A Carnival of Snackery

A Carnival of Snackery by David Sedaris (2021 Little, Brown hardcover 566pp)

 

Apart from saying that I loved this book I find it hard to write a full-sized review – mainly because it simply consists of diary entries, no plot or narrative.

A few years back I became a fan of the writing of Mr Sedaris and not long after that I picked up a hardcover copy of his first volume of diary entries “Theft by Finding” which covered his life from the 1970s up to the turn of the century. That book really chronicled his rise from quite a tough life into the writer we know and love today. This second volume feels quite different. No longer struggling, Sedaris lives a life on his own terms with frequent travel around the world and homes in several countries. A lot of what’s written in these short diary entries seems familiar because he’s since expanded on them and turned them into essays in his later books.

There are some particular areas of focus – a lot of the writing concerns his love/hate relationship with his father as he grows older. His siblings feature frequently as well as they do in most of his recent writing. There are some continuing threads – the things his fans tell him at book signings. Off-colour jokes and increasingly absurd insults from around the world. Much of the text is also taken up by his impressions of the cities and countries he visits, good or bad. People watching seems to be a hobby of his and sometime he just muses about what the most shocking thing he could say or do in a given situation.

Towards the end things like Trump and COVID take the stage. His travel is curtailed and he’s left thinking about his immediate home life.

Needless to say, I enjoyed the book and being back in Sedaris’ head for a while. I guess we will be waiting some time for the next volume.