Calypso is the latest of David Sedaris’ collections of essays that I listened to on audiobook. As always, I liked it, but some of these essay collections are becoming a bit repetitive? I don’t know if it’s because I’ve heard so many of Sedaris’ stories before or if it’s because they’re really repeating, but I felt like I knew several of these pretty well already, including ‘Now We Are Five,’ which Sedaris wrote after his youngest sister, Tiffany, committed suicide.
Anyway, in spite of the fact that I felt like I had heard some of these stories before, this is an excellent collection of stories. Sedaris’ observation of the world around us and his wit in interpreting them and sharing them, are not fading as he ages. And this book is very much about middle age and the stark reality that most of his future is now behind him.
Anyway, Calypso did not disappoint. I very much loved listening to Sedaris’ tell us about getting a stomach bug while on a book tour and his realization that his body will eventually betray him. It was a darkly funny book that offered belly laughs.
Tag Archives: genre: memoir
Calypso
Food: A Love Story
This isn’t my first of Jim Gaffigan’s books so I knew what I was getting into when I signed up. Sure enough, it is Jim Gaffigan talking about food he enjoys.
This book is enjoyable, I enjoy Gaffigan’s self-deprecating sense of humor and his admiration of his wife. I also appreciate his love of food and his rather dark sense of humor on appetites in the United States:
If aliens studied Earth, they would come to the conclusion that the United States is somehow consuming food on behalf of other countries.
The problem I ran into with this book wasn’t the book itself but the audiobook narration. I love Gaffigan’s standup routines, but Gaffigan talks a little too fast for his audiobooks in my opinion. He’s funny, don’t get me wrong, I just wish he’d slow down a bit. It does give off the stream of consciousness impression rather than the “I’m reading a book” impression, I just don’t always love it.
That said, the text is very funny and Gaffigan did make me laugh quite a bit, so even if the audiobook narration wasn’t my favorite, it didn’t ruin the experience.
Scrappy Little Nobody
I cannot remember why Anna Kendrick’s memoir, Scrappy Little Nobody, was the first book I chose to read/listen to in 2020, but it was. I think I might have liked the title, honestly. And it was great to find out Anna was basically playing different versions of herself in her films, because she is such a dork, and I relate.
I always like celebrities who seem like they could be me. Anna’s stories in the book are both funny and endearing. I liked her recollections of her (very) early career and her views on child acting. I enjoyed the fact that it felt like she didn’t believe her life either, that she was just as shocked as the rest of us that she was a famous actress, and that she felt like she had imposter syndrome.
Her book wasn’t very long, about 250ish pages, and I was amused all they way through. It’s a fun, light hearted read that is perfect for a couple of days at the beach.
I will also say it’s a great book for a car ride – Anna Kendrick did her own audiobook reading, and that was a great move. Anna was great at it. I’ve heard some actors/actresses reading their own work and not being so great at it, but she did a great job. I really appreciated her phrasing and tone.
Short, fun book. If you like Anna Kendrick, go for Scrappy Little Nobody.
Carrie Fisher’s Shockaholic & Wishful Drinking
Shockaholic and Wishful Drinking are separate books by Carrie Fisher. I listened to The Princess Diarist not long after Fisher died, and as much as I enjoyed it, I ended up putting off reading these other two books. There are certain celebrity deaths that I am affected by, and Carrie Fisher is one of those (the other that immediately comes to mind is Robin Williams). But in 2019 I finally read both, back to back.
Wishful Drinking is the older book, a short book based on Fisher’s one woman show, and it was very funny. Fisher’s books are sort of dysfunctional memoirs. Fisher loves to highlight not only how wild her outside life was, but also how wild her inner life was, as she had bipolar disorder as well as struggling with substance abuse. Shockaholic continues on these themes, and Fisher goes into detail regarding her time using electroshock therapy. She credits it with greatly improving her mental illness/depression.
Some of Fisher’s stories are completely absurd, but she is consistently funny in both books. Her wordplay is witty and sharp, and some of her funniest moments are her tangents. Some criticisms I’ve seen include that Fisher is a product of Hollywood and it shows, but she *is* a product of Hollywood, so wouldn’t in show? She does seem rather self-aware. Certain critics – usually male – also seem put off by her frank descriptions of her experience with mental illness, which I will never criticize anyone for, because it’s different for everyone.
These books are short and funny and very honest. Any Carrie Fisher fan should definitely read them. They’re great airplane material, especially if you want to upset a complete stranger next to you, giggling through your flight.
Theft by Finding: Diaries 1977-2002
Ah yes, Theft By Finding – my return to David Sedaris.
After 2016 I basically didn’t pay any attention to Sedaris again until last year when I borrowed this audiobook from the library. I actually went to one of his readings for this book, which was highly enjoyable. I had planned to get an autograph but it was Sunday night and I couldn’t wait on the line since I had to work the next day.
This book was essentially diary entries of Sedaris’s from 1977-2002, and he admits he went back and filled in some gaps and made sure everything made sense before putting them out.
I loved these stories. Whether they’re tales of his early work in construction or of his family at the beach, I enjoyed them thoroughly – although not the 9/11 entry so much. To me, that entry, while well written, felt lost to me. I guess we all felt lost then. It brought back too much of that feeling of waiting around with nothing to do, waiting for something to happen that never happens. I hated that feeling. I hated remembering that feeling.
I think what I like most about Sedaris, and maybe he’s done this on purpose, but maybe he hasn’t, is that feeling he invokes of being a passenger and observer in his own life. He is observing, but he also somehow gives the impression that he has zero control over what happens to him. He randomly ends up on the street buying pot in the middle of the night because his roommate was supposed to do it, but he went to go get laid instead, so David had to do it because his roommate talked him into coming. (This isn’t an actual example, but it’s just the kind of thing Sedaris does – things happen to him like he has no choice in it).
Maybe some people find this annoying. Even I do sometimes. But I think part of Sedaris’s appeal to me is that I often feel like a passenger/observer taking part in my own life. There’s all that “Oh, you’re the heroine of your own story” bullshit out there, but really, I’m not fully in control of my own circumstances 90% of the time, and a lot of the time, I feel like everyone else on the stage and I’m the only person in the audience.
I even managed to hook my husband on Sedaris with this book, because I made him listen to portions of it in the car with me when we went places. I’m looking forward to his next batch, which is supposedly a thing that’s happening (supposedly 2003 – present-ish).
Also, “theft by finding” is a real thing. According to Wikipedia:
Theft by finding occurs when someone chances upon an object which seems abandoned and takes possession of the object but fails to take steps to establish whether the object is genuinely abandoned and not merely lost or unattended.
I really like this phrase and idea for some reason.
Theft By Finding was a solid series of essays/diary entries. Any David Sedaris fan will enjoy it.
The Princess Diarist
Losing Carrie Fisher in 2016 bothered me. I loved and admired her from afar, the way many did. I thought she was brave, and she was funny, and she was brilliant.
I borrowed and listened to The Princess Diarist because I missed her, and I wanted to hear about her affair with Harrison Ford. Not exactly the most serious reason, but a reason all the same.
I loved the parts where she read her diary. I get that part. I get the teenage girl/young woman stuff. The part where her daughter read her poetry/stream of consciousness? Not so much. I am not good at poetry.
There wasn’t a lot about the making of Star Wars, but there was a lot of insight into the heart of a young woman from the perspective of her older self. I relate! I angsted so much as a teenager. Now…not so much.
It was a short book – I think I listened to the whole thing in one to two afternoons. Worth it if you want some gossipy deets on a steamy affair and the classic overthinking of everything by someone new to the sex game. Not worth it if you wanted a lot of cool Star Wars info. I didn’t need the Star Wars info to enjoy it.
I liked The Princess Diarist and its look at Carrie Fisher, who has been one of my heroines since I watched her blow out the grate on the Death Star and say, “into the garbage shoot, fly boy!” and always will be one of my heroines for her writing talent, her sharp wit and biting humor, and her always honest evaluation of herself.
Her last memoir is deeply personal and lovely. It made me miss her. I never met her, but I miss her.
Paddle Your Own Canoe: One Man’s Fundamentals for Delicious Living
Nick Offerman’s Paddle Your Own Canoe was the other book I read on my honeymoon. It was beachier reading than Smoke, for sure. It was way less dense and funny.
For those who don’t know, Nick Offerman played hyper-masculine Ron Swanson on NBC’s little-engine-that-could comedy Parks and Recreation. I have only seen a few episodes of Parks and Recreation, so I know very little about Ron Swanson, but I did know of him, and I feel that speaks to the popularity of the character and the actor.
Anyway, Paddle Your Own Canoe is, basically, a memoir. Offerman reflects on his life growing up in Bumblefuck, Illinois. I apologize profusely for referring to wherever Offerman grew up as Bumblefuck, but I can’t remember the actual name and Offerman himself said it was a very small Illinois town that was hours from the nearest city. So again, my apologies to Bumblefuck, Illinois for not remembering its real name.
It chronicled how Offerman got into acting and comedy, and gave bits of life advice that are obvious but quite a bit invaluable in many ways, especially when stated so plainly. Example: find something you can do that you enjoy or makes you money or both. Offerman learned carpentry and this skill kept him from completely starving to death during his “paying his dues” years in “the business.” He still spends a lot of time making things out of reclaimed wood. It’s a hobby turned business that he deeply enjoys. And while this seems like and obvious tidbit, it really clicks when someone actually says it.
The book also tells the story of how Offerman met his wife, Megan Mullalley (Karen on Will and Grace) and their life together.
Paddle Your Own Canoe was a really fun read. I enjoyed it immensely because (while he insists otherwise) Offerman is clearly a funny, intelligent man who thinks for himself and whose life philosophy is, basically, the same one I subscribe to: don’t be an asshole. He also seems to have the same quiet pride in his country that I do, which basically boils down to “It’s not perfect, but it has its own, original brilliance of a governement experiment to be proud of, its ideals for us to reach for, and we’re working on it.”
So me and Nick Offerman are basically the same person, except he has way better facial hair. So…I wrote Paddle Your Own Canoe. You should read it. I also starred in Parks and Recreation. You should watch it. I’m taking credit for it now.
Kitchen Confidential and Medium Raw
I listened to two Anthony Bourdain books this year, both read by the author. The first one was Medium Raw: A Bloody Valentine to the World of Food and the People Who Cook and the second was Kitchen Confidential: Adventures in the Culinary Underbelly.
As you probably know, Kitchen Confidential was the book that made Bourdain famous and the one that was probably the most shocking. Of the two, I liked it less.
I didn’t dislike it because of the content – the content was just fine. It was Bourdain reading it. He sounded monotone and kind of bored, and you think that maybe he recorded this book back before he’d really mastered his public persona. He does a 180 in Medium Raw, during which he sounds lively, funny, and engaged in what he’s reading.
A lot of people don’t like Anthony Bourdain. A lot of people see him as one of those guys who never grew out of the smart ass, teenage bad boy thing. He acts like he’s a badass but you don’t really believe him. They say he’s angry, and he can be vulgar and brutal. I always just thought he was being honest.
I’ve always liked his style. He’s gruff and says some wacky stuff from time to time, but Bourdain, to me, is very cool, and he’s cool because he doesn’t care what you think. He doesn’t care if he’s cool, if you think he’s cool, or what you think about him either way. He is what he is and he does what he does, and that kind of honesty and self-assuredness, is the coolest thing anyone can possibly achieve.
Both books are similar – stories of Bourdain’s time in kitchens, how the industry worked, in Medium Raw he talks about what’s changed about the industry since he wrote Kitchen Confidential, etc…
I found both books funny, but Medium Raw funnier, because Bourdain’s sense of humor about himself is on full display. He did it in Kitchen Confidential, too, but it was different. It’s easy to make fun of yourself as a goofy kid just out of college who thinks he’s really cool. It’s much harder to make fun of yourself as an adult who is supposed to be taking himself and his career very seriously.
Medium Raw also torches the Food TV industrial complex that has emerged in the last 20 or so years. That book actually came out in 2010, so Bourdain was criticizing actual chefs who had never worked in restaurants. As someone who really used to enjoy watching those chefs Bourdain made fun of on Food Network, I have to say that in 2018, Food Network kinda sucks now. They used to have actual TV personality chefs making things for most of their programming. Now we mostly watch food based reality TV shows, which are kind of interesting sometimes but mostly bore me to tears. I used to love turning Food Network on during the holidays and see what people used to make their own holidays special. Now it’s just, like, sad people competing to see who can build the biggest most structurally sound gingerbread house.
Sorry, tangent. My point is, I get where Bourdain is coming from even if he caught a lot of shit for it (and he DID catch a lot of shit for it).
I found Bourdain’s stream-of-consciousness style both endearing and conversational, writing the way most of us talk (although without maybe using so many F-bombs). I liked the stories. I know from these books that I could never work in a kitchen, so that is one regret I don’t have to suffer.
Plus, I’m a fairly adventurous eater. I’m not Bourdain’s level of adventurous (I enjoy his TV shows as well, although I don’t watch them often), but it’s nice to hear about food from someone who knows about food. If it wasn’t for him, I probably never would have tried oysters (which I now love) because I just didn’t know what to do with them.
The bottom line is that both books were enjoyable food-centric memoirs. And who doesn’t love food-centric stuff?
Good Hunting: An American Spymaster’s Story
I don’t remember where I picked up Good Hunting: An American Spymaster’s Story. Probably at Barnes & Noble. But I do remember why I picked it up. Our intelligence agencies have been under attack, particularly by Donald Trump, since before he was elected president. And I wanted to have a better idea of what happened at the CIA and got the opportunity.
The author, Jack Devine, worked for the CIA from the 1960s through the 1990s and now runs some kind of “security” company – which sounds like a fancy spy agency, when he describes what his new company does. He says that although he retired in 1999, he could probably have a tail on somebody faster than just about anyone else in the world. I thought this was slightly outlandish, but now I believe him.
Devine started as someone who worked in the CIA equivalent of the mail room and who rose through the ranks to become a high ranking executive. Among other things, he ran covert ops on at least three continents, lived abroad with his wife and children, and knew Aldrich Ames, one of the biggest traitors in the history of the CIA and in modern American history.
The book was fascinating. I read this one. It took me about a month because of wedding planning, but it isn’t a very long book and should be considered a must read of contemporary American history.
Devine recounts for readers how the CIA worked while he was there, and his recipes for “good hunting” – running successful spy operations that endanger as few people as possible while also gathering the most useful possible information from the most reliable sources possible. Devine details how he built relationships with his informants, how the agency operated during his time there, and what he viewed as his and his colleagues’ successes and failures during his career.
Devine also goes into what he believes are problems with the agency now, the biggest being that the emphasis of gathering intelligence has been placed on the backburner and that the CIA is involved in too many paramilitary operations and the jobs that they used to do – meeting people, gathering information and cultivating reliable sources – have been given to the military, who don’t do as good a job because they aren’t trained to do that job. The CIA has also been ensnared bureaucracy and, of late, has been highly politicized.
As interesting as the book was, I had to read it with some grains of salt. Devine worked for the CIA, and still thinks quite highly of it. Everything he says could be lies and considering it’s his legacy, he has plenty of reasons to lie.
That said, I don’t think he’s lying. I think he may sanitize some of the harsher truths and the role he played in some of the stuff that went on, but I don’t think he’s lying outright. I could be entirely wrong, of course, but he strikes me as a man of integrity. He never once calls himself a patriot, but I would call him one. He does call his colleagues patriots, and with few exceptions, thinks very highly of them, even when he disagreed with them either politically or with the actions they chose doing their jobs. It was very refreshing not to hear someone trashing their colleagues left, right, and sideways for attention.
Lastly, some of the good writing in this book is clearly attributed to cowriter Vernon Loeb, who is a professional writer. Props for that.
I highly recommend Good Hunting. Part memoir, part history lesson, I thought it was a well written, highly educational, and very enjoyable read for anyone interested in the inner-workings of the CIA.
words in scarlet ink 