Some of my favorite David Sedaris essays are travelogues. In the late ’90s, partly to escape the weirdness of fame, Sedaris and Hamrick moved overseas. Now he has a second collection of diaries, “A Carnival of Snackery: Diaries (2003-2020).” His books of personal essays include “Naked,” “Me Talk Pretty One Day,” “When You Are Engulfed in Flames,” “Dress Your Family in Corduroy and Denim” and “Calypso.” He has also published one book of animal fables, “ Squirrel Seeks Chipmunk,” and one compilation of his diaries: “ Theft by Finding: Diaries (1977-2002),” which was published in 2017.

What he does in his exquisitely crafted essays is reconstruct his life as a funny story, the kind you’d hear at a dinner party if you were very lucky in your friendships. He went through a performance art phase in his late teens and early 20s (which coincided with a meth phase) worked the kinds of hard jobs many people take up after art school (itinerant farmer, housecleaner, assistant to various kooks) met his partner, Hugh Hamrick, in his mid-30s made some indie plays with his sister Amy Sedaris and was discovered as a writer after reading a series of stories on NPR about his stint as a department store Christmas elf. In case you need a refresher, David Raymond (!) Sedaris grew up in Raleigh, N.C., with his parents and five siblings. And I’ve read everything David Sedaris has published - some things many times over. I love the way Gabrielle Bell and Keiler Roberts use their diary comics to endow small, throwaway moments with the dignity and weight of larger ones. My great pleasure (aside from drawing, jogging and croissants) is to read about other people’s lives. A diarist’s life has meaning, even if just in retrospect. I’ll buy a notebook, spend two hours writing in excruciating detail about my day-to-day existence, and end up feeling like a failure - at diary-keeping, but also at living. Once every year or two, I’ll decide it’s time to start a diary. A CARNIVAL OF SNACKERY Diaries (2003-2020) By David Sedaris

David sedaris corduroy and denim