Title: Calypso
Author: David Sedaris
Pages: 261
Published: May 2018
Rating: 4.5 stars
I was first introduced to David Sedaris by one of my dearest friends. We were working away furiously doing payroll, and she turned on one of Sedaris’ books for us to listen to as we worked. I’ll be forever grateful that she chose to play that book that day, because I’ve loved Sedaris and his books ever since!
As much as I love reading Sedaris’ books, the best experience you can get is to listen to his audiobooks. Sedaris reads his own books for the audiobook versions, and having his voice and intonations just adds a whole extra level to the words. Calypso is one of his more personal books (which seems silly to say, since the books are all personal essays), and it delves into some really personal experiences. Sedaris writes a lot about the beach house he purchased for his family. He also writes about his sister, Tiffany, and his experience losing her to suicide.
Typically, my favorite thing about Sedaris’ writing is his honesty and his self-deprecating humor. In , my favorite part of the book was a very simple statement he makes about his family. He talks about his family as an exclusive club, and he can’t understand how anyone (speaking specifically about his sister) wouldn’t want to be part of that club.
Favorite Quote:
“Why do you think she did it?” I asked as we stepped back into the sunlight. For that’s all any of us were thinking, had been thinking, since we got the news. Mustn’t Tiffany have hoped that whatever pills she’d taken wouldn’t be strong enough and that her failed attempt would lead her back into our fold? How could anyone purposefully leave us—us, of all people? This is how I thought of it, for though I’ve often lost faith in myself, I’ve never lost faith in my family, in my certainty that we are fundamentally better than everyone else. It’s an archaic belief, one I haven’t seriously reconsidered since my late teens, but still I hold it. Ours is the only club I’d ever wanted to be a member of, so I couldn’t imagine quitting. Backing off for a year or two was understandable, but to want out so badly that you’d take your own life?”