Whenever a new David Sedaris book of humorous essays lands in my inbox, it’s like Christmas morning for me. I can’t wait to park myself in my La-Z-girl, and settle in for hours of gentle reading with a smile on my face. His latest book, The Land and Its People, Essays, did not disappoint. Sedaris recounts everyday events and encounters with the people who cross his path, from a humorous perspective. Growing up gay in a household of six children and an insensitive, Trump-loving father, the author had plenty of great material to draw from at an early age.

It’s his earlier years that are the most entertaining to read about. With a history of drug and alcohol abuse, he made more than his share of mistakes in life. To his credit, however, he managed to support himself by working as a cleaning lady, a mover, a department store Christmas elf, and other low-paying jobs that kept him in drugs, alcohol, and cigarettes until he finally cleaned himself up and produced a series of wonderful books that made him a New York Times best-selling author. As often happens in large families, his siblings are equally colourful, including his sister, the well-known comedienne Amy Sedaris.

In The Land and Its People, Sedaris includes his take on replacing human service personnel with machines and technology. Like me, he hates self-checkout. “The person who used to scan everything now stands beside you with a vest on, complaining that you’re not doing it properly.” As someone who has been known to summon help for three of the four items I’m checking out myself, I can relate. I recently read that a local government somewhere passed a law stating that customers who used self-checkout were to be given a 10% discount. Yay! Finally, some recognition that we’re doing someone else’s job and should be compensated accordingly.

When he was recently summoned, along with a diverse group of fellow humourists to meet the Pope in the Vatican, he suffered from a major case of imposter syndrome. “It was like a reproduction of The Last Supper with one of the disciples replaced by Snoopy”. In typical Sedaris style, he vastly understates his talent and his appeal.

One of my favourite chapters of the book is titled Punching Down, where he explains his views on today’s gentle parenting styles. “I see parents now who worry they’re being abusive if they don’t spend at least an hour putting their child to bed. An hour! I said to my sister Amy, ‘Do you remember ever once being tucked in?” Baby boomers were raised very differently from today’s child-rearing strategies. As a result, “We can handle stuff. We never get offended by anything.” He has little time for parents who proudly boast about their “amazing” offspring who did not discover the cure for MS, but can speak three words of Spanish.

To better understand and feel for the life and writing of David Sedaris, I highly recommend reading some of his earlier books as well. I particularly enjoyed Dress Your Family in Corduroy and Denim, When You Are Engulfed in Flames, or Me Talk Pretty One Day. Like so many creative people, he takes adversity and difficulty and turns these experiences into art. Songwriters are famous for doing this, and it’s a joy to read about someone’s life lessons described through humour. As someone who loves writing essays (the only thing I enjoyed doing in school, except Saturday morning bowling), reading essays by a master is so uplifting. Anything by David Sedaris puts a smile on my face and helps me forget the sorry state of this old world.

If you are unable to obtain The Land and Its People at your local library or bookstore,

it is available on Amazon.ca in hardcover for $39.87.

or

You can get it on Kindle for only $14.99 on Amazon.com, which is a considerable saving, even taking the exchange on the Canadian dollar into consideration.