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Calypso: 'Unquestionably the king of comic writing' Guardian

Calypso: 'Unquestionably the king of comic writing' Guardian

by David Sedaris (Author)

  • Used

    Paperback 2018

    $5.19
Synopsis

If you've ever laughed your way through David Sedaris's cheerfully misanthropic stories, you might think you know what you're getting with Calypso. You'd be wrong.

When he buys a beach house on the Carolina coast, Sedaris envisions long, relaxing vacations spent playing board games and lounging in the sun with those he loves most. And life at the Sea Section, as he names the vacation home, is exactly as idyllic as he imagined, except for one tiny, vexing realization: it's impossible to take a vacation from yourself.

With Calypso, Sedaris sets his formidable powers of observation toward middle age and mortality. Make no mistake: these stories are very, very funny - it's a book that can make you laugh 'til you snort, the way only family can. Sedaris's writing has never been sharper, and his ability to shock readers into laughter unparalleled. But much of the comedy here is born out of that vertiginous moment when your own body betrays you and you realize that the story of your life is made up of more past than future.

This is beach reading for people who detest beaches, required reading for those who loathe small talk and love a good tumour joke. Calypso is simultaneously Sedaris's darkest and warmest book yet - and it just might be his very best.

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More Information

Format: Paperback
 Pages: 272
 Edition: 01
 Publisher: Little, Brown
Published: 29 May 2018
ISBN 10: 1408707829
ISBN 13: 9781408707821

Media Reviews
Firmly grounded in the present, but with the same sense of twisted nostalgia that has always marked his best work * Mail Online *
Unquestionably the king of comic writing . . . Calypso is both funnier and more heartbreaking than pretty much anything out there -- Hadley Freeman * Guardian *
We get more of a glimpse than we have before of what lies behind the carapace of a writer who seems able to turn almost any situation to comic gold . . . [an] incredibly funny and sometimes moving meditation on love, death and family life, by a master of his craft * Sunday Times *
Entrancing . . . This book allows us to observed not just the nimble-mouthed elf of his previous work, but a man in his seventh decade expunging his darker secrets and contemplating mortality . . . The brilliance of David Sedaris's writing is that his very essence, his aura, seeps through the pages of his books like an intoxicating cloud, mesmerising us so that his logic becomes ours -- Alan Cumming * Scotsman *
Calypso is another triumph from the dinner-table raconteur we all wish we could be, a writer whose lightness of touch makes you confront the hardest of truths - and laugh out loud * Esquire *
Hilarious and moving . . . Sedaris may well be the master of the deadpan delivery - there's plenty of laughing out loud while you read. But Calypso is also a tender portrait of a family, flawed - like any other - but doing their best to love each other -- Lucy Scholes * Independent *

This is a darker, deeper David Sedaris writing about his sister's suicide, the inevitability of ageing and how it's impossible to take a vacation away from yourself, but, rest assured, he's still one of the funniest, most perceptive
writers alive

* Red *
Although Sedaris is famous for being funny, he does pain heartbreakingly well. His observations are wry and witty and eye-wateringly honest and you'll be so sad when it's over * Evening Standard *
First-rate comedy gold . . . For Sedaris, the boundary between light and dark is blurred. Life's pain and humiliation coexist in every living moment with its jollity and deliciousness. Which elevates his musings on the bodily and social travails of being a man in late middle age to a level of seriously sublime silliness. As ever, Sedaris's irreverent writing is a serious joy; this collection is a must for anyone with a strong stomach who needs a laugh -- Melissa Katsoulis * The Times *
Heartbreak and hilarity collide . . . [Calypso] captures the surrealism of the mundane and the funny old thing we like to call life * Attitude *
The American humourist's latest collection of pieces, about life's strange twists and turns, will have you shrieking with laughter and also, possibly, just shrieking * Mail on Sunday *
From malformed turtles to his FitBit obsession, this is comic art in motion. Be warned though: we picked up one Sedaris book and two weeks later we'd finished his entire output * Emerald Street *
Author Bio
With sardonic wit and incisive social critiques, David Sedaris has become one of America's pre-eminent humor writers. The great skill with which he slices through cultural euphemisms and political correctness proves that Sedaris is a master of satire and one of the most observant writers addressing the human condition today. David Sedaris is the author of Barrel Fever and Holidays on Ice, as well as collections of personal essays, Naked, Me Talk Pretty One Day, Dress Your Family in Corduroy and Denim, When You Are Engulfed in Flames and his most recent book, Let's Explore Diabetes with Owls, each of which became an immediate bestseller. The audio version of Let's Explore Diabetes With Owls was a Grammy nominee for Best Spoken Word Album. He is the author of the New York Times-bestselling collection of fables entitled Squirrel Seeks Chipmunk: A Wicked Bestiary (with illustrations by Ian Falconer). He was also the editor of Children Playing Before a Statue of Hercules: An Anthology of Outstanding Stories. Sedaris's pieces appear regularly in the New Yorker and have twice been included in 'The Best American Essays'. There are a total of ten million copies of his books in print and they have been translated into twenty-nine languages.