The Barnes & Noble Review
Back in 2007, in the wake of the brouhaha over James Frey's fabricated memoirs, David Sedaris received some flak for straying from the strictly factual in his personal narratives — yet classifying them as nonfiction rather than fiction. In our current era of alarming "alternative facts," drawing clear lines between fact and fiction has never seemed so important.
But comic writers have always received a special dispensation when it comes to accuracy. We who consider Sedaris a Great American Humorist applaud the way he shapes and embellishes his stories, helping us to perform a sort of mental Pilates, tilting and stretching our perceptions to reveal core truths. Do I care whether he markets his books as memoirs or fiction? Not really — just so long as he keeps producing them.
Sedaris addresses these issues — obliquely — with the publication of Theft by Finding, the first of two planned volumes of selections from his diaries. In pulling back the curtain on some of the source material for his work, he provides an invaluable peek into what struck him as worthy of note over the years and, more interestingly, how he transformed himself between 1977 and 2002 from a meth-fueled college dropout living hand-to-mouth on odd jobs to a wildly successful writer and performer.
Sedaris generally finds material for his writing close at hand, and his diaries are filled with accounts of close encounters of the uncomfortable kind, many of which eventually made it into his books, beginning with Barrel Fever, Naked, and Me Talk Pretty One Day. These experiences include disturbing homophobic taunts and gobs of spit launched at him in 1970s–'80s Raleigh, North Carolina, his hometown; being trapped in planes for hours beside unbearably loquacious seatmates; and enough incidents of vitriol and violence outside bars or inside a Chicago IHOP, his de facto cafeteria and hangout for years, to make you want to retreat to a monastery. There are riffs on his chalk-throwing French teacher at the Alliance Française in Paris and on his obsessive patrolling for roadside litter near his home in Sussex, England. And, of course, there are reports through the decades on the close-knit Family Sedaris.
Just don't expect the whole truth and nothing but the truth in these accounts. Diaries, like memoirs, are by their nature subjective. And as Sedaris states up front, "It's worth mentioning that this is my edit. Of the roughly eight million words handwritten or typed into my diary since September 5, 1977, I'm including only a small fraction. An entirely different book from the same source material could make me appear nothing but evil, selfish, generous, or even, dare I say, sensitive."
N.B.: Some entries have been revised as well as expurgated. Is it any wonder that a beautiful stylist who hones his work through live performances and countless drafts couldn't resist a few tweaks? "I have rewritten things when they were unclear or, as was more often the case in the early years, when the writing was clunky and uninviting," he notes. In other words, what we're reading has been filtered many times over through the fine strainer of David Sedaris's exacting literary standards. We've been spared the dreck. What's left may have been enhanced for maximum effect. It is never boring.
Intentionally or not, the quarter century covered in this volume presents a quintessentially American rags-to-riches narrative arc. The earliest entries are the bleakest, excavated from "solid walls of words," much of it "complete bullshit." It's a portrait of the artist in a perpetual funk — broke, drugged, doing filthy maintenance work at his parents' Raleigh rental properties or picking fruit out west, living on pancake mix augmented by occasional care packages from his mother. Still, you can spot the germ of Sedaris's offbeat sensibility in observations like this, from 1981: "Half the people I know have dead animals in their freezers: reptiles, birds, mammals. Is that normal?"
By 1982, Sedaris was seriously thinking about going back to college, declaring, "I used to think I could teach myself anything I needed to know, but I'm not sure I believe that anymore. I'd like to be educated and mature." Leaving Raleigh for the School of the Art Institute of Chicago in winter 1984 is the first major turning point of his life, though he's still doing drugs and barely supporting himself with poorly paid hourly labor, stripping wood and cleaning houses. But his ambition has been woken, and in an extraordinary entry dated February 1988, the recent graduate is remarkably clear about his values:
Reasons to live:
1. Christmas
2. The family beach trip
3. Writing a published book
4. Seeing my name in a magazine
5. Watching C. grow bald
6. Ronnie Ruedrich
7. Seeing Amy on TV
8. Other people's books
9. Outliving my enemies
10. Being interviewed by Terry Gross on Fresh Air
Within months of writing this wish list, he lands a job teaching a writing workshop at the Art Institute, and his sister Amy makes it into the Second City touring company. About his own achievement, he comments, "Dad is super proud of me" — a situation rare enough to mention. (Years later, in 2001, when his sister Lisa tells their father that David is No. 1 on the New York Times bestseller list, he says, "Well, he sure isn't No. 1 on the Wall Street Journal.")
The next big turning point for Sedaris was moving to New York City in 1990. His first entries note the high cost of pot and groceries, and the ubiquity of electrical tape in stores. He meets Hugh Hamrick when borrowing a ladder and comments shortly, "This spring I am, if I'm not mistaken, in love." He's cleaning fancier homes than he's ever seen but also lands a job as an elf in Macy's SantaLand. Fans know what the airing of that story, on Ira Glass's Morning Edition in December 1992, led to — but I don't recall this hilarious line: "Yesterday a woman had her son pee into a cup, which of course tipped over. 'That's fine,' I said, 'but Santa's also going to need a stool sample.' "
Before the books start coming, along with the endless global reading tours, and the moves abroad to France and then England, he and Amy write and produce a number of Off-Broadway plays. Ben Brantley raves in The New York Times in a 1997 overall review of the Lincoln Center Festival (which included the Sedarises' "Incident at Cobbler's Knob"), "This brother-and-sister playwriting team has an unparalleled ear for American cultural clichés and an equally fine hand for twisting those clichés into devastating absurdity."
Meanwhile, his mother dies not long after her lung cancer diagnosis, his father continues to carp on him, and Tiffany, the youngest of his four sisters (who committed suicide in 2013), frequently calls in tears, increasingly unhinged, ranting and picking fights.
As Sedaris's literary star rises in the early 1990s, his diary becomes noticeably more artful — and funnier. Many entries are obviously crafted to be read aloud at live events, dry runs for stories featuring Stadium Pals, pet spiders, aggressive beggars, and his uphill battle with the French language. While his diaries in general tend toward the descriptive and observational over the confessional, Sedaris occasionally mentions his feelings, such as his guilt over having "fallen deeper into the luxury pit" after moving into a fancily renovated Paris apartment: "We sit around like people in a magazine, but it's not the sort of magazine I'd ever subscribe to," he writes in August 2001.
Theft by Finding takes its title from a British expression for discovering something of value and keeping it. These diary entries have value, all right. Sedaris has essentially raided his own deep freezer for this book — and serves up a surprisingly satisfying meal from the choicest items.
Heller McAlpin is a New York–based critic who reviews books for NPR.org, The Los Angeles Times, Washington Post, San Francisco Chronicle, Christian Science Monitor, and other publications. Reviewer: Heller McAlpin
The New York Times Book Review - Patton Oswalt
…ignore [Sedaris's] modest plea in the introduction: "I don't really expect anyone to read this from start to finish. It seems more like the sort of thing you might dip in and out of, like someone else's yearbook or a collection of jokes." A yearbook or a collection of jokes doesn't have the elliptical, weirdly addictive narrative of Theft by Finding…Start from the beginning: Sept. 5, 1977…And then keep reading until the final entry…through all 25 years of Theft by Finding—of soap opera addictions and spider feeding, family kookiness…and language lessons—Sedaris's developing voice is the lifeline that pulls him through the murk. In the last year of the diaries, with Sedaris a now-established best-selling author and world traveler, the prickly Southern wit is still intact and sparkling…
Publishers Weekly
★ 03/13/2017
This American Life and New Yorker humorist Sedaris (Naked) displays the raw material for his celebrated essays with these scintillating excerpts from his personal journals. Sedaris collects entries stretching back to his penniless salad days working odd jobs (apple picker, construction worker, house cleaner, a now-famous stint as a Christmas elf), hanging out at the International House of Pancakes and wrestling half-heartedly with drink and drugs. He moves on to his breakthrough as a memoirist and playwright and then to later embroilments and obsessions, including a fixation on feeding flies to pet spiders. Here as elsewhere, Sedaris is a latter-day Charlie Chaplin: droll, put-upon but not innocent, and besieged by all sorts of obstreperous or menacing folks. The frequent appearance of colorful weirdos spouting pithy dialogue may strike some readers as unlikely to be entirely true. But Sedaris’s storytelling, even in diary jottings, is so consistently well-crafted and hilarious that few will care whether it’s embroidered. (May)
From the Publisher
PRAISE FOR THEFT BY FINDING:
"Starve and Struggle. Feast. Bloat. These are the three stages that all artists - with some variation - go through in their careers...So it's encouraging to read 25 years of David Sedaris's diaries, and not just because he manages to defeat Bloat. It's helpful to see that a voice as original, hilarious and sometimes as infuriating as his was put through the same Struggle and Starve meat grinder that most of us go through...No one escapes Bloat, but many survive it. Maybe not with the grace, whining, hilarity and eye-rolling that Sedaris does. But through all 25 years of "Theft by Finding" - of soap opera addictions and spider feeding, family kookiness and language lessons - Sedaris's developing voice is the lifeline that pulls him through the murk."
—Patton Oswalt, New York Times Book Review
"If it's hard to be funny, it's an astounding feat to stay funny—wildly, wickedly, ingeniously so—for more than twenty years. Yet David Sedaris has somehow pulled it off, in exhilarating essays that zero in on the absurd and the poignant with eviscerating wit and radiant humanity....Fans will no doubt delight in the entries that will turn into Sedaris's most beloved essays...We're treated to a portrait of the artist as a young man, albeit one with an old and singular soul."
—Fiona Maazel, O, The Oprah Magazine
"A standout... Whether he's in an IHOP in Raleigh or his apartment in the 6th arrondissement of Paris, his eye for the absurd and the vulgar is infallible and his deadpan prose style inimitable...Here, the relatively artless diary entries, short and long, sequenced and non sequitur, add up to something we've never gotten before—a big, juicy narrative arc. It comprises 25 years of an essentially heartwarming success story, any potential ickiness kept in check by Sedaris's judicious minimalism."
—Marion Winik, Newsday
"Mesmerizing... Delightful... Sedaris describes the world around him... the vast and splendid array of human life that can be observed at IHOP, or the vagaries of fruit picking... Reading Theft by Finding is like watching a favorite play from behind the scenes, in the company of a friend who can identify what is absurd and heartbreaking and human about every person on stage."
—Annalisa Quinn, NPR
"Sedaris, a master of incisive and comic cultural criticism, is about to get more personal than ever...Theft by Finding reveals intimate details of this literary luminary's life and mind—all told with his singular sense of humor."
—Harper's Bazaar
"Sedaris fans will thrill to this opportunity to poke around in the writer's personal diaries, which he has faithfully kept for four decades and used as raw material for his hilarious nonfiction as well as his performances."
—Paul S. Makishima, Boston Globe
"If you've had the good fortune of seeing Sedaris on tour, you've probably heard him read from one of his snarky and hilariously solipsistic diary entries. Finally, they're collected in one place for the first time."
—Entertainment Weekly
"Randomly open to any page of Theft by Finding and you'll find a gem... Sedaris's gift is to make you stop and think one moment and laugh out loud the next."—Rob Merrill, Associated Press
"Here, in these as-it-happened accounts and jottings, is a rich chunk of the mother lode from which David Sedaris has mined his personal essays and performances. The extracts in Theft by Finding cover what may be called the disconsolate IHOP years, when he was a college dropout, rootless casual worker and aspiring artist, and those during which he became a celebrity.... The appeal of these diary entries lies in their spareness and in Sedaris's boundless relish for the absurdity of life.... The Sedaris of these diaries is, above all, a connoisseur of annoying things and of bothersome and downright dreadful people."
—Katherine A. Powers, Washington Post
"This is Sedaris, who can be wickedly funny as well as deliciously insightful about modern mores - so the nuggets are big and shiny and well worth panning for... His eccentric existence is eminently enthralling."—David Holahan, USA Today
"The thrill of Sedaris's nonfiction lies in the absurd details of his memories, burnished with...polish and comic timing...Now we'll finally have access to the raw material — fragments of the writer's personal diaries that you might recognize from the banter in his prolific and hilarious live readings."
—Boris Kachka, New York
"Of course you're going to buy, read, laugh, ponder, read. He is one of our best comic writers, one of our most thought-provoking, and—who knew?—a dedicated diarist."
—John Timpane, Philadelphia Inquirer
"Sedaris's diaries are the wellspring for his cuttingly funny autobiographical essays, and he now presents a mesmerizing volume of deftly edited passages...Sedaris is caustically witty about his bad habits and artistic floundering...A candid, socially incisive, and sharply amusing chronicle of the evolution of an arresting comedic artist."
—Donna Seaman, Booklist (starred review)
"Raw glimpses of the humorist's personal life as he clambered from starving artist to household name...Though the mood is usually light, the book is also a more serious look into his travails as an artist and person...A surprisingly poignant portrait of the artist as a young to middle-aged man."
—Kirkus (Starred Review)
"A David Sedaris book is always a welcome addition to any personal library - his hilarity, his self-deprecation, his compassion for (and amusement with) the human condition, and his clear joy at making his readers laugh out loud are all what make a David Sedaris book great."—E. Ce Miller, Bustle
"Peak Sedaris...A real journey, and catnip for his most loyal fans."
—Jinnie Lee and Maura M. Lynch, WMagazine.com
"For those curious about the mind of a comic genius, this is a great place to start."
—Melissa Kravitz, amNewYork
"Filled with rich and unfailingly sharp observations...There are moments of sadness...but this is not a sad book; instead, it's a gloriously weird one...This is a diary that shows us how Sedaris's powers of observation and his intense investment in his own perspective have enriched his life and, by extension, ours."—Kelly Blewett, BookPage
"Scintillating... Sedaris is a latter-day Charlie Chaplin: droll, put-upon but not innocent, and besieged by all sorts of obstreperous or menacing folks... Sedaris's storytelling, even in diary jottings, is consistently well-crafted and hilarious."—Publishers Weekly (Starred Review)
"Wildly entertaining....This book is flat-out memerizing."
—Laurie Hertzel, Minneapolis Star-Tribune
"A summer in which there is a new Sedaris book is the very definition of a good summer."—Ann Patchett, author of Commonwealth
"Diary entries shouldn't be this good, but considering Sedaris's output, it's not surprising that this collection is a worthy addition to his name...Like much of Sedaris's deceivingly simple prose, the enjoyment comes not from its very basic conceit but its sharp observations and bone-dry humor."—Caitlin PenzeyMoog, A.V. Club
"The Sedaris diaries are laced with snark, wit and trenchant observations, personal and public."—Jim Higgins, Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel
"As brilliant and hilarious as anything Sedaris has previously published."
—Zack Ruskin, SF Weekly
Library Journal - Audio
10/01/2017
Humorist Sedaris's first volume of diaries offers his unique point of view in snippets from the years 1977-2002. The entries are irregular in length and veer wildly from topic to topic. In them you will find funny snark; portraits of ugly racism, sexism, and homophobia; Sedaris's drug use; life as a teacher, writer, and odd-job man; reliance on his parents; watching his sister's (Amy Sedaris) success; and his own slow journey toward his own. There are usually no connections between the short entries, and the author himself suggests that this is the kind of material to dip into at random and just listen for a while. Sedaris reads the entries himself, giving them authenticity and the intended delivery. With its eclectic, disconnected, and brief pieces, this is the ideal library checkout. However much of the audiobook the listener is able to get to before it's due back, it will be a rewarding experience. VERDICT Recommended for aspiring authors, NPR listeners, people interested in late 20th-century experiences, and, of course, fans of snark. ["For Sedaris fans, this is a primary source not to miss, but even the more casual reader will be drawn in, as the author comes into his own as a writer and a person": LJ 4/15/17 review of the Little, Brown hc.]—Tristan Boyd, Austin, TX
Library Journal
04/15/2017
For decades, Sedaris has engaged readers with artfully constructed essays of his and his family's experiences. His diaries have served as source material for those pieces, and this collection of selected diary entries provides new stories, vulgar jokes, and social commentary that have not previously appeared in his writing. While his essays are crafted to present a particular persona and possess a wry tone, reading the same situation in the diaries fills in the edges and makes Sedaris (and his family) more fully rounded people as we see the trajectory of their lives unfold over time. Of particular interest are details of his collaborations with his sister Amy. Here Sedaris is still a keen observer of the world, but he's also a man who must get to work, navigate sexual relationships, and consider the price of chicken. VERDICT For Sedaris fans, this is a primary source not to miss, but even the more casual reader will be drawn in, as the author comes into his own as a writer and a person.—Margaret Heller, Loyola Univ. Chicago Libs.
MAY 2017 - AudioFile
Only David Sedaris should narrate books by David Sedaris. He’s simply wonderful. Covering the period ranging from his starving early days to his much-deserved outrageous success, these diary entries are well worth hearing, including an entire entry of “uh’s.” Even his unfinished ramblings are well crafted, and Sedaris is truly a delight to hear. He’s candid about his early drug use and drinking, self-deprecating about perceived flaws, and completely honest about his emotions. With his inimitable sweetly sarcastic delivery, he precisely records encounters with anti-gay thugs and gay perverts and recounts examples of the ignorant sexist, racist, and vicious comments he experiences. Everyone who listens to these diary entries, beginning in 1977 and going through 2002, will be satisfied, but waiting eagerly for more, narrated by Sedaris, of course. S.J.H. Winner of AudioFile Earphones Award © AudioFile 2017, Portland, Maine
Kirkus Reviews
★ 2017-02-06
Raw glimpses of the humorist's personal life as he clambered from starving artist to household name.For years, Sedaris (Let's Explore Diabetes with Owls, 2013, etc.) has peppered his public readings with samples from his diaries, usually comic vignettes with a gently skewed view of humanity. Those are in abundance here. "Jews in concentration camps had shaved heads and tattoos," he writes after learning about a Chicago skinhead's arrest. "You'd think the anti-Semites would go for a different look." Forced to trim his toenails with poultry shears for lack of clippers, he writes, "that is exactly why you don't want people staying in your apartment when you're not there, or even when you are, really." The diaries also provide Ur-texts for some of the author's most famous stories, like his stint as a Macy's Christmas elf that led to his breakthrough radio piece, "The SantaLand Diaries," or the short-tempered, chalk-throwing French teacher in Me Talk Pretty One Day (2000). But though the mood is usually light, the book is also a more serious look into his travails as an artist and person: Sedaris is candid about his early ambitions to succeed as a writer, his imposter syndrome as a teacher, his squabbles with his never-satisfied dad and mentally ill sister, Tiffany, and his alcoholism. Even that last challenge, though, is framed as comic, or at least the stuff of non sequitur: "Today I saw a one-armed dwarf carrying a skateboard. It's been ninety days since I've had a drink." While Sedaris' career took flight during the period this book captures, success didn't change him much; it just introduced him to a broader swath of the world to observe and satirize. He can hardly believe his good luck, so he's charmed by the woman who, upon escorting him to a packed bookstore reading, exclaims, "goodness, they must be having a sale." A surprisingly poignant portrait of the artist as a young to middle-aged man.
