Calypso by David Sedaris

David Sedaris has been on my Writers-To-Read list for quite some time, and I was sadly quite disappointed by this book (always stings a little more when I've picked it for book club as well!) It's a collection of essays that sort of centre around Sedaris' purchase of a holiday home in North Carolina, but he also contemplates the deaths of his sister and mother, his relationship to his father and his remaining family, and some of his own habits and foibles (an obsession with his Fitbit being one). Sedaris is supposedly a 'humorist', and these essays are presumably supposed to brim over with humour, warmth and human life. And occasionally they do, and occasionally they are lightly amusing (no laugh-out-loud moments for me though I'm afraid). But generally I was not bowled over by Sedaris' musings here; there was nothing particularly illuminating amongst them, and often he comes across as snobbish and mean-spirited. Of course, it's a matter of personal choice whether you find his literary treatment of his sister, their relationship and her tragic death for public consumption a bit icky (I do). I was expecting something ground-breaking, and I got something rather lukewarm. So I'm sorry to the Sedaris fans amongst you, but I guess he's just not for me! The cover is good though.