posted on 29 Jul 2018

Calypso by David Sedaris

It took me a little while to tune into the David Sedaris’ delicious radio episodes on BBC Radio 4 but once you’ve acclimatised to his unique blend of humour and social commentary, it’s an addictive pleasure. His short, biographical sketches seem custom-built for the radio in much the same way that Garrison Keillor’s Lake Wobegon confections were a perfect fit for that medium too.

But Sedaris is not whimsically or gently reflective in the Keillor mould. He’s waspish and frank to the point of brutality at times and his family and his partner get some fairly forthright as well as affectionate analysis. Sedaris is gay and his sexuality is a big part of the identity he creates within these vignettes  -  he often plays to and capitalises on gay stereotypes for a sort of deprecating comic affect that he frequently combines with references to his lack of height and his generally slight physicality.

Behind all of this is an intelligent and sensitive man puzzled by the world and especially puzzled by other people. Calypso is a collection of 20 or so short pieces that builds on and deepens or rounds-out this persona. He mixes tart reflections on his family, Americans in general, himself and politics while at the same time demonstrating a reflective side to his character that makes you warm to him and the often ludicrous situations he finds himself in.

The short sketches and musings in this book are more like a series of journal entries than a random collection of occasional pieces and although there is no direct link between them, they do have a cohesion and sense of direction. Sedaris has entered middle age and many of the pieces are actually meditations on growing older, physically and emotionally.

He is the absolute master of the dead-pan presentation and his elderly father and extraordinarily strange and sometimes dysfunctional family are frequently at the centre of what he writes. But he’s also fabulous at putting himself in the spotlight – the essay about being on a book tour with an explosive stomach bug is laugh-out loud funny.

Sedaris is also by nature a bit of an obsessive compulsive and (literally) running through a number of the pieces is his new found obsession with the Fitbit watch and his need to achieve ever increasing numbers of daily steps to satisfy the demands of this fitness monitor. He could have spent pages trying to tell us something truly revealing about his character but he would have struggled to do anything like as good a job as he does by using this Fitbit obsession as an illustration of his personality. It’s omnipresence is a masterstroke.

If you are already a Sedaris fan then there’s nothing here that is going to surprise you – you’ll be in very familiar territory. What you will discover, however, is that Sedaris is also a very good prose stylist as well as a natural radio personality – his pieces are beautifully readable – although maybe at times a little samey. This, I recognise, would be a problem for some people and a positive comfort for others.

If I had to choose one piece that made me happy that I’d read the book it would be Your English Is So Good. He dissects the frequently idiotic and infuriating social discourse that takes place on an entirely fatuous level and his evident rage at the imbecility of words that spill out with no reference to the brain is infectious:

“After the desk clerk hands you your keys, the bellman will grab your suitcase and ask, ‘So where are you coming in from today?’ Like everyone else at the hotel, he doesn’t really listen to your answer. His words are just a hook to hang his tip on. You could say you’re from a town ten miles down the road or from another dimension. Either way, you get the same response: ‘You’re a long way from home, aren’t you?’

I object to these questions, not because they are personal but because they are not.”

He also, of course, has fun with the fact that everything is ‘awesome’ – the use of which no longer grates on me but actually makes me feel a little bit sick every time I hear it used.

This is an ideal holiday or journey book – light but not vapid and with essays long enough to say something substantial but which don’t outstay their welcome.

 

Terry Potter

July 2018