you NetGalley for the ARC!