David Sedaris is probably my favorite author. Carnival of Snackery is the followup to 2017’s Theft By Finding, which included entries from his diaries from 1977-2002. The new book covers diary entries from 2003-2020.

“Why would you want to read a 560 page tome of someone’s diary entries?” Fair question. First, you need to know that David Sedaris is a humor essayist and satirist. He’s also kind of a snarky asshole, but he uses that as a humor technique and it (mostly) works. I laugh out loud when I read his books (except for Squirrel Seeks Chipmunk. I didn’t like that one much). His writing process has long been to carry a notebook with him everywhere, write down his weird observations, and then include them in his daily diary entries. The diary entries end up being the fodder for his essays. 

The two diary books aren’t for everyone but they do give a lot of insight into his life, his humor, and most importantly, his writing process. It’s fun to read about the backstories to some of my favorite essays. But then there’s something else in the shared human experiences of what we’ve all been through in the past few years. His edges have softened a bit in recent years, with his diary and subsequent essays often turning inward and reflecting on aging, the loss of his family members and unit, and missing the days when he and his 5 siblings were young. You may know his sister, the actor Amy Sedaris. Anyway, if you’re a writer, you will probably appreciate this book most (but read part 1). If you expect this to be his essays in polished form, you won’t find that here. 4/5 stars.